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Great work MJD!
1990 Rhythm of Love – 910,000
1991 Let’s Get to It – 270,000
1994 Kylie Minogue – 440,000
1998 Impossible Princess – 250,000
Those album sales are extremely low for the 90s. Wouldn't a record label drop an artist after low sales like those? Did the record label keep her because promotion for her was cheap and she was mainly in the UK and Australian markets, or did some other factor make her profitable?
Also how soon can we expect a CSPC article for Kelly Clarkson?
Hi Michael!
If they were globally promoted, that would have been a disaster for the major, but for 3 of them they were released in a limited number of markets were they got sales to dedicated fans with low promotion investments. It's easy to sell records to fans, that's why majors bother of releasing 5k limited units reissues in spite of the low volume. Actually, Body Language was likely much worst ROI-wise than an abum like Kylie Minogue from 1994!
Kylie Minogue being called the "Princess of Pop" is perplexing. In the United States depending how old the individual, Kylie is viewed as a One Hit Wonder. If comparing her to Madonna in terms of commercial selling ability is inappropriate, what musical act would be accurate to compare Kylie Minogue to?
All I can say is that it was an awesome achievement for Kylie to become not just become popular again but become more popular than she was before. And only her and Cher did it! 🙂
Hi Nomo!
It's really difficult to compare Kylie to someone else. She is a A-League seller in a pair of country that got occasional success globally. When we try to compare her to global stars, it is always flawed. She is closer to singers like Sheryl Crow or Linda Ronstadt which got some global appeal at times, but remained consistently successful in a pair of markets!
Hey there, love your effort - I find it insightful and draw a full picture of artists / albums/ singles' success
Many have high peaks thanks to fanbase but ultimately didnt succeed with the general public (ie Britney's Blackout)
As you said Kylie's massive in UK & Aus, but she isn't as huge worldwide like Madonna, Beyonce, Adele etc
I have a few questions:
- When u make lists for artists from a band (ie Michael, Beyonce, Justin, Fergie): why don't you include the bands' figures in their chart? Justin or Fergie's appeal / contribution to their band's success may be limited, but Beyonce is the face of Destiny's Child. She is responsible for at least 60% of the group's success
- Speaking of singer from a band: will you make 1 for Gwen Stefani and/ or No Doubt? I think her recent albums' sales is better than her peers' (Fergie, Alicia Keys, Kylie, Mariah, Janet etc) She is heading into AC market now - does this career move work out well for her?
- Madonna is releasing new album. Will she have a hit single or album again do you think? How is Rebel Heart's number compared with new, recent releases from female artists popular in late 90s / early 2000s (Janet Jackson's Unbreakable, Gwen's This is What...., Shania's new album, Britney's Glory, Mariah's Me. I am Mariah,..., Beyonce's Lemonade, JLO's AKA, Mary J Blige's Strength of a woman, P!nk's Beautiful Trauma, Shakira's El Dorado)
- Did you do 1 for Shakira before? I think her success is underestimated. She remains huge in Latin community and her streaming number is very great.
- I saw you make a post about biggest flops of the 2000s. How about biggest comebacks of 2000s? I suggest one, but the comeback album must at least make 5.000.000 units SPS
At the end of the day, longetivity is key to an artist's success right? Kylie may not be having a hit as big as say Cyndi Lauper, but her consistency to release midly-to-average successful songs (Love At First Sight, All The Lovers, In My Arms, with the special case of CGYOOMH) keeps her status high. She & P!nk have this in common (with P!nk being popular in US, Kylie in UK & AUS.
Beyonce isn't "huge" worldwide. There's an analysis on her already. She's a public spectacle and huge celebrity figure who fill arenas and some stadiums around the world, but that doesn't necessarily translate into hit records or fruitful album sales worldwide. Kylie is very similar in that regards of being a huge celebrity figure in Europe as opposed to being an actual record selling music star.
Hi Rey!
1) Lists are based mostly on acts rather than persons. If we start looking at persons, it becomes way too complex. Take Eric Clapton, he contributed into zillions of albums, solo, with bands and as a participator. We need to set a clear limit and if we start to merge differente acts that will destroy it. Plus, as you said Beyoncé is the face of "at least 60%", that's where the debate starts and never ends. How to set 10%, 40% or 70%? It would break the consistency and the unbiased focus of listings.
2) For sure we will get into her/them at some point. Moving to AC is always a good move commercially speaking for former pop stars entering their 40s. It's rare to be successful after that age in the pop field while AC success lasts much longer, someone like Rod Stewart proved it well. It doesn't mean Gwen will be successful with AC stuff, but that improves your chances to sustain a certain level of sales.
3) The GP doesn't like to see her try to look like a fresh new star, pairing with young guns a la Nicki Minaj and all, so it doesn't look too promising for her since she insisted on that for very long now. Still, if someone is unpredictable, that's Madonna.
4) Shakira has been posted indeed.
5) Not sure there would be many candidates but no doubt it would be interesting!
6) Definitely, longevity is the key. People tend to follow results of an album while it is promoted. Truth is all big acts except maybe Madonna sold more units as catalog items than during their respective promotional campaigns. Basically, what matters is to build a valuable catalog. It doesn't really matter if Coldplay's next album bombs, truth is their back catalog alone will increase their career sales in millions every year from now on. So more than hyped sales to a fanbase, the real deal is to add value to your catalog when dropping a new record.
Yes, Beyoncé is huge worldwide. Is she as big as Madonna across the globe? No, however, she is not some local star who has had 75% + of her sales from one country (a la Janet Jackson) lol. Additionally, her singles have sold HUGE numbers outside of the US and has had many WORLDWIDE hits.
Isaiah, the overwhelming majority of Beyonce's sales come from the United States. She's more "local" or however the term goes than Janet Jackson. Beyonce like Cher and Kylie Minogue are bigger celebrities than they're music stars. Their gargantuan media coverage is incongruent to the record sales they put up.
No true at all but go off. For comparison, Britney Spears was releasing her 4th album, In The Zone, while Beyoncé had only just released her first album, Dangerously In Love, 6 months prior; yet Beyoncé is only 25M album equivalents behind Britney who released 3 albums in MUCH better sales conditions then Bey had. Theoretically, had DC3's "Survivor" been Beyoncé's album, she'd only be 10M behind her. 6 albums and 13 years into her career she had the 2nd biggest female album of the year and you call her celebrity status bigger than her musical career? lol
Hi Sarah!
I suppose 3 clarifications are needed:
1) the article is from April
2) the 100k figure you state is pure units shipments estimates, the 288k involves streaming points
3) Mediatraffic are massively inaccurate anyway, they can't be stated as facts
I agree with others that your dislike of Kylie is very clear...I am from Asia and Kylie is a very welcome western pop star. She is treated as the national treasure of Australia. She became international without US market, which is really impressive. We all know that Kylie is not comparable with Madonna on selling numbers because nobody could. People put their names together because they have very similar fan base ( Dancepop, Gay icon, in a friendly way) Kylie is probably the only mainstream artist only focusing on dancepop throughout her career. Your complete ignorance of her tour makes me feel bad. Kylie is a visual artist, and her tour is one of the best on the earth. I could barely find another artist that put so much effort to a show expected Madonna. Kylie’s tour has been to many countries that maybe only Madonna and Shakira could beat her. She has good taste on music and fashion which makes her fresh( Fever is a prediction of EDM; She got the most Vogue covers internationally behind Madonna and Rihanna). She is popular than you expected internationally. She got several No.1 Albums in Taiwan; Her songs got covered in Japan and went directly to No. 1; She is the first foreigner female artist that tour in Tokyo Dome; she holds the record for the most expensive tickets in China, Madonna can’t even visit China. Not to mention how the LGBT community support her. To me, Madonna and Kylie are the two sides of the perfection: Madonna is an aggressive killer, and Kylie is a sensitive healer. Spiritually, one part of Donna summer goes like Cher-Kylie- Britney; the other goes like Madonna-Gaga. Sadly you can’t get it. I feel like she is so underrated that even the Jenner thing could take her name nowadays. US are taking over the world and people just ignoring her. She deserves more. At least Kylie is a true artist who brought happiness to the music industry.
To simply define an artist based on sales and your feeble attempt to undermine her popularity with an article on a online publication is simply sad. Should you look at the cultural impact Kylie Minogue has generated over a thirty year timespan as well as consistantly garnishing multiple top tens in multiple countries theoughout the globe speaks for itself. Not to mention doing so without the massive revenue market that is America. No one needs your analysis to validate her popularity. I understand you are seaching for a way to justify your opinion, but your opinion is just that, an opinion. One that is written on a weak foundation. What validity of kylie's popularity rests in Grammys, Le Order des Arts et Lettres, Brits, Arias, OBE and things most musicians would kill to have. Your article is passè and I can only hope you consider these things the next time you think of Kylie Minogue. Ignorance such as what is displayed, written in this article may lead you and your "professional opinion" to search for career vality of it's own.
Hi Scorn1031!
Surely what's bad is thinking that a fans board of people backing each other in believing their fave artist have been shaking the world of music and fashion for 30 years is an accurate place of information. You say she has "consistantly garnishing multiple top tens", that's false, in most markets she got 2-top 10 eras, with a huge 13 years hole in-between, and that's it. You affirm, backed by nothing, that she is immensely popular. That is an opinion. Records sales are no opinion, they are facts, no matter if they are of your liking or not.
You speak about ignorance - what sounds highly ignorant is speaking about how "popular" someone is because he got an "Le Order des Arts et Lettre" and being unable to even write the distinction correctly. No need to mention nearly 1,000 artists get it every year, but no doubt you have no idea about that. FYI, there is 3 levels of prizes, Kylie has the lowest one (Chevalier) same as Martin Solveig, to give you an idea, at the upper level (Officiers) there is people like Pharrell Williams, while at the highest one (Commandeur) there is Petula Clark, Bowie, Barbara Hendricks, Amália Rodrigues, Patti Smith, female singers you most likely can't sing-a-long a song to. As for "killing to have", you must learn that various relevant French artists refused these prizes because they are fast-food awards to get some media exposure. Thus, when you try to sell the Chevalier medal as a big thing proving high popularity, you are barely highlighting that you have no idea of what you are talking about.
When a singer is popular he sells records, it's as simple as that. If we pick up 100 people equally spread through the globe and ask them to mention 100 popular artists, the most realistic scenario is that none will mention Kylie Minogue. You can like it or not, you can maintain a high level of delusion speaking daily to people sharing the same one, it won't change that. You should keep in mind that each and every time a fanatic tries to sell his favorite artist as a superstar while that's not true, rather than defend him/her he is barely tarnishing his/her image.
I have to ask you something!! Where did you find the Fever sales in Bazil?! I never read nothing about it, it wasn't even certified Gold by ABPD/PMB here, and we have only 2k with codes (after 2003).
The impact of Kylie goes beyond the numbers. It has survived decades with quite popular songs on radios in the United Kingdom, Austraia and much of Europe. It is a matter of seeing the Euro Airplay ranking. And if we have to talk about finished races we can mention Gaga, who despite his enormous popularity, only had 3 numbers 1 on Billboard and his last global hit was 7 years ago when he is still young.
The thing about Rihanna is absurd, she sells very little in albums and it's quite difficult to keep the same regularity of hits when she reaches her forties.
Jennifer Lopez does not give for many comments. Their sales are very similar to those of Kylie, and like Rihanna sells few albums copies.
Rihanna sells little albums? She sold 33 million physical albums. That is more than Kylie did and Rihanna had the disadvantage of being in a less favourable era where albums don't sell.
Just look at Kylies fever and Rihannas Good Girl Gone Bad and you will see Rihanna sells more albums.
You just said yourself "in the United States"... that is really the only place on earth that doesn't see Kylie as an iconic artist.
Hey MJD,
Amazing work you did there a few months ago.
Worldwide Sales figures for Kylie’s Latest album Golden are unavailable anywhere, apart from Mediatraffic which sounds totally unreliable.
Would be fantastic if you could update that part with your data, now that the campaign draws to a close.
Debate is rife on forums - only proper figures can get a proper picture.
Thanks a million.
Hey MJD!
You made a really great job with Kylie. Although it hurts to admit it - as a Kylie fan - this proves how she definitely is a UK/Oz based artist with occasional success outside of those borders...
Anyway, I have a very precise question regarding Can't Get You Out Of My Head's French sales. They used to be estimated at around 900k, with a few years ago I remember reading an article on Charts In France sayig that this figure had been massively overestimated and that it was actually on less than 600,000 copies... I find it hard to believe, with the single reaching the top of the singles chart around the Christmas period, having lasting success in 2002 and etc... Could you shed some light on that particular issue?
Lady Gaga's The Fame almost sold as much as Kylie's entire discopraphy lol
If u think that is funny and her achievement are not impressive. Imagine how all the struggling artists out there feels like. Kylie's achievement is already extraodinary and millions of singers out there would do anything just to achieve 10% of what she has achieve.
And Kylie's "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" is bigger than any Lady Gaga song!
