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Please just please update her result. I'm expecting her to add 10-15 million of CSPC sales considering you guys still haven't studied Reputation results yet and probably some increase from her older album. Its in due time to review her results.
I Just Saw Reputation was certified 10x Platinum in China solding more than 1 Million. How reliable is this information?
And HDD has a source for ALL her albums adjusted. 1989 for example sold almost 22M? Ia this trustable?
Hi KantClark!
These Chinese stats are pointless, as stated in the past they aren't sales but instead downloads on subscription services.
HDD stats are trustable, but we need to understand their methodology. Here, it's clear that they are adding video streams with the same weighting as audio streams, this massively inflates 1989 results and makes no sense business-wise.
One more question: Do you have any article, website or source that explicitly states that these Chinese certifications are based on downloads on subscription services? I saw the official chinese page but it's difficult to filter the right info.
Hi TaylorSwiftLover!
HDD figures do not use the same methodology as we do. Notably, they weight video streams at the same level as audio streams, which strongly inflates some Swift's figures.
Hi KantClark!
The only official info we can truly rely on at the end of the day is the IFPI. These supposed super seller in China are never present and sales of international albums like Taylor Swift clearly show these 'sales' from China do not exist. Also, China's market numbers show virtually no gross whatsoever made from proper sales. Last time I checked their physical sales were lower than Finnish market and their digital numbers are made of almost exclusively streaming.
These platforms (like QQ) are streaming sites too. They can sell some albums for 20 yuans (about 2€) but it's impossible to tell which share it represents on their figures, supposedly the largest part of downloads are simply done by premium users. Also, I saw various Chinese articles who stated figures from QQ in yuan rather than in units, which mean that 1 million 'sales' actually relates to 50,000 units. Basically, the only places where you will find that Taylor Swift or Katy Perry sold xx million albums in China are foreign sources that can be edited by fans like Wikipedia.
Hi, QQ allows users to purchase specific albums for 20 Yuan. Also, it states there that 已售 648078 张
which means Sold 648,078 copies of the album. 首 would mean tracks. Could you link me articles that state its in Yuan? Because if so, they would just put ¥648078
A message more ATRL user PeterStyles:
"Not surprised at all to see that the owner of Chartmasters knows so little about China's digital market. Let's correct a few things here.
I never EVER saw anyone claiming China's physical sales are super significant. That being said, they still exist and yet are, most of the time, completely innacurately reported by Chartmasters anyways. The vast majority of the people in China used to illegally download their music instead of actually buying it (which partly explains why physical sales are not significant). The current digital boom happening in their music industry is making them switch from illegal downloads to digital downloads and streaming. Yet some chart blogs like Chartmasters continue to ignore this switch that is becoming more and more inevitable. Here are just a few articles:
Western artists eye changing beat of China’s music market - Financial Times
China's Music Industry To Breakthrough Internationally - China's Business Knowledge
China’s music potential: ‘We are finally getting there!’ - Musically
The Changing Face Of China's Music Market - Music Biz
The switch is happening and is favoring artists like Taylor Swift, who is by far the most popular western artist in China. He can ignore it all he wants, it's 100% real and simply dismissing China's music market won't be an option anymore :michael:
Now he's just COMPLETELY wrong here. Labels have the ability to restrict their content for purchase only. That's what the VAST majority of western artists do, including Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, etc. It is impossible to stream albums by these artists without buying them. Even if you have their best premium options, you literally CAN'T listen to their albums without buying them. Get it through your head. He's just flat out wrong here and is probably using it as an excuse to justify the fact that he doesn't include China's digital sales AT ALL for his analysis; he'd rather pretend they don't exist.
So because he saw some Chinese articles mixing yuans with sales, he's completely dismissing digital downloads? Let me ****ing laugh:skull: QQ Music uses yuans to certify albums, but you can easily track how many albums have been sold from the certifications, which are constantly updated in real time.
I literally never saw someone claiming yuans = units. By that logic, reputation sold 13.2M albums in China STICTLY based on QQ Music, which we never claimed it did :skull:. Clearly, Chartmasters just does not take the time (most likely out of bias and lack of interest) to understand how things really work. Reputation was certified 2x Diamond a few months ago on QQ because it passed the threshold of 10M yuans spent on the album, which equals 500K copies bought and downloaded considering the album costs 20 yuans. Now, it's almost 3x Diamond (34% away). QQ Music is extremely transparent with their data. Not only do they give the revenue through their certifications, but they also give you the total amount of songs downloaded from the album (you simply divide the total by the amount of tracks to know how many albums were downloaded). Over 9.88M single sheets were downloaded as of right now from reputation, which means around 658K people decided willingly to PURCHASE the album from that one application.
Based solely on QQ Music and NetEase Music, reputation was digitally bought around 1.2M times. People claiming that Katy Perry or Rihanna sold "xx million albums in China" are wrong, because they haven't. They most probably are mixing single sheets (song downloads) with album sales. In Taylor's case, she literally SOLD 1.2M copies from 2 music services, including 658K from QQ Music and I dare anyone to try and prove me wrong.
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Hi Randomname!
Various articles from Chinadaily for example use figures in Yuan. And then again, the main concern is out of people who downloaded the album, how many actually paid for it!
Hi CookieKwanRealEstate!
It's always to see people who feed themselves with cheap online articles without ever reading official data who claim others don't know this or that. I said way back in 2014 that China was going to be a Top 5 global market by 2020 so I don't think I missed that point. On all industry-history articles, the case of China has been highlighted.
It doesn't mean we should repeat blindy every nonsense we read online. If you look at supposed 'sales' from QQ Music and multiply by the price, you get a figure completely inconsistent with the annual gross reported by Tencent, and we haven't even consider streams which are the main providers of revenue for their big 3 platforms. As for the "dare anyone to try and prove me wrong", easy, the IFPI did it with 0 room for doubt. Reputation shipped 4,5 million globally during 2017, more than 3 million of which in the US. The "1,2 million copies sold from 2 music services in China" is a nice fairytale, but as you can see as soon as you factor in raw, true data (IFPI reports, Tencent financial report, HDD numbers), you hit a wall. BTW, downloads aren't even mentioned on Tencent reports, instead they speak about "virtual gifting sales". When one knows QQ Music grosses nearly 10 times less money than Deezer, he starts seeing things very differently!
Your comprehensive audio streaming numbers for 1989 (and her entire discography) are incredibly low. Based on YouTube and Spotify, 1989 is the most streamed female album of all time. Am I seriously supposed to believe 1989 was only streamed 500M times on Apple Music, where the album was promoted more than any album since their launch? Your formula (Spotify streams x 1.6) does NOT work for Taylor considering the fact that her discography was taken out of Spotify during her peak in popularity. Is there a way you can fix this? You must admit the numbers don't add up.
