Interesting to see that according to your stats Janet Jackson outsold Kylie Minogue in mainland Europe with 7,007,000 albums sold to 5,995,000. Outselling Kylie in about every European market besides the UK and Spain.

France
Kylie 1,245,000
Janet 1,262,000

Germany
Kylie 1,385,000
Janet 1,825,000

Italy
Kylie 270,000
Janet 338,000

Spain
Kylie 480,000
Janet 285,000

Sweden
Kylie 140,000
Janet 230,000

Netherlands
Kylie 205,000
Janet 550,000

Switzerland
Kylie - 240,000
Janet – 286,000

Austria
Kylie - 115,000
Janet – 126,000

Great. Thank you for the update.

Question about streaming part, for youtube views. Maybe I'm wrong, but for somes others artists, did you count the views from other channels beside the officials one ? Cause, for Kylie, the management on youtube is horrible and a big part of her views are from fans channels. It's the case for the majority or her songs in the 80's and 90's, the views are bigger on others channels than her official account.

- Manys videos are more views with only one link by a fan than her official channel and so bigger than views indicated on the analysis part.
"Got to be a certain" is at 222k on the official account but only with this link that add 1,7M https://youtu.be/yYV_jelnZdE
"Je ne sais pas pourquoi" is at 129k on official account and so on the analysis but only with this link, we have 1,3M https://youtu.be/KlJT_KDPpCg
"I wouldn't change" is at 185k on analysis part, but only this video has twice more https://youtu.be/oH4vNRD3rTk

I stop here cause the list is too long but I think that you get what I mean ^^. The views for 70% of her olds songs are bigger on the fans channels than her official. And for somes, if we count this, her views on analysis part are too low (like I indicated for JNSPP and IWCAT but there are more). Don't know if you take that on consideration

- Even somes videos, despite millions views on her channel has also many views on fans's accounts. And that includes her 2000's songs.
https://youtu.be/FfNaRnuFbsE (Hand on you heart at 1,5M)
https://youtu.be/bMCXx5k01Tg (I should be so lucky at 6,5M from here)

- Somes videos were also posted 2 or even 5 times on her channel (her official, not fans accounts).

Is Kylie the second most succesfull female artist in UK? In CSPC?
Kylie, Barbra and Celine have approximatly the same albums sales (arround 10M, but the three don't exceed 11M) but Kylie is definitly ahead by 3-4M for the singles.
So, she might be just behind Madonna. If not, 3rd or 4. It's a great achievement that can be add in her accomplishment.

Hi Vince!

For YouTube, we collect all relevant videos, no matter who published them. They need to be titled as per the song and include her vocals (so no karaoke / cover, but includes live versions from the artist), that's it!

We have set following rules:
- we collect all videos of all songs over 1m views (we have 7 videos for Can't Get You Out of My Head for example)
- for songs with no video over 1m, we select the biggest one under that mark

NB: some videos are blocked in some countries / do not appear ranked correctly so they can be missed

The second case only aims to show which album cuts still get a bit a love since the numbers in themselves do not really matter. In fact, I know it must feel frustrating to exclude a video with 250k views for a single (if it has a video over 1m), but we need to keep in mind that 11,750 views = 1 album sale, so 200k views is barely 17 album sales. Since all figures are rounded to the closest 1k, going down to this level would make no sense. For example, we already tracked 925 videos for Justin Bieber, imagine if we had to go down to this low numbers! Each article's streaming section would take weeks to collect ^^

Hi again Vince!

I can't commit on that for several reasons:
- the CSPC process includes multiple weightings, include for box sets and the likes. It isn't possible to only add records sales, it would require to create a stand-alone file for the UK only, that would be too much of a work
- CSPC includes also streams and we do not track UK-only streams, only global statistics
- they would be close for sure so it would be an issue since their articles aren't from the same date. I would need to update it all to commit on a ranking

Also, we can't rule out Rihanna! She sold less albums but at 7,5m she is very healthy and her single sales and streams are insane, she is at 37 million singles in total!

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.