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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?
Janet is actually possible to sell 6xPlatinum in South Africa, since in 80s Janet perform at 3 largest stadiums there with 220k attendences. According to your own estimation, Thriller ultimately sold 450k copies, Janet didn't outsold. Also, FIY sold over 650k copies and LTAL sold over 500k copies there, "there is no way an album like xxx outsold thriller"sometimes don't work, especially thriller only sold 50k copies in Korea and 140k copies in Taiwan, because markets are small back then.
Hi G.G.!
To be 100% honest there is no plan to update Janet in the near future as her total wouldn't change as much as other older articles like Eminem, U2, the Stones, Queen, etc. I feel that the priority must be give to artists who are running the most ahead of their former totals.
Hi djdj!
Weird message if I'm honest, it's like you are trying to contradict me with my figures and mentioning that we should care about the market size precisely when I answered based on that alone and on a market where Thriller do is one of the top selling albums ever? 🙂
Not actually, for example,in Taiwan Bad outsold Thriller, they were released in the same era. We do also have to focus on market size, since even All For You can sell 200k copies in South Africa, why can't Janet sold 300k copies? She performed at three largest stadiums with 220k attendence back in 80s, in 00s All For You stil sell 200k copies, it means she never flopped there. Janet may be just out of the world in South Africa then, I know Thriller is one of the best selling albims everywhere, but still in some markets it may be weaker, so it is useless to mention Thriller here.
Official charts company have just released sales figures for Janet's 5 biggest selling albums in the UK, don't know if these are pure sales or SPS though.
EDIT: These are SPS according to them "To mark the occasion, we’re revealing Janet’s biggest albums in the UK, based on Official Charts Company sales and streaming data."
DOAD - 529k
janet. - 437k
TVR - 367k
Control - 324k
RN - 281k
Hi DTM!
These numbers prove one more time that we can't rely on the OCC. These figures are strict DUS + old panel sales, which are quite incomplete and severely inconsistent to each other. All pre-1994 albums sold much more.
So are you saying Janet sold much more than the sales figures released for those 5 albums in the UK? If the OCC is unreliable for the UK sales, then is the BPI certification a more reliable source? I'm not too familiar what they mean by pre-1994 panel sales.
I'm also suspecting that these figures from the OCC do not include the UK music club sales similar to how Soundscan in the US also excludes music club sales.
Hi DTM!
Yes, albums pre-TVR are deflated by the OCC.
The current panel used in the UK started in week 5 of 1994. At first a good share of the market was ignored, numbers are under-represented by about 25%. Through the years the market was better and better covered, by 1997 numbers were reliable. During 1994-1996 they used to add a multiplier to account for the whole market. Now the OCC is quoting raw "DUS" (Defined Universe of Sales) figures, contradicting their own numbers from mid-90s and ignoring that the entire market wasn't accounted for.
For pre-1994, there was a small panel used with a multiplier to account for 100% of the market. That multiplier was often updated (from 15 to 17 to 18 to 17 or whatever) as the market was evolving. Here too, the OCC is now acting as if these minor panel sales represent 100% of sales.
Adding together these raw panel numbers of all eras like the OCC is doing is not only deeply inaccurate, it is also dramatically inconsistent. It implies strongly deflating pre-1994 figures, deflating by 10-30% sales from years 1994-1996 and by a few %s sales from 1997 onwards.
The BPI used to be more reliable as they were based on shipment audits, although since July 2013 they are doing automatic certifications based on DUS figures. With that, we lost the historical values of every record, and records from 1994/1996 are also deflated. Plus, club sales are also ignored, while they were entirely part of shipped copies in the old system.
https://books.google.co.id/books?id=2AsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA68&dq=janet+over+400,000+sold&hl=zh-CN&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjw5sfS64TkAhUk4XMBHZQgDm0Q6AEIKzAA#v=onepage&q=janet%20over%20400%2C000%20sold&f=false
The album janet. sold over 400k copies in Southeast Asia as early as in May 1995. I know most sales were done by then, but catalog sales could be a bit higher?
