Hi Colosoul!

Surely you should care more about certifications and accurate receipts than wild claims posted on sites which have nothing to do with music charts and sales.

No, TA hasn't sold 5 million units in Europe, and no, that's not "documented". Just because a fan claimed it doesn't make it "documented". Figures from the UK, France, Germany, are indeed documented, so are charts from all over Europe and so are market size of each country, and claiming 5 million in Europe is just plain absurd. Just try to break it down to see how that works out. I hope you would realize that almost no song ever sold 5 million in Europe, even a much bigger hit than TA like Baby One More Time isn't even close, to understand how ridiculous your claim is.

As for Soundscan sales, it was already answered too. Don't get fooled by fanatics.

Hi Colosoul!

It seems accuracy isn't your thing. Your message basically says that Janet's albums are undercertified because of non-Soundscan sales (which is true) and at the same time that they "sold more" than Mariah Carey's Diamond albums, meaning you are strictly looking at Soundscan sales for them. How consistent is that?

Hi KantClark!

While I would agree on this example (that Janet isn't local), that argument doesn't work out. You can't say someone is global by ranking him against people who aren't representative of the market you are scaling him/her. If we push that argument to the limit, that would be like saying Patrick Bruel is global, just because he did well outside France in comparison to many other French singers. At best he is slightly less local 😉

Lol, why are most of the US album sales lower than the ACTUAL Nielsen Soundscan reported numbers (not even talking about the SPS leaked ones)?

Hi Mjd I would like to know if 77 millions albums sold is only album sales or record sales (with singles)?

Hi Melany!

It's none of both. It's all records sales, but with weighting by format. For example physical singles are weighted as 0.3 album, thus the total is 77 million equivalent album sales.

Ok thank you so much and last question how many albums did she sold with compilation and remix album worldwide ? 65 millions ? 60 millions? Thanx

Just under 60 million (50.5 million studio albums, 9.1 million compilations/remixes) by the time of the article, let's round it to 60 million by now!

Thank you so much I think Janet was very big during the nineties I live in France by the way and she was everywhere between the Janet and all for you era. The album sales look really low compared to the other divas of the same era but don’t forget that she was a black female rnb first not so much a pop artist like Madonna or Mariah (early nineties) and she released really few albums during her golden years 86/01 and Control and rhythm nation were more America oriented in the 80´s... Actually I knew these albums only when she became famous with the Janet album in 93 in Europe but I think she had really good sales in my opinion. 👍

Her fanclub inflated her sales a lot, and I don't understand why they do that, she has incredible numbers. Years ago (Around 2012) when her new website was released it included sales of her albums that were not much different than the listed here (Janet 12kk, RN 10kk and so on), but a lot of fans complained in the twitter saying that the info was outdated and many thing like that, and the sales was erased. After that the official website became to publish the inflated numbers that we know... Unfortunally we can't see the past info in the site (by archive.org) anymore (something about Adobe Flash).

Very true Marcus!

I often say that selling 1 million copies is already a lot. When you think about it, getting 1 million different people paying $10 to listen to you sing, it's amazing. Let alone 10 million, and let alone repeating this feat multiple times. Janet is definitely on a league where there is no need for inflation. I suppose it's down to the 90s situation where a big 4 emerged with Madonna, Mariah, Celine and Whitney, and some people tried to make it a big 5. That's unnecessary, her numbers speak for themselves, she did wonders especially when one considers how difficult it is to sell well globally with pure black music.

I personally feel like for Janet, you went with the lowest estimation you possibly could but for everyone else, you overestimated their sales. Please redo Janet!!! I feel like there are could be some missing numbers.

Hi Iris!

While all studied acts will be updated in due time, especially those with the old multi-page format, this claim is extremely childish. All acts are studied the same way and no one here has a vendetta against Janet Jackson (or any other artist). If you have any actual proof that her sales have been underestimated, feel free to post it and you can be sure we'll look into it. But until then, it comes off as wishful thinking. Janet's sales have been carefully analysed and estimated based on official sources, such as her label, IFPI, etc.

You are absolutely right MJD that’s what I explained before... For me she had an incredible career for the type of music she did and the few released albums she had during her golden years, she really sold very well...

Hi,
Are these statements reliable?
https://jj-cs.tumblr.com/most-downloaded-songs-in-the-us

It looks like, as MJD said before, Together sales are also underestimated, do you plan to update everything soon?