Hi Vince!

One of the main changes from my old figures (for all artists) to the new ones is that I stopped to use certs as a minimum. For example, when Glitter or American Life were Plat in the US, I used to put 1m there although their Soundscan figures showed the real data was lower. The logic was that we didn't know when an album has been overshipped in remaining countries, so sticking to Soundscan was weighting down the US market. Now, there is much more data from various countries so I got rid of that idea. That's why Body Language is so low, it was massively overshipped upon release. In Australia for example, it went instantly 2xP, but with its YE rankings (#54 of 2003 and #85 of 2004) the estimate of 105k is already kind of generous! I also got rid of various made up claims for her albums like their multi-plat South African awards.

I failed to put a hand on her last X / LY figures in the UK while I was sure myself the OCC communicated some data for them. Thus I only used YECs figures plus estimates for subsequent years, I would be happy to update these figures if we can retrieve those numbers!

About the Sales vs Shipment gap, it really doesn't exist anymore. There is very few physical retailers nowadays, there is also tons of metrics available to prevent them from ordering way too many units. Then, they know sales are dying, so they don't stock insane amounts anymore. Even relatively new albums have low stocks. The streaming units from the UK are now almost always higher than the gap between sales and shipments, even for catalog albums, meaning that OCC data is higher than net sales of albums.

As for the German vs France comparison, myself I went into deeper checks to make sure this was normal. This situation is the result of several elements:
- both albums (Kylie / Fever) had more longevity in France in spite of lower peaks
- the German list has been a Gross list for long, it inflates rankings of new / standard releases because of all the budget and catalog albums selling at a lower price. An album at 14€ while the average is on 10€ will appear low top 20 instead of low top 40
- tons of Various Artists albums are sold in Germany, they are excluded from the main chart. For example, when Fever re-climbed to the top on its 3rd week, it was actually the 3rd top seller only as 2 various artists compilations were outselling it. In France, compilations are very weak and the only one doing well (Les Enfoirés annual release) is eligible for charts

Ultimate Kylie did sell 5 times more in Germany than in France! I'll add it to the article. As for 87/92, most figures would be N/A, it sold 280k in the UK, 40k in Germany, 50k in France, 125k in Oz and 100k in Japan. Hope it helps!

Hi Kingagood!

I suppose you have been feed with the massively inflated figures available for Kylie on various boards. Compilations, including Ultimate Kylie, are all present inside the compilation section. All the Lovers did sell over 300k in the UK (361k downloads, 22k physicals) but it did nowhere near as good elsewhere. Germany is the only other country where it sold in 6 digits and it still failed to go Gold there.

N/A doesn't mean the market has been ignored, you can see by yourself that global totals take them into account. Kylie's albums aren't good catalog sellers, so when they completely failed to chart upon release, they are obviously minor sellers. Plus, various 'N/A's are simply due to the fact that albums weren't released at all in the related market. In the American continent, most of her 90s albums were issued only in Canada.

I didnt expect much from Kylie so her total was not a shocker.

But i'm still impressed that despite she started in the late 80s, she was able to become very popular worldwide again in 2001.

You arbitrarily decide what singles are worth, when now someone can download a single for $1 but before cost sometimes $4+ which ultimately hurts an artist like Kylie who had huge single success early on in her career.

In addition your 'popularity' aspect is really pointless as it ignores things like Tours and other things that might make someone popular. In this aspect, being a TV actress.

You also ignore things like radio plays, which was streaming before streaming was cool. Kylie had huge success on radio.

Hi ljkelley!

You may or may not like the concept, but at least it is consistent for all artists. Plus, you accurately mention physical singles were more expensive than downloads, which is true, and the CSPC approach is basically the only one which takes that into account rather than counting them on par.

The popularity indicator is an indicator of the recording artist's popularity. If you start to include being a TV actress, then why not including launching a fashion brand or perfurme into it? Then, you will have to include successful investments in external businesses. Etc, etc. If you follow this road, you will better check Forbes lists than records sales.

As for radio plays, they are very different than streaming in their nature. One of the strengths of Kylie was precisely to sell well with some records that got weak airplay, so that would definitely not improve her results anyway!

He didnt ignore the single aspects. A physical single receive a 0.3% weightings, whereas a digital singles receives a 0.15% weighting. As far as radio. You must know the fact that radio era is not the same as the streaming era. During the radio era, if the singles are doing well on radio, people will straight away buy the album. In the streaming era, if its doing well on radio and streaming. Nobody's going to buy their physical CD still except for their die hard fans. Plus, the concept of radio and streaming are totally different. Kylie really wasn't that big of a deal outside of the UK and Australia. She still had amazing success, no doubt. But she wasn't in any way the one of the biggest acts during her time.

I don't think that 105k units is generous for Body Language in Australia. From memory, Michael Jackson's #1s was sitting Just below the Top 50 in the 2003 annual chart with around 75k units. #94 in the 2004 yearly chart did 34k units, so Body Language probably did 40k units. Moreover That year end chart did not include non charted weeks. 120k units looks like a more realistic estimate IMHO.

Do You think That Kylie was overshipped too? Because it was certified 4x Plat. in 1989

I think is very clear your dislike of Kylie by the way your refer to her... I suspect you might be biased.

Hi Andy!

To me what's funny is people who can't understand that not everyone is an "anti" or a "stan". I just can't care about the artist's music when I check charts & sales. It's just not the subject.

BTW, I don't even dislike Kylie. Figures are what they are, I'm not responsible for them!

Hi IE!

#1s was overshipped too, it went further on certifications only thanks to catalog sales. From 2003, only the Top 25 has consistently ship 2xP. I have the #50 of 2003 on 70k. I'm aware of YECs not counting non-charted weeks, but that works both ways: #1s and BL didn't sell enough to be #52 and #54 of the year 2003 in a 100% accurate YEC, they are most likely under the Top 60.

I have ARIA's scans of certifications from 1990 to date. By experience, I'm very careful with pre-90 certs which are often in-house / made up awards, but I would love to get the source of that 4xP award to update its breakdown if needed!

Who would have thought that a sort-of popular music artist in the late 80s, and most people, including herself have already thought she already reached her peak those early years, as her next albums released have been selling poorly, then after 10 years, she actually outdid herself and became more popular in the 2000s.

Hi MJD,

I think, it has something to do with the intro. And that instead of emphasizing in comparing her to Madonna, maybe you could have provide a more positive intro. Or if you have to compare her to Madonna, at least in a positive note like she was compared to Madonna due to her success in UK, but not to the extent of comparing sales between both especially that the difference is pretty, pretty huge that for me, it was kind of unnecessary/unimportant.

I agree, I always find it impressive when an artist has their biggest era when they are far into their career. You don't see that very often.

On another note, her streaming numbers are really hurting her totals...they are basically non-existent for most albums. It seems even her UK/Aussie fans aren't even streaming her older albums.

Hey MJD. Thank you for your answer. ^^

Did you use the OCC figures from last week?
http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/kylie-minogues-official-top-40-biggest-selling-songs__22391/

You have also this from 4 years ago
http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/kylie-minogue-s-official-number-1-singles-sales-revealed-__3849/
http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/kylie-minogue-s-official-number-2-singles-sales-revealed__3876/

I don't get somes physicals sales. Somes are low and surprise me.
For somes figures, I thought that only her UK sales are higher that the total. For many, UK + Australia seems to exced the total. And for most, UK + Australia represents already more that 80% of the total and that surprise me.

For exemple
- "Spinning arround" sold 314k in Uk (arround 270k physical) and is Platinum is Australia for minimum 70k. That make arround 350k with both so it sold only 60k in the rest?
- Even some flop singles are very low. "Please stay" is at 40k. But its sales are arround 85k on UK and its certifiate gold in Australia for 35k. That's make 120k only with them.
- " On a night like this" is Platinum in Australia 70k and sold 180k in Uk
- Same things for "Kids", "In your eyes", "Love at first sight" UK+ Australia represent 90% of the sales minimum but IYE and LAFS might sold more beside UK and Australia than that.
- Same for "Rythm of love" singles.
- "Give me just a little more time" is at 200k, but the UK sales were already at 325k in 2014 (and the big majority of this physical)

Sorry for all these questions, I know that you are an expert and you have so much to do but I just want to understand. What are her total singles in Germany, France, Spain, Australia and UK?

Thank you ! Very interesting, as usual. It's no wonder she's so overrated over here in Europe, since that's almost the only place on earth she's been successful. Many people here think she's had that kind of carreer elsewhere too, but no. Her carreer path reminds me a little of Cher's before she had her Believe comeback album. Many ups, many downs, a very dedicated gay fanbase but very little following outside of it.