Forum
Hi X!
I have to contradict that: it isn't according to IFPI, but according to the writer of the article. Platinum awards mentioned there are official, that's legit information which was audited. The written part is barely fillers by the author. He also wrote that Nana Mouskouri sold 250 million records, Hallyday 100 million (and 33 #1 singles) or that http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_news/plat_month_20050411.htm l" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Sardou sold 100 million albums. That shouldn't be considered seriously nor credited to the IFPI company.
Hi,MJD
I also wonder what is this.
http://web.archive.org/web/20100806200626/http://www.rockandroll.gr/content/view/124/110/lang,greek/
Hi XM!
It's a list of figures completely made up that surfaced on online forums nearly 15 years ago. They are all massively inaccurate.
Hi again,MJD
Why do you estimate 20 million albums in Asia while it can only be searched Japan sales (6 million Oricon and 10 million overall)?She is not that popular in other Asian countries.And,do you know some other ways to find Brazil and Mexixo sales except certifications?Like True Blue,it certified 100,000 in 1994(or earlier?I forgot) in Brazil,but here and ukmix give a sales number of 900,000 in Brazil.
Hi XM!
People tend to extrapolate way too much Japan into Asian sales. There is several markets in Asia which follow trends of the UK rather than Japan. In the Philippines, results of international acts will be closer to Spanish results than Japanese ones. Same in India / Indonesia.
Madonna sold massive numbers in Taiwan (estimated past 3m) and Singapore while being consistent with many albums during the peak of the market in remaining Asian markets. Even if she had no super blockbuster, she totalled very healthy sales in the end, the same as in various continental Europe countries.
About True Blue, it had shipped 700,000 units as of March 16th, 1988. Like A Virgin was at 500,000 units by that same date, up from 410,000 by April 1986. It's always tricky to gauge sales in Brazil / Mexico, but it is possible to find key press releases. Added to various indicators we have (from the history of records labels there to YouTube insights to shipment codes to the evolution of sales of the artist elsewhere), we can have a fairly clear view of the curve of sales the artist had during his career. Also, we heard about big albums. There is no monster seller that remains unknown.
Hi,MJD
https://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36151
In this thread,you confirmed TIC sold 960k in Brazil according to WB.Is there a source for this or you faked it before?
Hi XM!
This message dates from 2006. Back then we knew close to nothing about Brazil, there wasn't even an official database available from the ABPD so we were left with figures found here and there on boards, most of which appeared to be fake once real data started to be known.
TIC shipped 123,000 units as of 1992. It crossed 250,000 units in 1994 mostly thanks to the much hyped stadium performances from November 1993. Continuous catalog sales pushed it to 500,000 units by 1998. Warner continued to audit their catalog along with the ABPD every year during the 90s, so we know these levels were met on these dates. The last catalog audit was done in 2005, by that date TIC was under the 3xPlatinum criteria. Then the last information available is that it shipped roughly 125,000 CDs since 2003. If you put everything together, I get an estimate of 750,000 units to date, with a +/-50k margin of error.
Hi,MJD
What about Mexico data(850k) according to WB confirmed by you in that thread?
Hi,MJD
Shouldn't True Blue sold 1.4 million～1.5 million copies in Italy?Is it the best-selling international album in Italy or top 3 or top 5 or top 10?Also,can you give the Mexico sales figures for every Madonna album to reach 4.37 million,please?There is no Mexico data for every Madonna album here,but that page shows 4.37 million.
Hi XM!
To be honest you are mostly wasting your time going through old myths posted on online boards more than 10 years ago. It's true for all these figures from Brazil, Mexico, Italy, etc. Me and a few more have been searching for tons of data, building way more reliable sets of data through the years. Retrieving old myths and erasing everything discovered since really will bring you nowhere.
From the top of my head, I can think of at least 7 international albums which outsold True Blue in Italy. They are Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (far and away the #1) and The Wall, Michael Jackson's Thriller and Bad, Queen's Greatest Hits II, Beatles' One and Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love. Then I'll need to study deeper but albums like So Far So Good by Bryan Adams and the debut of Tracy Chapman can be possibly ahead too. So True Blue should be just inside/outside the Top 10.
About Mexico, while we don't commit on figures for albums about which there isn't enough information, we still estimate the most realistic figure for them as part of global sales. Below are these unconfirmed numbers that we assumed, which should not be taken as receipts:
1983 Madonna 175,000
1984 Like A Virgin 350,000
1986 True Blue 650,000
1987 Who's That Girl 80,000
1987 You Can Dance 100,000
1990 I'm Breathless 75,000
1990 The Immaculate Collection 600,000
1994 Bedtime Stories 150,000
1995 Something To Remember 150,000
Madonna is the only female to ever have three albums sell more than 20 million copies--Like a Virgin, True Blue and The Immaculate Collection. That's very impressive.
celine dion also has 3: Falling Into You, Let's Talk About Love and All The Way
Whitney Houston also has 3: Whitney Houston (1985), Whitney (1987) and The Bodyguard (1992). And Mariah Carey is almost there as well: Music Box 34.135, Daydream 31.387 and Mariah Carey 19. 794.
Brando I think you mean Daydream instead of her debut. Technically, Whitney's second album and Mariah's Daydream just miss the 20 million mark by a bit. So Madonna and Celine are the only two females to sell have three albums sell MORE than 20 million copies.
Hi Lorrane!
The album was reported at 700,000 units shipped in March 16, 1988. In June 18, 1987 already, when the success of Xuxa was the news on Jornal O Globo, several labels were invited to mention their top seller, for Warner it was True Blue at 600,000 (same figure as Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits, the leader of Polygram). Its success there is confirmed even nowadays as La Isla Bonita and Papa Don't Preach are quite simply #1 and #2 on her personal Top songs on YouTube in Brazil. Then if we take a look at its sales evolution from 03/1988 to date in countries where we have more data, 900,000 appears to be the most realistic estimate as of now.
Of course, one may wonder why the album was certified Gold in 1996, representing 100,000 units. The point is that ABPD started to award records in 1990 only. From my experience, it appears they allowed sales from 1989 only to be certified, just like the RIAJ and the BPI did. That's why all albums that got certified start from that year (including Madonna's own Like A Prayer which is 2xP). The remaining 80s international albums that were awarded during the 90s got there thanks to their later catalog sales (like Guns N Roses' Appetite for Destruction).
Basically, it sold 700,000 units to 03/1988, 100,000 copies from 1989 to 1996, about 10,000 since 06/2003 from codes, plus 1988/1989 and 1996-2002 years missing. Former years are the most importants since TIC wasn't released by then. For all these reasons the estimate is set on 900,000 units to date.
How do you estimate 650k sale for True Blue in Mexico(I remember it certified 250k)?And 600k sale for TIC there?(WB confirmed TIC sold 850k in Mexico and 960k in Brazil,but seemed inflated)And what about 830k sale for ROL in Brazil and 700k sale for COAD in Japan all confirmed by WB?Is it possible that 100k certification for true blue from 1986 to 1996 by ABPD only counting CDs?I remember TB sold a lot in LPs, etc.
Also, MJD, why did you say that BPI only certify sales from 1989? True Blue certified 2.1m in 90s. And, I remember you estimate 1.7m sale for True Blue in France several years ago(1.35m estimated by Infodisc), why did it decrease to 1.1m last year?I know maybe because of overestimation but it is such a huge difference.Same about True Blue in Italy...(I remember you estimated it at 1.3m before)
Is there a link that confirmed TB sold 700k by 1988 in Brazil according to Veja Magazine?I cannot find it online.
Is there any info about sale for LAV, TB,LAP&TIC in Taiwan? On UKMIX it is said that True Blue sold 500k in Taiwan but I cannot find about it online elsewhere.
LAV sold 500k by 1988 in Brazil,is it possible it sold 150k from 1989?
Hi XM!
The thing is, there is "confirmed by WB" and "confirmed by WB according to fans"! I never say a true WB report statings these figures. They were all claimed to be officially reported, but it isn't true.
For ROL and COADF sales are largely documented. We have certifications for both countries, various reports, codes for Brazil, Oricon figures. Their sales are under control and the truth can't be more than a few percents off from the numbers stated inside the article.
As for True Blue in Mexico, as I mentioned, this isn't a figure we are commiting in. That's not a statement. In cases like that one, where there is no info, we can only extrapolate figures that look similar. At the time, Mexican market was slightly weaker than in Brazil, more than twice bigger than in Argentina. Singles from True Blue are bigger in Brazil, then in Argentina and then in Mexico, but their popularity are close in all of them. That puts a realistic ballpark in 550-750k. That's from Brazil / Argentina comparison. Then we can compare to her own history in Mexico. Like A Prayer did half a million there and True Blue almost everywhere, which confirms again over well over 500k. Thus, setting 650k is the safest choice to avoid large errors.
Obviously, we would like to have direct information (meaning data related to this album in this country), but since we don't, looking for the figure that is the safest according to organic patterns verified during the artist's career is the best we can do!
Hi XM!
No, the BPI started in 1973. By then, they only allowed post-1973 sales to be awarded. That's why, for example, the Beatles' original albums weren't certified. This changed in recent years, but it remained true for about 3 decades!
The True Blue figure in France was based on calculations with a lot of missing data. It was 10 years ago, were even the size of the market wasn't known. Since then, we collected much more information (you can see several links / details inside the stand-alone article about True Blue in France) that enable us to be much more precise and accurate. Once again, going through the archives is of very little value considering the amount of information that came out during the last 15 years 😉
Hi again XM!
It isn't online anymore, I collected it from the time of Google News Archives. Sadly, this functionally was discontinued in 2011. You can still get the 600k figure from mid-1987 online, but it requires a suscription to enlarge the page!
Well, as usual the estimation part is a small one! The album went 4xPlatinum, 800,000 units, in 1987. Then in 1991 La Stampa published below figures:
June 1991
Madonna Madonna 210,000
Madonna Like A Virgin 450,000
Madonna True blue 900,000
Madonna You Can Dance 440,000
Madonna Like A Prayer 650,000
Madonna I'm Breathless 300,000
Madonna Immaculate Collection 250,000
They are all in-line with known data for these respective albums. Then the point is about adding catalog sales, which are in the 10-15% range in markets for which we have enough data. The album sold 2,000 units there in 2009, a strong year for her in Italy since they performed 2 shows that year. All in all, 1 million is the safest estimate, with a 3%-ish margin of error.
