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Hi MJD, thanks for the update!
I noticed you included both "American Pie" and "Die Another Day" in the orphan category, in terms of physical and digital sales, but you did include them among tracks of their respective albums when it comes to Streaming. As "Into the Groove", they were exlcuded from the album tracklist in the US only, so I think their sales should be included in the CSPC totals of their respective albums (just like you did with "Into the Groove").
Her straeaming numbers are certainly unimpressive... Concerning video streamings, it has to be said that the absence of a comprehensive VEVO channel has damaged her figures a lot. Many of her videos are missing, some of them are on her Vevo channel, others on Warner/her personal channel and they're not available in many countries. Then there are some videos, uploaded by fans that got millions view! For instance, about a month ago, "La Isla Bonita" video was removed from a fan-channel. It had just surpassed 90 million views!
Concerning sales estimations, I have to say I'm surprised how much some of her 90s singles have gone down. Especially Vogue, with its sales under 3 million units! I had no idea RIAA would double-count sales of 12" singles, that perfectly explains "Angel" platinum certification though: "Into the Groove", which did not receive a commercial release in the US, was included as a b-side on "Angel" 12". I'd like to know how you found out about this rule, and which of her other singles this rule has affected (most notably, I'd say "Vogue" and "Like a Prayer").
Another question: everyone knows that Soundscan wasn't comprehensive at all when it comes to album sales; what about singles sales? I'd like to know the percentage you used to calculate the US sales of her post-1991 singles, starting from the Soundscan figure.
Last but not least, I noticed a typo! You listed "Hanky Panky" as "Hanky Party" on pages 22 and 28! 😉
Thanks again for this great body of work! I'll probably have more questions to ask, but I need a more careful read of the article first.
OMG, what a wonderful work we have here. I just discover this site and a just need to congratulate you for this iniciative. It'a amazing to see how sales are distributed in each album... And what I loved the most is that you use more realistic numbers than what we usually see on internet. Some fans are delusional and create numbers out of nowhere. LOL
I'm really excited for your future analysis. Hope you got to Michael, I'd love to see how his monster sales would be distribuited into your sistem (CSPC).
can you please update Beyoncé?
I think some of her albums are off.
Dangerously is surely over 10m today. I am Sasha fierce should be nearing if not already hit 8M. B'Day lmo is at 6M even. Lemonade also needs a update. Beyoncé & 4 looks great.
Here is a I am Sasha breakdown.
North America
3,300,000 America
300,000 Canada
50,000 other
Europe
1,700,000 UK
250,000 Germany
150,000 France
130,000 Ireland
110,000 Italy
100,000 Spain
100,000 Poland
40,000 Portugal
40,000 Belgium
60,000 Sweden
40,000 Switzerland
40,000 Norway
30,000 Denmark
100,000 other
South America
400,000 Brazil
50,000 other
Asia
250,000 Japan
250,000 other
Oceania
300,000 Australia
40,000 New Zealand
Africa
100,000 South Africa
50,000 Other
Please please update. I'm a huge fan and look at you as the most reliable site for us beyfans
Hi Mat!
The life of every human being is important so please don't bet it on Madonna having sold 90 million singles, you would lose yours! 😉
Hi Pelvis!
Please refer to the answer to Mat's similar question. I'll add details inside the Fixing log article too 🙂
Hi Raffi!
You are right about Adele's 21, myself I didn't really how to mention it knowing the figure at the end of the article was lower but the update would be it higher. I just removed the reference 🙂
All Asian sales were in my spreadsheet, not sure why I forgot them inside the article, now they got added!
I would give Madonna a slight edge over Celine in Asia although it would require additional time to check - at the time of Celine article my Excel sheet wasn't the same one, with sales in off the radar markets (Asia, rest of Latin America, Africa etc) written into a unique cell. As for Madonna vs Mariah in the US, they are barely 600k away as per my figures, Madonna at 71,26m, Mariah at 70,6m. Even if this is close enough to allow doubts, odds are on M's side.
I have her on 14,5m in total for Latin America. Again, it would need more verifications but obviously very few (international) acts can touch this total. For example, Pink Floyd are just under 12m. The Beatles are near 19m to the surprise of nobody, especially with an absurd 6m in Argentina alone. I don't think anyone else already studied has done more than Madonna. Among missing artists, her challengers will be MJ and Queen!
Sadly for you Cher is next 😉
Hi Pelvis,
It really depends on the artist. Madonna sold bucketloads of physical singles in the period that had formulas inflating numbers, she suffered from that. U2 will too but on a lower scale since they sold less singles.
The Beatles were studied after several method changes and singles from the 60s remained unaltered.
Hi Chrysalynne Lingling!
Hernan and Anthony, on physical singles and streams, already completed their parts on Cher! I'm the one being late there due to very limited available time in recent weeks. I'll be working on her discography in full charge from now!
Hi Nicolò!
About songs of Soundtracks, they are distinct cases. The song Into The Groove appeared on the movie Desperately Seeking Susan, but it wasn't part of its Soundtrack, so it really was a song of True Blue in first place. In the other side, Die Another Day and American Pie promoted first external products, so I can't assign the CD singles to the original era. For streams, as they started years later, what matters is the track list of the CD rather than which record was first promoted, so there indeed I include those two songs into her studio albums containing them. Hope it makes sense!
The 12" rule is an old news, the main difference from the old to the new article is the quantity of 12" sold. I had in mind that by the 90s, 7" where largely dominating with the explosion of the CD. The 12" were most hyped during the disco years. I was wrong there for the US. The true new element was me and Hernan going all the way threw Discogs releases in the US to notice the immense majority of them for songs like Vogue were 12", making their certifications effectively doubled.
About Soundscan / Singles, I mentioned that point a few weeks ago, I think on Mariah's comments. In fact, Soundscan figures were off for singles too. If you compare yearly top sellers from the 90s - they are available on Billboard January issues - to their respective RIAA certifications, you will notice the scanned tally was short of the comprehensive total.
Thanks for noticing the typo, now fixed 😉
Hi ChartStan,
All Beyoncé figures were fully reviewed last December. She does sell some steady amounts over time, but nowhere near enough to push SF over 8m for example! She would lose more on physical singles than win on albums!
Also, please use Beyoncé own article to speak about her figures, I'm not sure all Madonna fans are interested on comments about Beyoncé!
Hi MJD! Great job as always! So it's pretty clear that Madonna is the top selling female in Europe and her success is pretty much untouchable by other females. Only Celine Dion comes close and she's still far behind! What do you think of this list of the best selling female artists in Europe? Some of these are your very own numbers, like Madonna, Mariah, Britney, etc! (all of them rounded):
01. Madonna - 79m albums
02. Céline Dion - 60m albums
03. Whitney Houston - 40m albums
04. Tina Turner - 32m albums
05. Barbra Streisand - 30m albums
06. Mariah Carey - 29m albums
07. Tracy Chapman - 24m albums
08. Diana Ross - 20m albums
09. Gloria Estefan - 18m albums
10. Britney Spears - 18m albums
Personally, I don't think Gloria and Diana have sold that much/more than Britney, but I could be wrong. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this!
Also, Confessions was certified 5x Platinum in Denmark for 200k units right after you published this article! Is this included?
Hi Stephen!
Since April 2016 Denmark introduced a system similar to the one of the BPI, automatically certifying albums on the back of scanned sales and streams (ratio 1000/1). Their scans provider (M&I Service) has been in place since 1996. That's why all big albums from that date are getting certified regularly as their scanned tally reaches a new milestone. Recently, we had A Rush Of Blood to The Head going 5xP, Curtain Call 5xP too, Eros 6xP, Older & Rockferry 7xP etc.
All those certifications refer to the criteria currently in place though, e.g. Platinum = 20,000. In concrete words, during the week of August 8, COADF wasn't audited to get a new 5xPlat award, instead you should interpret it as its scanned sales plus streams broke 100,000 units.
As you should know, just like the remaining Scandinavian countries streaming has been developped for years there, representing more than 60% of the comprehensive market already by 2013. Thus, due to Hung Up plays, we can expect that a good part of the new certification to come from there alone, letting likely about 80,000 to 90,000 copies sold by the album itself. This is perfectly in line with the 2xPlatinum award reflecting 80,000 units shipped that was received in March 27 2006. This highlights how careful we should be with the shipment vs sales confusion as it appears that 10 years later the album still has basically sold 'only' what was shipped 4 months after the album release!
Cant believe she sold close to 80 million records in Europe. No female singers could even come closely to match that records. It just proves how popular she is internationally speaking. Probably bigger internationally compared to her fame locally.
How much has The Next Best Thing OST sold? I know it's not a Madonna album but I would love to know.
I am looking forward:
No Doubt/Gwen Stefani
Nelly Furtado
Kylie Minogue
I'm surprised to see that Closer to the Truth sold more than Madonna's Rebel Heart in the U.S. 'Truth' had two singles which were absolutely non-hits and only one music video, which looks VERY low-budget. Rebel Heart had three singles and despite all of them having flopped, "Bitch I'm Madonna" managed to generate some buzz thanks to its all-star music video, which is kinda a hit on YouTube with 200,000+ views. Plus, I can't remember the last time Madonna made such an aggressive campaign for a studio album. During her latest releases, she would drop the first single and its music video, release the album, launch its parent concert tour and that was that - no red carpet appearances, no TV performances/interviews, no nothing. I wonder what went wrong with Madonna's popularity in the U.S.
LOL, don't even start. Closer to the truth "sold" that because she gave away thousands of CDs with her show tickets, just like Madonna did with MDNA. So, you should compare Closer to the truth to MDNA (350k vs 550k in the States). And besides, Rebel Heart outsold Closer to the truth woldwide and I think 98% of Cher's other albums according to this site.
I just don't understand how you felt the need to came out with such a fanboy-ish response to a simple question. I like to know about music chart trivia, but I don't act as if my dignity depended on how much albums my fave sold. Neither Cher nor Madonna need me - or anyone - to defend their careers. Thanks for the info though. LOL
Hi MJD!
Just here to point out you made an error with her album sales. On your breakdown, you have I'm Breathless and Erotica at 6,7m and 6,825m respectively. Yet, on your album sales comments and final CSPC results, you have them at 6,8m and 6,7m respectively. Which one is the correct figure?
Another thing I want to ask you if whether you can update George Michael and Whitney Houston's analysis. They were upadated after the inclusion of Youtube streams, but prior to when you changed the ratio of their downloads. Could you please update their downloads results. I know the change is not that big, but it kinda bugs me😅.
Hi Raffi!
The correct figures for both Madonna albums is the one from breakdowns, the other set of figures was an old copy/paste from the previous version! Everything is now fixed 🙂
True about updates! I'll try to accelerate the pace on those updates during the next few weeks, they do not take that long and put back all artists on the same starting line!
