Hi Raffi!

It depends who you wanna put on that folder! Does James Brown enter on it, or Ray Charles? One omission from your list is Barry White. He sold some relevant number of records! The first 4 you mention are out of touch but then Usher comes in the second group of R&B stars ranking 5-10, him, Luther, Barry, Ray, James etc should all be fairly close. Someone like Al Green shouldn't be that much lower although I admit that I never studied him in details!

Hi Raffi!

1) My Way was a great seller on Clubs, it was released at the best moment for it plus enjoyed a few more sales from the success of 8701. It went 6xP already in 2000! 1997/1998 is the last period of albums to have sold great amounts in both Columbia & BMG, after that most LPs were exclusives to one or the other. My Way did 796k on BMG and was heavily present on Columbia from very early with the catalog number 224246.
2) You Make Me Wanna scanned 2m during the calendar year 1997 but it was still going strong in early 1998! The number of 2,3 million refers to its Soundscan sales only, check the last message of this page.
3) U Don't Have to Call is on 20k only! It's U-Turn that is on 100k 🙂
Yeah should rank rather low among post-2004 singles quite simply due to the heavy number of Japanese singles that sold 1,5m or more! Then there is tons of one hit wonders. For example, Un Monde Parfait by Ilona Mitrecey sold more in France alone in 2005 than Yeah! globally!
4) Clubs were very low but not non-existent! While a few %s do not change much for most albums in recent years, for a 10-million seller that's a notable difference. In most, the blockbusters are those on which Clubs relied during the last 15 years. An album like All The Right Reasons sold huge numbers on Clubs. They were up to 4,4% of the business in 2004, which is 450k for a 10,3m seller. It isn't how the 10,75m figure was set though. Confessions went Diamond in November 2008, a full 4 years before reaching 10m at Soundscan. At that point, it was crossing 9,6m SS sales. As a catalog album on a digital-axed market, there is virtually no retail sales to shipment gap. By now, it is on 10,35m SS sales, e.g. 10,35m + 0,4m = 10,75m!
5) The formula for Europe has been adjusted after all the details coming out during the Coldplay study. The main markets missing in Europe are Northen markets (Norway, Denmark) and eastern countries (Poland, Czech Republic etc), countries were R&B artists sell mostly poorly. Same for Portugal. Also a few countries were adjusted with more information (France, Switzerland, Sweden), with the usage of Year end charts, which resulted in slightly lower numbers.
6) He did amazing on both ringtones and in Asian downloads. Love In This Club sold barely more than 2m at Soundscan during its year of release while it appeared at 5,6m inside the IFPI Global Top 10 for the same period. It was Platinum for ringtones with about 1,1m sales for that year (IFPI year, e.g. dec to nov) and sold relatively low numbers in known markets, which imply more than 1 million downloads in Asia, most likely in South Korea!
7) He has indeed over 40m sales from the US - I have a total 40,8m for the 38 songs with a fixed estimate to date for the US - plus likely close to 10m ringtones as I have set estimates of 21 songs up to 7,25m. In total that's nearly 60% of sales coming from the US alone!
8) Doing a quick check, there is about 41m of EAS from the US. That puts him a few millions ahead of Beyonce (solo only) and Nickelback, indeed under the big 3 you mention. Of course, later acts topped him, I'm thinking especially to Taylor Swift. Drake is on about 38m as impressive as it seems.
9) For streams, Anthony does an amazing job collecting streams for each and every version of songs existing on Spotify. He always combines all YouTube views with relevant numbers, at times several dozens of videos are merged together for a unique song!

Speaking of demographics, how about Asia? Do they embrace black culture and R&B music? From Usher and Janet, they performed quite well in Japan, as well as other R&B artists like Beyonce. Mariah and Michael, however, are huge stars there, though some would classify them as pop artists than R&B.

Speaking of club sales, why are 8701 club sales so low? I thought it was around 4,8-4,9m on Soundscan sales alone. Its club sales are even lower than Confessions, but wasn't 8701 released when Club Sales were much healthier. Is it because 8701 wasn't a blockbuster like Confessions?

Hi Raffi!

Japan as well as South Korea have been quite opened to black artists. Acts like Stevie Wonder always sold well there. It isn't true in all regions through, China was closed for long, countries like India and Indonesia are more oriented around Latin music, not kind on urban songs. The Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore are strong places for pure pop music. As you can see, they aren't all in the same line!

Hi again Raffi!

2001 is the year that saw most clubs crash in the US. If you look at BMG list, both first albums by Eminem and Britney all moved 1m+ there, yet there respective third albums from 2001 failed to reach 300k. Madonna's Music failed to reach 100k. Janet's All For You had a special offer limited to 100k units. The market went from 7,6% in 2000 to 4,0% in 2002. In 2004, it was on 4,4%, so as you can see from 8701 era to Confessions era, Clubs were stable, so considering the latter one sold more than two times more, it is kind of logical to see it ahead on Clubs as well!

That's interesting to know MJD! However, I saw that Alicia Keys was an exception to that rule. In fact, she sold relatively low amount of albums in Southeast Asia, with modest sales in Japan. Yet, her success was very impressive in Europe, with her album sales surpassing her R&B peers there. Is there any explanation to this?

Also, does Alicia, Usher and Beyonce own the Top 5 biggest selling R&B albums of the 2000s? According to your estimations:
1. Songs In A Minor 3,390,000
2. Confessions 2,770,000
3. Dangerously in Love 2,730,000
4. I Am Sasha Fierce 2,710,000
5. Diary of Alicia Keys 2,200,000

Are there any other R&B albums that sold more than those in Europe? Those 3 were truly the biggest R&B acts of the 2000s, yet each of them are more dominant than the other in certain markets. In the US, it's Usher>Beyonce>Alicia. In Europe, it's Alicia>Beyonce>Usher. In Asia, it's Beyonce>Usher>Alicia.

Anyway, MJD, are you currently working on the CSPC analysis on Michael Jackson, since you've been working on his US sales now? If so, can't wait for it!

Hi Raffi!

DC's Survivor sold 2,88 million in Europe. MJ's Invincible did 2+ million, as an album produced by Jerkins I suppose it may be considered, although it would be out of the Top 5 when including Survivor. I don't think you missed albums - except if you count the Black Eyed Peas, but I guess not, same for compilations.

By the way MJD, I forgot one successful R&B legend, R.Kelly! Is he more successful than Usher? I also hope you do an analysis on him as well!

How good are Usher’s catalogue sales of Confessions? Considering that it shipped 12m in 2004, is 3.5m in the next 14 years decent or poor? It would be very interesting to have an article about catalogue sales, although I imagine it would be more difficult to find the data than it is to find total sales.

britney's third album reached 588k according to BMG list. BTW, The Eminem Show had scanned 10.87m Soundscan Sales. 10.87m*4%=435k. If you update Eminem, will the estimation be over 11.3m in US?

those numbers are not even correct. Confessions pure sales are over 20 M , My way and 8701 over 8M, Here i stand over 6M worldwide. For a long time now. All pure sales. I dont know but that person just made those up.

Hi Geraldine!

These 20 million sales for Confessions are fanciful, 100% contradicted by official IFPI data. We can't just copy / paste what is written here and there by lazy people themselves copying what they read online. Same for other figures. Here I Stand officially shipped 2.1 million copies in 2008 for example, 6 million is way, way out of the reality.

They should really update this !! Those numbers are from 2017. Usher is a living legend

Hi MJD .That applies to every single artist that logic of yours then. Not only Usher.And those are real numbers. Am talkin updates. Here I stand sold 6 Millions after 2012. Honey, ppl keep selling. Here I stand sold 2 M the year of release and kept selling afterwards. U making it sound like they stopped selling after the year of release lool