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Perfect list，but i want bc above the king，white chritmas may be a big surprise
I believe Michael Jackson is doing better in streaming than the Beatles.
Spotify current numbers
MJ's monthly listeners: 14,530,601 (#87)
Beatles monthly listeners: 10,517,216 (#133)
Although MJ's numbers has been boosted a bit these days by the Scream project, but I do look at their numbers from time to time and MJ has always been well ahead of the Beatles, except for a short period when the Beatles enjoyed the initial hype of their catalog getting on Spotify.
And on YouTube (which is by far the biggest streaming platform) MJ is constantly around Nr. 20-30 (#23 as we speak with 76.6 million weakly views) while the Beatles aren't even in the Top 100 ( https://artists.youtube.com/charts/artists).
I know there are other streaming platforms too, but if this is an indication for something then I think MJ is ahead of the Beatles in streaming.
I'd be interested in Queen too. They have always struggled a bit in the US sales wise and since it is the biggest market it may affect them big time, but were doing well in other Western countries (and especially the UK, of course). They are doing very well in streaming though (esp. Spotify).
Hi MJD!
Sorry it took me so long to reply! Anyway, this analysis is perfect! I had never seen such amazing success from an artist before. I even consider MJ's stats more impressive than the Beatles!
While MJ has achieved phenomenal success in all sales avenue, I feel like he was proportionally weaker in the physical singles department. His is only slightly ahead of Madonna, and I can't believe he doesn't have a single song over 5m units in that format! I thought songs like Billie Jean and Beat It would be past that. Still, he hasn't released that many albums, and his consistency is amazing here! The Bad album's biggest seller was only at over 2m units, but all the singles combined add for an extraordinary 13m units!
Secondly, regarding his album sales, he is obviously huge in this avenue as well, But does MJ belong as the top seller in this format in any country/continent? In the US, he is outsold by Barbara, The Beatles etc while in Asia, he's outsold by Mariah and the Fab 4. I'm not sure about South America though. Madonna sold more than MJ in the 3 main markets there, but perhaps overall MJ outsold her in that continent? His European sales are fantastic also, with so many albums at 8m/10m+
Also, on your achievements page, you said that Thriller and Dangerous were the top 2 biggest selling international albums there, Are you referring to studio albums, because Mariah's #1's and Whitney's Bodyguard album outsold those 2 albums there. Also, Dangerous' sales in Asia are INSANE! Barely 1m in Japan yet over 4m outside of it is phenomenal. Is Dangerous the biggest selling album in Asia outside Japan?
I didn't expect Bad to be the 3rd most successful album as well! People often called it an under performance compared to Thriller, but in all honestly, Thriller is simply on another dimension, and if a 60m+ follow up is an under performance, then all albums by other artists are total flops then. Dangerous did absolutely amazing too.
Lastly, I wanna ask how many units did you think MJ's death has generated? Do you think he would still be this big in terms of overall success? I'm not devaluing his success, but his death gave his catalog such a huge boost like no other artist before!
Really looking forward for your next project!
To answer your question about MJ being a top seller in any country/continent. I think some of that is outlined on his achievement pg.
But... I think MJ sold more than the Beatles and MC and Asia.
In Asia MCs has 18,500,000 album sales and 30,500,000 total.
The Beatles have 23mill albums and 33mlion overall
On pg47 he has MJ at 25,690,000 for total album sales. So MJ has definitely outsold both in Albums but possibly overall as well.
For South America. Madonna outsold him in Brazil(5,795,000 vs 5,500,000) and Argentina(1,930,000 vs 1,785,000) but MJ outsold Madge in Mexico(4,370,000 vs 4,500,000). So it's pretty even in SA.
MJ sold lots of untis since his death, I think something close to 30 million Albums but he was still huge before then. The only reason he sold as much as he did in death was due to the sales he generated in life. His back catalog has always sold really well. So the sales after his death cemented his legacy rather than made it
Thank you for replying, but in the achievements page, it didn't specify which country MJ was the biggest selling albums artists. Also, regarding Asia, the 25,69m figure is already the total album sales there, while MC has 30,5m+ and the Fab 4 has 33m+, so obviously, those 2 sold more albums than him. I don't know about overall records though.
Not quite. MC and Beatles gave both album and overall totals. For MJ his total is for just Albums. His total Album number is about 80-100 million off from his overall total in the last page.
So for Albums
Mariah 18,500,000 albums (30,500,000 total)
MJ 25,690,000
Beatles 23,000,000 albums(33,000,000 total)
For
So based on those numbers he more than likely outsold both overall as well.
MJD shared thosw numbers in the comments under Mariahs article.
To be honest... The King Michael Joseph Jackson is definitely the best Musician, the best Entertainer of the World of all times!!!
Michael Jackson is really a Monster... He is a Dinosaur!!!
Michael Jackson is the best selling albums / copies artist of the World of all times.
When the subject is Michael Jackson's sold copies we talk about BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of copies sold all over the World!!!
Michael Jackson is not a commom artist... He's so UNIQUE!!!
OBS: I know that some people do not like Michael Jackson... But it does not mean that you have the right to hide or to cover the biggest truth that Michael Jackson sold and has been sold BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of copies all over the World.
Unfortunately, some people do not make any idea about Michael Jackson's influence in the World!!!
Michael Jackson has got BILLIONS of fans all over the World!!!
BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of copies sold.
He has made the best Videos Clips..... ETC.... ETC...
MICHAEL JOSEPH JACKSON IS THE KING OF POP....
MICHAEL JOSEPH JACKSON IS THE KING OF MUSIC
MICHAEL JOSEPH JACKSON... THE UNIQUE MAN!!!
MICHAEL JOSEPH JACKSON IS SIMPLY THE BEST.
CHEERS!!!
GILDO MONTEIRO.
I am very well aware of the comment you were talking about, as I was the one who asked that question. I asked whether Mariah was the biggest selling international ALBUM artist in Asia. The 30,5m for her and 33m figure for the Beatles is for album sales ONLY, just like the near 26m of MJ's. If you don't believe me, just go to Mariah's CSPC analysis and add up all her album sales in Asia from her album sales breakdown. You will get a total at around 30m. The same for the Beatles. We don't know who sold the most overall records, but we do know in terms of album sales, it would be Beatles, Mariah then MJ.
Hi Raffi!
It really depends on what you count. If it is albums, then the Beatles lead as you mention. If you add music videos, MJ has a real shot since he sold more than 4 million DVDs in Japan alone. Factoring in physical singles, the Beatles are ahead anew with a massive gap, MJ sold over 1m singles in Japan, Mariah close to 2m, but the Beatles are way ahead at 7,5 million. As virtually no singles were sold in other Asian markets, the deal is quickly sealed!
Hi Gildo!
Well, if we talk about the "truth", then we can't say Michael Jackson, nor anyone, sold in the billions 😉
Hi Erdos!
The US isn't like the UK. In the UK, an act can get various super-sellers quickly (Robbie, Coldplay, Oasis, Adele, Ed, Beatles, MJ, etc). In the US, some albums can fly over the moon and the artist will be recognized for it for decades (Journey, Boston, Guns, Elton, Carole King, Tracy, Springsteen, Police, Fleetwood Mac, Prince, etc.). They may get some more good sellers, the huge breakthrough crossover will continue to sell so much over the remaining records that it will only increase the gap. You can get several artists that got 3 massive sellers in a row in the UK, I'm not sure you will get a single one that had 3 consecutive 6-million sellers in the US catalog sales apart.
Madonna, George Michael, Springsteen, Prince, Bon Jovi or Def Leppard are artists that were getting Diamond albums when MJ was failing it with Bad. Still, they all did about 2 million units only with their first album from the 90s (only Def Leppard reached 3m). The few which did well entering the 90s were still fairly fresh/new acts like the Guns or U2. So it is all about perspectives, most 80s superstars would have dream to get a 7-million seller from 1991!
I know you're super busy but in the future can you do a more comprehensive breakdown for past artist? With the recent artist you have sales by country. It would be nice to see it for other artist as well, if that's possible.
willst du mich verarschen Justin Bieber der King of Pop da lache ich mich ja tot niemals kommt einer an Michael Jackson Plattenverkäufe dran das wird keiner schaffen weil er der größte war und kein anderer wird der King of Pop es gibt nur einen King of Pop und der ist Michael Jackson und lass ihn endlich das wird keiner schaffen weil er der größte war und kein anderer wird der King of Pop es gibt nur einen King of Pop und der ist der King of Pop und wird es immer bleiben fertig aus
It highlights the shift to even greater success MJ got commercially outside USA that despite the drop in American sales from Thriller's era, Bad and Dangerous are 33M+ and 3oM sellers (Dangerous less than 500K from the mark) WW. Per average studio record, MJ must be easily the best seller even with Invincible pulling down the number.
No, it's not...thank fuck.
U2 were not fresh/new in the US in the 90's, they charted in 1981 and were Top 20 in 83.
You said it yourself, they were "Top 20 in 1983", e.g. they were band that was still selling their albums to the Rock fans only. Pre-1987, their highest charting single went barely #33. Both radios and the general public heard about U2 from 1987 onwards.
Great work! Such HUGE numbers! Truly the King of POP!
One question though.
On page 33 you suggest that the four albums Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad and Dangerous combined created 100% of the 18.625.000 album sales of History. But is this true? Surely the new songs/disc 2 must hace created some of those sales.
Regards,
Thomas
Hi again dear!
On page 33 it refers to the CD1 of the package! The CD2 is counted too but as a studio album. The CSPC methodology distinguish albums as they were first released, so this LP is regarded as two distinct pieces, one studio album and one compilation, rather than a single double-album. In the same range of idea, box sets that put together distinct albums are re-allocated in full into sales of all studio albums included.
Hi MJD
Yes, I actually realized that myself after I wrote that. It's like adding 500,000 to each of the individual albums included in Led Zeppelin's Complete Recordings Boxsets.
In this case it rises a few questions.
a) Would the History compilation have sold more as a stand alone album in 1995 because the casual fan didn't want to pay for the new songs?
b) Would the History studio album have sold less without the old hits to fuel sales?
c) Would the History studio album have sold more as a stand alone album, because some fans wouldn't pay for the old hits already in their collection?
d) Would the Hitstory compilation have sold less without the new songs to intrigue fans?
Ranked as a) the most likely and d) the least likely.
My guess is the hits collection would have sold more and the studio album a bit less.
Hi Thomas!
We are lucky enough to have various factual evidences to answer those questions!
1) Sales of the studio album
In 1995, 432 million physical singles were sold in the World. This is a solid figure, but this still falls short of the related market in every year from 1970 to 1985. Nevermind, Earth Song became MJ's first million selling single in the UK. Germany is a market with strong tradition of both singles sales and albums sales which leads very distinct acts to perform well on each side. For example, Queen never got a #1 single there but sold more albums than the Beatles. Their only Top 3 hits (Flash / Radio Ga Ga) were arguably from albums that haven't performed *that* well. MJ too never got a #1 single from 1979 to 1994, but he easily sold over 2 million units of each Bad and Dangerous. Then Earth Song and They Don't Care About Us both shot to #1 for a combined 9 weeks, they lasted 29 weeks inside the Top 10.
Why do I mention those statistics? As you know, older an artist gets, the most established he is. He gains credit and moves from selling singles to selling albums. It's not normal to see an artist 25 years into his super-successful career get career highs singles-wise. These doped singles results are a clear indication of casual buyers ignoring the album History due to its price (more than $30 at the time), cherry-picking singles instead. While it's worthier to go by albums when the price is about 2,5 times higher than singles, it isn't anymore with a 7 to 1 gap.
Have old hits fueled the interest and as such its sales though? Well, no. The issue is that MJ's albums had sold insane numbers which means casual buyers already owned pretty much his entire discography. Paying for the CD1 was equal to give money away, hence the huge results of its singles. This is also why Sony packaged it together, to milk an additional $20 from people who already owned all his songs.
Its music club sales are also a solid indicator. It sold nearly half of its SS total through Clubs, a very high ratio. The demand was much higher once the price difference was offset as it was the case on Clubs, where double albums were counted as two, but it was much less painful to "pay" 2 units in a "12 for 1" offer than $30 from your own money.
In terms of catalog sales, History has really been lagging behind the previous albums. One may though it isn't as popular, but the gap is again not natural. It has been selling routinely 10 times less than OTW in the US while its songs are downloaded/streamed "only" 3 times less there. I can compare it with every other album to similar results. Once again it shows that the price has left out not only consumers, but also retailers which often stopped stocking it after its initial promotion.
2) Sales of the compilation album
As the first major compilation by an A-League artist, we should compare it with the likes The Immaculate Collection, All The Way, #1s (Mariah), Cross Road, U2's Best Of 1980-1990, but also Gold, One, GHII (Queen) which were the first major CD compilations of their respective artists. All those albums sold almost as much / more than HIStory. Similar 90s best of albums from the likes Sade, Enya, Phil Collins, Lionel Richie, Lenny Kravitz, Tina Turner, Springsteen, Bryan Adams, Sting, etc, all sold more than 10 million units. Those singers are all popular but not close to MJ. HIStory (CD1) would have most likely sold less than the 2CD package during the first 18 months, but ultimately it would have gone much higher thanks to catalog sales.
This is the big flaw of this release. The studio album clearly suffered from its price while the compilation failed to become a perrenial seller because of the weird package. HIStory went quickly down to 10,000 annual sales in the US which shows it wasn't regarded as a compilation at all by the general public / retailers.
3) Sales of remaining albums
Something which needs to be said is that History truncated MJ's catalog sales but also sales of subsequent compilations. As you should know, the likes OTW, Thriller, Bad sold way more in 92/94 than after 1995 because of this release. On its side, Number Ones was received with little fanfare because of History too.
All in all, had the studio album been released alone, MJ would have gained from 5 to 10 million units 3 times, from History (I would guess a good 25m units on that scenario), from his catalog studio albums (1m to 2m units more each from 1995 to 2002) and from Number Ones (likely close to 20m by now rather than over 12m). With the CSPC, this exploitation specificity is erased as both CDs count distinctively!
