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Hi MJD,
Her numbers are truly insane and Lover seems to go to very good numbers too !!
Reputation seems to have pale numbers after 1989 but +7M is still huge !!
But I think that Rihanna and Adele will reach the 100M before Taylor, because even if Lover has 10M, her total would be 90-92M, and I don't think it will reach it for now. On the other hand, Rihanna is at 92M and her return is highly anticipated and we can assume that see will destroy everything in streaming (if everything goes well of course)
Same for Adele, her last album is at +25M, i think she will make huge numbers too.
So the numbers of Adele and Rihanna will increase way faster than Taylor (unless a very huge flop for their lead), that's why I think they'll reach the 100M milestone before Taylor.
Thank you for this insightful post MJD! Your foresight into the streaming world is much appreciated.
Hi MJD
I respect your work. Keep doing.
I just don't agree with you at something. I think Taylor is biggest western artist "by far".
According to China goverment, Taylor will play at stadium in 11 november in Guangzhou to 60 thousands people. No western artist from this generation didn't even try to play to small stadiums like 40 thousand people. This is very telling. And she will probably play multiple stadiums there in her next "tour".
What you said is not completely right. Chinese physical album sales were still very healthy for idols. For example, 1989 shipped 5xP=100k before she toured there, and then, it jumped to 250k up to date, because her popularity was actually later boomed in China, mostly after Reputation era. Surex those were all physical sales, without any digital. No legitimate digital copies were sold in China before QQ Music era. And Reputation sold over 100k physical copies in China. These figures were counted by Starsing Music, the company who only release physical albums in China, and only they sold Taylor albums. They got the copyright. BTS new album sold around 600k physical copies in China, and another 400k digital copies. However, the 600k physical copies are all imports from Korea, only counted into Gaon. But they are all actually from China, these sales were counted by Chinese idol app, because fans only buy idols' albums on idol app so they can buy multiple imports to reach big sales.
Hi Matt!
Do you agree about features/duets counting 100% of sales/streams for artists? It doesn't make sense to me.
Well I agree because they split royaltys right? Let's say a track cost $1. The record company pays out 15 cents to the songwriters. If Rhinna and Eminem wrote that song, they wouldn't get 15 cents each. They'd get 7.5 cents each.
i think it would be a good idea if we kept track and publicly what the increase in sales are for each update......it's fascinating info that takes no extra effort
I'm not even talking about songwriting credit, Zayn didn't write the song IDWLF and the total of sales/streams counts for him, it should be 50% maximum because it's a duet in this case.
The chart points of songs are divided when it's a feature/duet in the Billboard Hot 100.
Hey MJD so does this mean 21 will Outsell the Bodyguard in the next decades or so?
Taylor 7 albums total - 79.36m
Rihanna 8 albums total -72.93m
So yes, Taylor is ahead in terms of albums.
But MJD, you have to consider that during those Big 5's time, there wasn't streaming but there were a lot of fm radio stations however numbers ofthe songs played especially on other parts of the world were not recorded. Also physical albums played all night, not counted/recorded. Unlike Spotify and others similar to it.
Also, you have to consider that it's easier to access almost everything through the internet. To check new music, to keep updated with their favorite music artists, etc
And lastly, there are more people now than before. More countries embracing western music.
I don't think MJD's point is about which artists have faced more favourable conditions in their careers, though. It's simply a fact that the biggest female singers of the 2000s have catalogues that are selling/streaming much faster than those of 80s/90s divas.
RLAAMJR,
You also have to consider that nobody is going to play & listen to one song/album1500 times on spotify. Probably not in their lifetime. You have to be unemployed or have no life or something to listen to one song over and over again every single day.
"And lastly, there are more people now than before. More countries embracing western music."
You also need to consider that back then the Asian market was huge and it is literally non existent right now. Spotify is growing in Asia and also other streaming services but it is far from reaching its peak. The truth is the big 90s act definitely benefitted from the all time peak market. Its no coincident that other than Adele, Sheeran no other artists managed to be A-League while back in the 90s there were plenty of them. Its obvious that most of the superstars especially during the downloads era was badly affected.
Thanks for the Taylor update... nice to see her at around 85 Million now and 55 Million this decade. I think her US domination is historic. At least for the 21st century.
Biggest US albums in pure sales by year of release to sales-to-date:
2006 Taylor Swift
2008 Fearless
2010 Speak Now takes a second place (1 Million opening week)
2012 Red (1,2 Million opening week)
2014 1989 (1,2 Million opening week)
2017 Reputation (overtook the biggest album 2017 after 1 week)
2019 Lover (took the over any album released in 2019 after 2 days of sales)
I think she is the second or third best selling artist of single downloads in the USA?
She holds the record for highest grossing tour in US history.
I’m really not sure how to feel about adding Chinese/Russian/Indian sales to the CSPC formula since in my opinion they always had piracy issues in the past which is why they were never taken seriously, also a lot of albums from 2013 and before didn’t ever have those markets in my opinion they inflate numbers to what they really are, sorry to sound old but I’d rather exclude China/Russia/India completely simply because I’d rather see how well artists have done in the usual developed music markets since the 80s (hope I don’t get hate for this) I’m a huge fan of Taylor but China shouldn’t have been included at all Idk why her fans want to inflate her numbers and make them inaccurate it just doesn’t make sense to me
You say Spotify is far from reaching its peak and Asia literally non existent but every song streamed is counted which current artusts have greatly benefit from it because they're still on their peak. But for past artists, they got zero count because despite of having huge hits, no Spotify so zero count when their songs werr doing well worldwide. Which explains why there are thousands of sogs rhat have more streams than the titanic song, perhaps even unheard/unreleased songs hve more streams than the titanic song.
The performance of older songs is counted - they powered sales of singles and albums. Modern hits earn lots of streams because they barely sell at all. Either way, popular songs end up with better EAS totals. Airplay isn't counted in the CSPC formula for any songs.
What does any of this have to do with the strength of Taylor Swift's catalogue, though?
Actually, she's number one best selling artist of single downloads in the USA with +100kk.
In SPS she's the third behind Drake and Rihanna.
China is the 7th biggest market ahead of Australia/Canada already, I think should be counted.
The club sales, cheap downloads in Korea and ringtones are counted as well so I don't see any problem counting China legal downloads.
Agree with You.
Universal Claimed that she sold Over fifty million albums. They Counted China Digital Sales.Club sales Cheap Too.
How ironic when you say Asia is literally non-exisrent when most people here are complaining about Swift's sales in China.
RLAAMJR,
There are some asian countries that are doing for examole China. But many other markets have crumbled significantly. Look at Japan for example. In 2004, it was 5 billion dollars market, by 2017 it is only 2.7 billion. Other countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand all has dramatically collapsed ever since the 90s. And furthermore you're claim that unheard songs are selling more than Titanic is just ridiculous. Im pretty sure in the late 90s hundreds of artists were outselling Barbra Streisand "Woman in Love" physicle single or even outselling "Guilty" album sales despite being so called unheard off. Like in the late 90s im pretty sure a nobody like Jessica Simpson would have outsold Streisand at that point. So ur arguement just doesnt make sense. Furthermore bare in mind that the new generation will hv their streams slow down in their future too. They will be in the same shoe as their older counterparts. Its not like they will continue growing forever.
