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She is the female artist with more physical gold/platinum certifications (Elvis and Beatles are ahead).
During the 80's Gold was 1 million copies (though maxi-singles counted double for certifications). That means lot's of her 80's records could be re-certified to platinum. The changed occurred on late 1989 that means (yet some of her 80's singles with no certification were certified during the 90's):
- Like a Virgin (Gold in 1985) - 1 million + if subject for certification would be platinum
- Crazy For You (Gold in 1985) - 1 million + if subject for certification would be platinum
- Angel/Into The Groove (Gold in 1985) - 860k sales but was a maxi-single only so was counting double for certifications - the best selling maxi-single from the 80's in US according to Billboard. Not sure what happens with new rules (if that still applies and gets platinum or if it stays gold).
- Like a Prayer (Platinum 1989) - 2 million + It could be 2 platinuns
- Express Yourself (Gold 1989) - 1 million + if subject for certification would be platinum.
Not sure if any other Madonna record from the 80's could be gold if a re-certification as only the record company knows the exact sales.
All the big artists from the 80's had their sales re-certified once they were dead. As Madonna is still here they did nothing yet but it make her look like she sold less than them when she was one of the biggest selling singles (and maxi-singles) artist out there.
Elvis singles were all re-certified from 1992 to 2006 and that's how he got more platinum and gold records later on (based on that late 1989 change).
Warner Music probably doesn't care. Just like her digital songs and streams that already would give her at least 1 additional digital platinum award for "Like Prayer" (that already had 1.1 million downloads in US alone as 2016 published on Billboard - I would assume has even more now). They probably want to wait to re-certified lots of her songs at once. Just now "Like a Prayer" would be at least 3 platinum with a re-certifications (2 physical + 1 digital).
From the digital era her only recent song already ready to be certified Gold in US is "Bitch I'm Madonna" due to digital sales and streaming (thanks to Nicki Minaj and the all stars video too). Whenever her record company wants to submit the application and pay the fee she gets a new digital single gold record from this decade.
MJD, during the 90's Madonna did less than 100 concerts worldwide and all of them on 1990 (57 concerts - the last one was 3 months before TIC was released) and 1993 (39 concerts that grossed $70 million). During the 90's she only did 5 concerts in US after the release of TIC - during the entire decade. She played 29 US dates on May and June 1990 promoting "I'm Breathless" and "Like a Prayer" albums months before TIC was released. Those 34 concerts were all she played in US for the 90's (and were 35% of all the concerts she played during that decade).
Only in 2001 Madonna did another concert tour (to promote "Ray of Light" and "Music" albums) yet was another short tour with only 47 concerts worldwide (and this time 28 of them were in the US). Yet it was short made $76.8 millions and broke the record as most grossing tour by a female artist at the time that had been set by her in 1993 (that also broke her own record set by her previous tour from 1990 that made $62.7 millions). These records were also broke by Madonna already three times now and her 2008/2009 tour remains the most grossing tour by a female artist. Despite being the most grossing tour solo artist ever (since 1990 until now since those number are correctly accounted) she played less than 515 concerts during these past 29 years (even Lady Gaga played more during the past 10 years).
Even during the 80's Madonna did not played many concerts. Her 1985 "Virgin Tour" had 40 dates and was just in North America (39 in US and 1 concert in Canada - probably explains her huge sales in US that year) and her first world tour was in 1987 and had just 38 concerts (22 of them in US). That's just 78 concerts during the entire decade and 61 of them in US.
MJD, Billboard had a rule that all albums on BB200 older than 2 years were removed and would only chart on TOP POP CATALOG Chart. Not sure when the rule was created but probably in late 1991 introducing soundscan system for tracking sales and that's why the album still charted in 1993 (otherwise would already be 2 years older sooner).
So BB200 rules for albums just like the CURRENT ALBUM SALES is now (for a comparation). That's why the last time TIC was when it was getting close from those 2 years from release. The next week it got into TOP CATALOG for 2 years in a row. That rule for BB 200 was changed in 2009 only and BB Current Album Sales was created.
The album did return to TOP POP CATALOG later on for several times spending a total 290 weeks on that chart (it peaked #06 on February 2016).
Once the up dates for Queen and Madonna are done, then we will find Queen will jump ahead of Madonna into fourth place and will leave quite a gap!! I would of thought this will happen before the end of the year.
Hi Pepper!
Well first I have to say that I know you are Antonhy, a former user banned quite a long time ago for repetitive spamming / insistent requests completely off topic. As I said to Steve some days ago, I have nothing personal against you, so if you want to comeback I don't mind. If you adopt the same behaviour as in the past / as you do in this message, you will be banned again though.
As for your question, we debated about it internally already and decided to exclude sales of the movie. It's not a concert video, it's a proper movie with a plot, actors and everything, it's not a Queen product.
Hi Nuno!
The same 10 countries are always used because of their representativeness added to the availability of their data.
As for European sales, 8.36 million is already an awful lot. There was no European Platinum award in 1987, not sure what's your source but it can't be valid. Also, as a general comment, the reissues you mention add very little sales.
Hi Nuno!
Video singles have been added to physical singles. Maxi singles have been counted as 1, and that for example means that Vogue sold well under 2 million in the US in spite of being 2xP. About supposed Warner claims and Guinness, if I was you I wouldn't waste too much time on them! 😉
Hi again Nuno!
A small correction: the singles criteria was downgraded at the start of 1989 in the US, not at the end of it. Express Yourself went Gold for 500k shipped, Like A Prayer Platinum for 1 million.
No doubt Madonna is one of the very best selling artists of physical singles.
Hi Nuno!
It seems you missunderstood my comment. I wasn't judging her touring stats, only stating that the last time (of the 90s) TIC has been inside the Billboard 200 list, that was because she was touring, meaning that outside of high promotional periods the compilation wasn't organically among the very top selling best of albums in the US.
About your following message, I'm very well aware of the history of Billboard rankings. That's why I refered to stats on the comprehensive album chart and mentioned catalog charts statistics for in-between years (to 2003). The highest TIC ever went there during the decade was #13 when Ray Of Light was issued, which shows it was never one of the very top catalog albums in the decade, unlike similar packages from the Eagles, Journey, Bob Seger, etc.
BTW, albums used to feature the BB200 instead of the catalog chart as long as they hadn't drop out of the former list for at least one month, that's why TIC remained nearly 3 years there and Nick Of Time even longer back then.
Can I know what would her total sales be (so albums, compilations. physical and digital singles etc) if we also added the extra discs u talked about on elvis page?? cuz you said elvis had sold around 60M extra discs, mj 34M, the beatles +100M could you plz tell me madonna's??? thanks a lot and if u can exlain to me what you mean with "extra discs" cuz i'm really confused lol
Hi MJD! Thank you for the analysis, since this was done 2 years ago, when could be get an update? She has got some new certifications and also released Madame X and RHT, also her streaming numbers have grown a lot, for example MG was 54k EAS and now is 126k EAS and LAP was 85k EAS and now is 152k EAS, those two already add 139k EAS, so many she could be around 246M EAS?
Thank you again for all the time and work you put into this.
But these "rises" are just so paltry, in the grand scheme of things, that she is way down the list of artists to be revised. Artists that have had significantly greater rises, will be prioritised.
New sales receipts:
Like A Virgin sold only 10k legitimate copies in Taiwan by November 1985, with another estimated 300k pirate copies sold. However, the album was re-issued so many times through these 35 years(check Discogs and blogs of Taiwanese music record collecters) , it was very possible that most sales there were done in late 80s and 90s.
https://books.google.com/books?id=hiQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=warner+music+indonesia+madonna+sales&source=bl&ots=XLqI9H7x2M&sig=ACfU3U0_oMgq2H77hjKF8qDS5rAbMcOt_w&hl=zh-CN&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjAwYr8z53kAhWTx4sBHcTGBaw4ChDoATAGegQIBBAB#v=onepage&q=warner%20music%20indonesia%20madonna%20sales&f=false
I also think it's too early for MJD to update her. After a couple of years, maybe.
