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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.
I want to know about Madonna album sales in East Asia,Southeast Asia and South Asia since you estimate 10 million albums sold for Madona in Asia outside Japan.How do you estimate and is there a realible source for Madonna in Taiwan?(like the 500k figure for TB)
Hi again MJD
Do you have any idea of Madonna's album sales in Africa & Middle East?How many albums has she sold (of course estimated) in this region?TIC and BS both certified Platinum and also many albums certifed Gold in South Africa long long time ago.BTW,again and again,how to estimate africa&middle east and asia album sales in total,based on south africa sales and japan and singapore and other countries sales?
Excuse but she could be bigger on streaming if she was getting promoted. I mean, Spotify barely put her in popular playlists, and they use only Like a Prayer or Material Girl. You can see the difference of both songs than her rest discography, Spotify playlists do everything....
Plus most of her videography was blocked in her channel on YouTube. Recently they got unblocked, and La Isla Bonita (in her channel) is currently getting heavy number of views per day. I think you sould update her streaming power so we can see the difference now.
Cant believe she beat Michael Jackson sales in Italy by a considerable margin. She must have been super big there.
Hi Jazmine!
We can't forget that Madonna has her origins in Italy, many artists in that situation (Frank Sinatra, Michael Bublé, Bruce Springsteen, etc) have been incredibly successful there!
Hi,MJD
Why LAV certified 500k in 1986 in Italy by AFI,while La Stampa published the 450k figure in 1991?Can you expain?
Hi again,MJD
Can you reply me,please?I'm confused.How MJ's Dangerous sold 1.995 million units in Southeast Asia while sales in Thailand,Malaysia and Singapore combined only up to 870k (There is only two markets left,Indonesia and Phillipines,in Southeast Asia).And how many albums has MJ sold in Latin America in total?Is it Latin America=Brazil+Mexico+Argentina×2(or Argentina÷0.4)for all aritsts,including Madonna?Africa & Middle East(if including Turkey)=US/150+UK/15 or South Africa×2 or UK/10 or something for artists like Madonna and Mariah Carey?If we don't count Turkey into European sales,is it still Europe=UK×1.05+(France+Germany+Italy+Spain+Netherlands+Switzerland+Sweden+Austria+Finland)×1.3?Please reply me!I'm really confused...
Hi XS!
I suppose the confusion comes from the definition of "Southeast Asia". It isn't a geographical term in that context - although that would already suggest a dozen of countries rather than 5, including Vietnam. The music industry used "Southeast Asia" term for long basically for all Asian continental sales. The point is that major labels opened their first local offices in Asia through countries like Singapore, and they managed their catalog to the whole region. While at first countries were geographically in Southeast Asia, others were added to the countries where they were distributing their artists but they stood to that naming. Myself when I refer to it, I think about all countries from the South & Southeast of the continent.
While I don't remember that 1,995 million figure for Dangerous, it must be where the confusion comes from since it sold 575,000 units in Indonesia, 300,000 units in the Philippines and 250,000 in India, hitting the said number once added the other 3 countries you mentioned.
About formulas, yes these are default formulas used in case there is no specific data. When there is data, it is adjusted. For example, Madonna is huge in the UK while weak in South Africa so we should be careful while extrapolating. We have a list of adjustment ratios in case artists are bigger / weaker than their own standards in specific markets. If a rock band (which use to do very well in LA) outperforms our calculations by 20% in LA with a pair of albums for which we do have data, then we add that 1,2 factor for remaining albums.
For Jackson in LA that's 14,5 million with 5,5 million from Brazil, 4,5 million from Mexico, 1,78 million from Argentina and 2,78 million from elsewhere. Thriller alone accounts for 5,13 million of that total.
Thank you,MJD!
For specific artists like Madonna, Latin America=Brazil+Mexico+Argentina/0.4 in 80s and 90s, and Latin America=Brazil+Mexico+Aregentina*2, since 00s, right?
How do you estimate 2.7 million albums sold in Africa & Middle East for Madonna? Can you show the estimation receipts?
http://www.mi2n.com/print.php3?id=32544
TIC is Madonna's first platinum album in South Africa,which equals to 50k shipments at that time.How many copies do you estimated for it in Africa & Middle East (maybe 100k in South Africa now?). BS also certified platinum, maybe 750k in total?...From your "total albums sales per country"page and you confirmed you had her at 14.5m in Latin America(same as MJ there),That's 2.7m albums sold in Africa & Middle East.Has she passed one million albums in South Africa in total based on estimation and background information?
