okay thanks for the insight because i didnt understand why her second album didnt make the top 10 and it was certified 6x platinum in april of 1988. Also Im not American but music clubs like Sony BMG and Colombia House, how many copies were free and how many did you have to pay for because I know the riaa used to count the sales from those clubs. Is it true that some copies, record labels gave them for free to those music clubs?

Hi again Lulu!

No, actually this is a false myth. In fact, labels never gave nor sold copies to music clubs. The main reason why Clubs were for long largely ignored by RIAA certifications or even on label's annual reports is because Clubs used to purchase the license to produce an album rather than the product itself. Albums sold by Columbia House were indeed produced by Columbia House itself. Various albums were even available on some formats like 8-tracks carts only on those Clubs.

They did have several strong, eye-catching promotion like "12 CDs for $1", but it was against a 1-year subscription with the obligation to buy 2 or more CDs per month at $13-16 a piece. Let say $1 + 2 (units)* 12 (months)* 15 (dollars) = $361 for 12 + 2*12 = 36 albums, more than $10 each. At the end of the day, the initial 12 albums ended being as expensive as anywhere else, which is why BMG / Columbia music clubs still made a hell lot of money. It's the standard "buy 2 get 3" trick that makes you feel that you are getting a free copy, while the first 2 are more expensive than they should be, so in reality you are barely being forced a 3rd purchase! They played this game to perfection as for many years Clubs refused to pay royalties to the labels (who thus couldn't pay the artists either) for those subscription bundles while the consumer was paying them with a price spread over following purchases. So rather than labels giving albums away for free, it was more about Clubs stealing the labels 😉

Hey mjd! Some people are really mad at you for excluding "waiting to exhale" but they would be disappointed to learn that toni braxton's single "you're making me high" was a bigger hit than "exhale (shoop shoop)" in America and international markets in terms of sales and airplay. Also TLC, Toni Braxton and Mary J Blige were multi platinum acts. I understand the Bodyguard made her a huge celebrity but Mariah,Celine,Alanis Morissette had bigger hits than shoop shoop. How do you deal with overzealous fans???
Whitney :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhale_(Shoop_Shoop)
Toni: http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/top-100-1996.shtml

http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/top-100-songs-of-the-year/?year=1996
http://www.aria.com.au/pages/aria-charts-end-of-year-charts-top-50-singles-1996.htm
You will also notice lauryn hill and the fugees sold more with "killing me softly"
I will keep it quiet about "unbreak my heart".

Also to add to the "Waiting to Exhale" debate you are right about Baby face having many hits. Boyz II Men's song "I'll make love to you" spent 14 weeks at no.1 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27ll_Make_Love_to_You and their second album was certified 12x platinum us sales alone https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/II_(Boyz_II_Men_album) Crazysexycool also sold more going than the soundtrack. None of the people i just mentioned were America's Sweetheart or big celebrities like Whitney. Even if you are a big celebrity, the A&R department at your record label still needs to find the right songs/hit singles. You must have a lot patience because record labels are guilty of inflating sales and when die hard fans see the accurate figures being lower, all hell breaks loose.

Question. Why did you dramatically change Whitney's 2nd album sales in Europe. Your previous predictions were...

Europe : 7.480.000
- UK : 2.450.000
- France : 500.000
- Allemagne : 1.400.000
- Italie : 600.000
- Espagne : 250.000
- Suède : 300.000
- Pays-Bas : 400.000
- Suisse : 140.000
- Autriche : 130.000
- Finlande : 60.000

Now you don't even have her at 6 million in Europe for "Whitney." How is that possible?

Hi Ingrid!

It is mostly due to the low market / low competition the album had in various countries. The figure from Germany was way too high for that reason. Formulas give a boost to long-lasting #1 albums, but that one remained at the top for long mostly because sales were very low during its summertime. This has thus been fixed with the help of various data officially stated by her label at the time.

MJD when do you think "Whitney" will be certified(and actually sell) diamond or 10 million copies? And have you ever thought about doing a article on Prince?

Why “I Will Always Love You” is at 16M+ in pure sales? I ever think it have 20M+ sales

The 20 million figures is obviously inflated

MJD is there any way you could post the sales of The Ultimate Collection as, like a bonus? Its a pretty good catalog seller, especially in Europe where its has charted on the norm in the last decade.

Why is it in US, whitney houston the greatest hits sold only 3M copies but in RIAA certification states 5X platinum or 5M copies Me as the Bodyguard Original Soundtrack Album only more than 17M not 18M, RIAA certifications are accurate or the least value of million copies sold in an album was in or stated at Certification, not less than the value of the certification. I am so DISAPPOINTED!!!, I hope you can explain and update this article, IN ORDER TO BE EXACT AND NOT BIASED, AT THE SAME TIME

The Greatest Hits was certified 5x Platinum due the equivalent sales by streams. The pure sales posted by MJD is correct.

MJD, why ist that your CSPC Results does not match with the TOTAL ALBUM SALES IN DIGITAL SINGLES PAGES,PLEASE CLARIFY IT !!! I AM EXPECTING ACCURATE RESULTS IN WHITNEY HOUSTON DISCOGRAPHY!!! NOT SOME IN YOUR SITE
- PLEASE REPLY ME MJD !!! AT MY GMAIL ACCOUNT SO THAT WE CAN TALK SOMETHING THAT IS REALLY NECESSARY!!!

You should understand the CSPC method first

please do not type in caps lock, without reading what cspc is about because it makes you look like a crazy lunatic