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Taylor Swift’s Album Sales in the U.S.:
7.3 million, Fearless /
6.3 million, 1989 /
5.8 million, Taylor Swift /
4.8 million, Speak Now /
4.5 million, Red /
2.4 million, Reputation /
1.7 million, Folklore / (inflated to 2M here)
1.5 million, Lover /
1.1 million, The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection (EP) /
913,000, Evermore / (inflated to 1M here)
774,000, Red (Taylor’s Version) /
596,000, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) /
376,000, Speak Now: World Tour Live CD + DVD /
369,000, Beautiful Eyes (EP)
Other notable discrepancies:
1.7 million, Folklore / (inflated to 2M here)
913,000, Evermore / (inflated to 1M here)
https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/taylor-swift-streaming-airplay-sales-before-midnights-chart-debut-ask-billboard-1235159369/
Official numbers of UK pure sales of "Midnight'" for first two weeks was 146,000+14,000=160,000 (inflated to 180,000 here)
After the success of Evermore, I thought surely her fame will slowdown. How wrong was I. It is amazing how long she managed to remain relevant, consistently being at the top. The way she transition her music is also so smooth and smartly done. From Country - Country Pop - Teen Pop - Electronic Pop. No wonder she has such longevity.
Hi Chartfan!
These aren't discrepancies - just different sets of data. All our numbers are expressed in net shipments. In a case like this one, we estimated the minimum amount of copies net shipped by the end of its first week, which we expect to be at about 1.25 times the number of copies sold to consumers in developped markets, and closer to 1 in others (as there are no retailers selling physical versions of this album so far).
About Folklore / Evermore, they were certified at 2xP and 1xP last week by the RIAA. As these albums are well over 3m and 2m SPS, it implies they were certified on the back of their pure sales alone (it's still a label's choice).
While that feels weird considering the Luminate figures, we should keep in mind that Billboard introduced rules to exclude bundles one month into Folklore's run. These RIAA awards confirm 2020's IFPI numbers, that had Folklore and Evermore 250,000 and 105,000 units higher than our former estimates, respectively. It's worth considering that while the Billboard can introduce rules to make sure their weekly chart reflect organic and direct consumption, like counting 1 unit when someone buys 2 or 3 copies of an album (it was possible to purchase up to 4 units of Folklore / Evermore on her website), the 2-3 purchases are still regarded as perfectly valid by both the RIAA and the IFPI.
What happened here is that a good chunk of Folklore / Evermore units sold as part of bundles or with multiple units got excluded by Billboard, and then are removed from Luminate's total, leading that total to be incomplete, while the RIAA/IFPI portray the full picture.
Have you applied this method to all artists? When was this change implemented? I think for some artists the Billboard figures are still reflected. For instance, Adele's 30 was certified 3x platinum by RIAA way back in January 2022. It has reportedly sold ~1.7M physical copies to date, with ~2.5M total units.
Given this new information, your previous remark about 30's sales figures, namely, "The figure is still disappointed (sic), as shown by the 1-million gap to IFPI’s annual figure, which highlights that the album sales are below expectations, with many initial shipments yet to be sold, or returned, 7 months after the initial release" seems to be misguided as this could be significantly explained by the multiple units that you have just now decided to include.
Taylor Swift's numbers are impressive, she could become the greatest singer of all time and even surpass Madonna.
Then if I can give some advice, it would take an update for artists like U2 and Rolling Stones as their articles were published among the first in 2016
Reputation and Lover are not on the same level as Debut and Speak Now. They are clearly selling far more units.
Lover and Reputation espically impress me a lot. They keep on climbing high, even though she released a lot of near them, and they does not have huge hits
"Her trend has been downwards for her last four albums now" Are you including Taylor's Versions? Because number wise reputation, lover and folklore are all similar sized which is why your comment aged horribly. You have to remember that they weren't released simultaneously so obviously they won't have the same numbers right away. Obviously you also ignored her massive streaming, and follower gains in the months preceding the release of Midnights. Next time check out those before you comment something like this. It's honestly a great indicator of what's to come for an artist. Hint, her next studio album will probably debut with even bigger streaming numbers.
I'll give you Evermore though. That was definitely a decline but Taylor is clearly about the long-term so don't count it out yet 🙂
Evermore is my favorite album from her, but I congratulate Midnights for surpassing evermore's sales!
I take it you are obviously only talking about female artists, as many other acts also have 7 or more studio albums, that have over10M EAS, including Mariah Carey.
Acts with 7+ 10M EAS Albums
The Beatles 12 > 14.5 M
Queen 11 > 11.6 M
Madonna 9 > 11.8 M
The Rolling Stones 9 > 11.2 M
Metallica 8 > 10.1 M
Led Zeppelin 7 > 13.2 M
AC/DC 7 > 12.1 M
Eminem 7 > 12.1 M
U2 7 > 11.8 M
Billy Joel 7 > 11.2 M
Mariah Carey 7 > 10.9 M
Pink Floyd 7 > 10.5 M
Elton John 7 > 10.2 M
Taylor Swift 7 > 10 M
Acts with 5+ 10M Selling Albums
Led Zeppelin 7 > 11.5 M
The Beatles 7 > 10.6 M (Soon to be, if not already, 8)
Pink Floyd 6 > 10.2 M
U2 6 > 10.2 M
Michael Jackson 5 > 18.6 M
Metallica 5 > 11.5 M
Madonna 5 > 10.7 M
Eminem 5 > 10.4 M
AC/DC 5 > 10 M
Whitney Houston 5 > 10 M
Yes . It's about notice on this page where Taylor have 6 albums 10M+ as Madonna , Mariah , Celine . Thank you for this complete list for now !
I am not seeing the per album breakdown CSPC chart. The bar graph is still showing, but not the chart with all of the data for each album.
Including compilations/live albums :
The Beatles 11
Led Zeppelin 7
Madonna 7
U2 7
AC/DC 6
Phil Collins 6 (+ 2 with Genesis)
Michael Jackson 6
Pink Floyd 6
Could you update Midnights Pure Sales、Other LPs&Digital Singles? It has not been updated since the first week。
Taylor is the most popular foreign singer in China. Her Chinese fans have contributed 8 million albums to her sales, as well as a lot of streaming media
