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I thought 14 million for "Janet." and above 10 million for "Control" and RN1814 was a given.
In the US she was a force to be reckon, both in albums and singles... but in the singles department is where she outperformed most of her contemporaries from the decade 1986/1995 particularly.
Hello Raffi!
To complete MJD's answer, here is the list of artists who have the most million selling singles (question 2):
1. Madonna - 38
2. Beatles - 31
3. Rolling Stones - 28
4. Janet Jackson - 24
4. Whitney Houston - 24
6. Bee Gees - 21
7. ABBA - 20
8. David Bowie - 15
9. George Michael - 13
10. Bon Jovi - 12
10. Céline Dion - 12
10. Fleetwood Mac - 12
I'm not sure why you're bringing in Britney Spears to undermine Janet Jackson though. I'm glad that Britney has had a lot of success but let's not forget that Britney's peak years, the TRL era 1999-2004) were filled with imitating Janet Jackson in her music videos/tours that sold all those albums. So she obviously owes Janet Jackson as much as Madonna.
Hey, according with Chartmasters analyses Céline has more than 15 songs that sold at least 1m, not only 12: Mhwgo, Because You Loved Me, It's all coming back to me now, The Power Of Love, I'm your angel, Think Twice, All By Myself, Beauty and The Beast, A new day has come, Pour que tu m'aimes encore, That's The way it is, To Love You more, I'm alive, Tell Him, Immortality & Taking Chances (her less sold with 1,150,000), these are her 16 best selling singles... Despite the fact she may have some 1m topping singles. 
Hi Celiniac!
The comment of Raffi was related to physical singles sold only 😉
Hi again MJD! I counted a total of 5,220,000 albums sold in Asia for Janet (not counting remix albums or other compilations). With more than 5 million albums sold across the Asian continent, I think it's safe to say Janet is one of the biggest selling non-Asian divas there, even if her sales outside Japan seem to be a bit underwhelming.
I looked up some of your older articles, but unfortunately you didn't start including Asian totals until very recently. If you have the time, would you please tell us how much the following artists have sold in Asia, including compilations?
Madonna
Celine Dion
Whitney Houston
Britney Spears
Beyonce/Destiny's Child
Shakira
Lady Gaga
Taylor Swift
All of them have been analysed by you at some point. It'd be very helpful and I'd really appreciate it! Unfortunately, Asian sales outside Japan are quite hard to find/estimate and you're the only person I trust with this. I don't think the likes of Katy Perry, Rihanna, Adele (shockingly enough), Alicia Keys, Amy Winehouse, etc. have sold considerable amounts in Asia, so I won't bother you with them! After Mariah, which diva would you say has sold the most in Asia? Madonna or Celine? From what I've seen, they have sold similar amounts, but I could be wrong, of course.
Thank you so much for your time and once again, great job with this article.
FINALLY. Thank you so much for your hard work putting all of these together! This is incredible.
But just for your information, Janet's albums from 80's and 90's need to be re-certified in so many territories, especially US. Rhythm Nation 1814 and janet. should have been certified Diamond in US by now. She is one of the few down to Earth diva who don't brag about her albums sales that much. If they re-certify her 80's and 90's albums I believe we can see her album sales is actually a bit bigger than this. But again, I cannot thank you enough for this. We are a part of a Rhythm Nation!
The estimation of 160M sales is actually came from her record sales (albums+singles). Her album sales estimation is around 90M worldwide (with shipments and streaming equivalent sales). Janet's 80's and 90's albums are need to be re-certified, that is why her sales seem so low.
Hi Wibisana!
All album sales mentioned in the article are up to date, none is limited to certifications. There is no way albums like RN1814 or Janet. should be Diamond, they are on 8m overall to date each. Remember her albums were removed from Music Clubs in mid-90s so her Soundscan sales were pretty much comprehensive from that point.
Hi Trish!
I'll have to go back to my files to fully answer you. It won't be easy as the format is constantly evolving as with experience they get better and better. I'll try answering you in full ASAP!
When stating such gross figures as 90m album sales you need to put evidences of it. For Janet we do have financial reports of her labels for most years and there isn't a single doubt she is nowhere near such a tally no matter how you count it.
WOW" I always knew Janet was sort of a local act but I never thought she would be that much of a flop anywhere else besides the USA... Is this the same woman whose fans claim she's the queen of pop? is this the same woman who had the nerve to claim that Madonna's Erotica album was "shipped back"... bitch, please, that album sold more than Janet's 90% discography. 50 million in 30 years is really not that impressive. Other than Velvet Rope she was a non-event outside of the USA borders
Her album sales stand at 60M, why are you deflating them by a whole 10M? Petty.
MJD shouldn't allow this type of replies on his website. There are plenty of forums like ATRL where you can unleash your shade and flamebait comments.
To Wibisana:
90 million? Very inflated. And it's not like Janet is selling much in catalog sales so most of her certs are probably correct, well except for her U.S sales ...
MJD, could you please provide the chart runs of both the Janet. album as well as Design of A Decade in Australia?
I knew that the Janet. album was under-certified based on it's chart run (#1 for 4 weeks, 50 weeks on chart) Still, Janet. had a much better chart run than DOAD (#2 for 3 weeks, 25 weeks on chart) I also heard recently that the Janet. album managed to rebound to #1 in early 1995, nearly 2 years after it's release! I was wondering perhaps it's sales could be possibly closer to DOAD's
Thanks!
Hi Raffi!
For recent albums you would need to go on Pandora website to get full Top 100 charts, I do not have them by hand at the moment. Of course run inside the Top 50 is available at australian-charts.com
It is true that Janet. went to #1 in both 1993 and 1995 and it is also true that its run looks way more impressive than the one of DOAD. This being said, the lead in charts is strongly artificial. Janet three runs inside the Top 10 (July 1993, February 1994, February 1995) were brief but also at very weak periods of sales. On its side, DOAD got the full fourth quarter inside the Top 10.
Year end charts perfectly summarize the situation:
1993 - Janet. #25
1994 - Janet. outside Top 50
1995 - Janet. outside Top 50
1995 - DOAD #6
As you can see, in spite of hitting #1 in 1995, the album Janet failed to make the YE Top 50, which highlights how low it sold at that spot - which is confirmed by its quick 3-10-15 drop in following weeks. BTW, at the time under the Annual Top 20 an album used to sell 100,000 copies or less, with only from 5 to 15 albums a year reaching multi-platinum status. From 35 to 60 albums a year were hitting Platinum. Thus, YECs severely reduce the window of strong sales for Janet.
I wanted to ask whether your estimation for the janet. album in the US isn't a bit too conservative.
I mean did it really sell less than 100,000 copies outside of SoundScan and BMG music club?
SoundScan: 7,041,457 (updated 8/1/13) + 860,000 BMG = 7,901,457+ That's about the same total as reached by "Music Box" by Mariah Carey, for which you stated that it sold well past the 10,000,000 mark!
I thought that SoundScan was far from being comprehensive in 1993 and there were other small music clubs next to BMG and Columbia House (where janet. wasn't available)., so that the janet. album is closer to the 9 million mark.
I disagree. She is in the league of Britney or Shania Twain in the USA (40-45 million albums equivalent). Mariah and Madonna sold the double there. But she was trully big.
Why do you think she wasnt so big in Europe?
Hi! I have the same question as Luminator above but for DOAD
It sold about 2.5M according to soundscan
Add the 1.48M sold in BMG which isn't tracked by soundscan
You get 3.98M sold already enough for the 4x platinum certification
However this album was available in Columbia Music Club (as were her other AM releases Control, and Rhythm Nation) and considering how big it was in BMG, one would assume it also sold well at Columbia (which was an even bigger music club in terms of membership)
Did it sell next to nothing at Columbia?
Thank you in advance
Hi Luminator (& Robby),
Janet US album Club sales were explained in the related Columbia House article. Virgin stopped selling their albums in all Clubs very early, it wasn't only an issue with Columbia House but all of them.
About Soundscan not covering the entire market, it is actually an argument to be even more careful with Janet. As a big pop artist, formulas used by Soundscan to extrapolate scans to the full market were most likely in the high side, something that remained true during the entire 90s. Every evidence suggest white pop acts a la Britney Spears or Aguilera happen to have Soundscan sales higher than their real retail sales for example. Janet case is not that extreme as she did had poorly scanned urban retails on her side but still she was a big star, acts slightly inflated by Soundscan overall in the early days of the system.
Soundscan and Clubs assumptions should never be regarded as fundamentals to estimate sales to date, the starting point is the RIAA certification, the only tool involving no calculation whatsoever. The album Janet was updated as it was breaking criterias, 3xP in 08/93, 4xP in 11/93, 5xP in 12/93 and 6xP in 04/94. At the time, Soundscan sales were already way past 5 million, retail shipments on about 5,5 million, plus a bit more than 1,5 million after. This latter figure of 1,5 million post-certification shipment is the only one you can safely add to the certified amount. As the album was removed from BMG not that long after, it has obviously not ship much in the mean-time, with a figure around 8 million making perfect sense.
Music Box is a completely different case. When both albums entered catalog status and should have start selling high amounts at discount price at Columbia House, Mariah Carey was smashing with Daydream, heavily boosting MB. On her side, Janet was not only removed from all music clubs, but DOAD was released destroying the appeal of her studio albums.
An important element to keep in mind are annual reports from the label. All figures are consistent with them. In concrete words, if you assume the US figure is underestimated, then every unit you add you will need to subtract it from sales abroad. Considering the information available for other markets, the most realistic scenario is the most sensible one - that Janet album sold near nothing outside SS/BMG.
As for DOAD, the album wasn't certified 3xP while new. If certs in the long run can be well overdue, during the initial promotion of a record labels used to get them up to date. It is visible in all Janet own albums and A&M also certified many albums all over 1996. Thus, the starting point is that DOAD shipped less than 3m units by the start of 1997. Soon clubs vanished and its Soundscan total isn't that great so the amount of catalog sales managed afterwards is limited.
The "it was big on BMG so it must have been big on Columbia" reasoning is wrong, even if some exceptions managed that like Mariah or Shania, the logic was pretty much the opposite. A bit like YouTube vs Spotify, they cannibalize each other. DOAD was fairly expensive at Columbia. Also, BMG Club was a club mostly for young / pop audience, while Columbia was way more into vocal acts / MOR / Folk / Rock / adult music. Obviously, Janet audience was way more BMG-oriented and its initial sales there suggest it was likely an exclusive there during its initial era.
Wow, that was extremely insightful! I fully agree on each point and i can understand your estimation a lot better now.
Thank you for actually taking the time to deal with all of the questions in the comment section. I really appreciate that!
Keep up the great work!
Thank you for the explanation. Truly appreciate it!
Just a few more clarifications regarding DOAD:
1. How can we be certain that DOAD shipped less than 3M by the start of 1997? Janet was back with Virgin records at that time and could it be that A&M just didn't bother with its recertification since she is no longer their artist?
2. You mentioned that soon clubs vanished after 1997 implying that DOAD couldn't have benefited from additional club sales from either BMG or Columbia. There were still ads as late as 2002 advertising columbia music club in magazines (with DOAD albums included in the listings) so might it have sold more copies in Columbia as you might have originally thought?
https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=qvIDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA45&dq=%22Columbia+House%22+%22Janet+Jackson%22&pg=PA45&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
All the best!
Hi again Robbie!
A&M certified many albums in 1996 including from artists not in their roster anymore. Janet own DOAD music video was certified in 1996! Plus, second year shipments of big holiday season compilation cash-ins are negative more often than not. Retailers used to order a lot of copies for such releases, not needing to be feed anymore the following year. Even now you can see how high Bruno Mars, Metallica and the Rolling Stones are in the IFPI Report, because they got heavily shipped. Adele shipped barely 12% of her last year numbers due to that and this is an album that has been selling all year long. DOAD was dead after 1996 Q1 and there was no digital sales at the time so the gap sales-shipments in first months was even bigger.
DOAD sold 1,1m units in 1995 and 1,5m+ by the end of 1996, shipped likely about 1,7m for the period at retail only. The strong gap in Soundscan sales in 1995 and its 2xPlatinum award that year means BMG got the album earlier than usual - the norm was to put it on Clubs 3 months after release, which implies they negotiated an exclusivity over the content and certainly committed in a minimum of copies they were going to sell, which is why the cert came so fast and why the unnatural ratio retail / club sales of this release. Thus, you can expect the main part of the 1,48m BMG Club to have come fast, plus 1,7m sales at retail and yet it wasn't certified 3xP which suggest low - or zero, if indeed as it seems the album was first a BMG exclusive - sales in other retailers. This is even more confirmed as from late 1995 / early 1996 Columbia House adds I have seen, DOAD was indeed absent from there - I would be inclined to change the figure if this ends up proven wrong! I won't expect it to happen yet as this 2-pages full Columbia House add from Mai 1996 shows Janet being completely absent from it, just like from this 5-pages 1999 ad!
Since then, it added less than 800,000 units at retail. If you check Columbia sales of all big late 90s albums by doing Certification minus Soundscan plus BMG, you will notice they pretty much disappeared from 1998 to 1999. That's really the breaking point when BMG took the definitive lead, getting exclusivity on all big albums and letting only low catalog sales for Columbia. Even if we assume DOAD sold 10% of its retail sales at Columbia from 1997 to 2002, which is truly pushing it over the limits as entire club sales went from 8% of the market to 4% of it in the period, most of which were for BMG, that would still represent only about 60,000 copies, just enough to push the total on 4 million once combining with Soundscan / BMG sales.
Hope it helps!
