and I meant "Taylor Swift and the weeknd before internet would have sold about the same number of records"

you were talking about getting certifications for singles. I knew people who couldn't afford to buy records, they didn't buy records at all or maybe one a year but they listened to the radio and that wasn't counted now they have their playlist and it is counted

Yes, but that's not completely the same thing. The listener has absolutely no input or choice in what is played on traditional radio, they can only really pick a station. Also, although not counted towards certification or sales totals, charts like the US Hot 100, do measure and use radio airplay in their compilation .

Although some playlists do operate akin to a radio station, there is the ability to choose a playlist by a specific artist, create your own, listen to one generated specifically from favourite artists, the ability to skip tracks and just listen to the tracks you want etc. So there is the ability to consciously affect what you're listening to, unlike traditional radio.

Hi Martin, In my opinion it is wrong to add album sales to streams. Vinyls are only bought by the superfans. Let's assume that the ratios to turn streams into sales are a good approximation, there is no way you can add physical sales to it, it is wrong if not deceitful. The rankings are distrorted, if we take them at face value Taylor Swift has sold twice as many records as the weeknd and their music is equally popular.

Hello!

For Genesis, If I add up the following values:
Original albums: 78,400,000*1
+ other albums: 28,082,000*1
+ physical singles: 13,910,000*(3/10)
+ digital singles: 10,010,000*(1.5/10)
+ streams in EAS: 2,270,000*1 on (10/09/24)
then I'll get 114,426,000 overall EAS on (10/09/24).

Why is here listed a value of 114,835,000 overall EAS instead?

Similar with Phil Collins, if I add up following values:
Original albums: 93,780,000*1
+ other albums: 39,905,000*1
+ physical singles: 29,910,000*(3/10)
+ digital singles: 22,780,000*(1.5/10)
+ streams in EAS: 7,871,000*1 on (10/09/24)
then I'll get 153,946,000 overall EAS on (10/09/24).

Why is here listed a value of 153,945,000 overall EAS instead?

Thanks for responding and best greetings.