CSPC: Justin Timberlake Popularity Analysis
It was supposed to be his time. Over a period of two months Justin Timberlake starred in Woody Allen‘s latest film, released his fifth solo album Man of the Woods plus two singles, and performed at the Superbowl. Too good to be true.
Theaters-wise, Wonder Wheel has been a disaster, the worst results of the director since his title September released 30 years ago. It becomes only more worrying when we know that Allen issues one movie per year on average.
Feedback from his Superbowl performance were chaotic too. His tribute to Prince was seen as fairly insulting considering the opinions of the late singer who clearly stated he hated those post-mortem duets. The audience was also disappointing, the lowest in 9 years.
He is left with his new album. The lead single Filthy debuted at #9 thanks to downloads by his fanbase but it dropped out of the Top 50 after sitting there for only 3 weeks. Abroad it missed the Top 10 almost everywhere including in the UK, Germany and France. Say Something, a duet with Chris Stapleton, was rushed to take over the promotion of the album. While the song debuted at #9 inside the Hot 100, we still have to wait and see how it holds during the upcoming months.
If the start of year is less promising than first hoped, the career of Timberlake has been impressive. With only five albums, spread over 4 eras, he piled up plenty of hits including Cry Me A River, Rock Your Body, SexyBack, My Love, What Comes Around… Goes Around, Summer Love, Suit & Tie, Mirrors and Can’t Stop the Feeling!. He also contributed to hits like Where Is The Love?, Signs, Give It to Me, Ayo Technology, 4 Minutes, Dead and Gone, Holy Grail and Love Never Felt So Good. Is that enough to top the total of his former boys band, NSYNC? The group is on 44 million equivalent album sales in total. Another target for Timberlake is to beat his main challengers for the Prince of Pop crown. So far, studies resulted in Ed Sheeran‘s last update totalling 45,5 million, Justin Bieber‘s tally of 47 million and Bruno Mars‘ figure of 47,7 million. Among male acts from the last 25 years, Drake is close to 57 million, Usher is on 59,5 million, Michael Bublé on 62,1 million and, of course, Eminem is way ahead at more than 155 million.
As usual, I’ll be using the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept in order to relevantly gauge his results. This concept will not only bring you sales information for all Timberlake‘s albums, physical and download singles, as well as audio and video streaming, but it will also determine their true popularity. If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC method, the next page explains it with a short video. I fully recommend watching the video before getting into the sales figures. Of course, if you are a regular visitor feel free to skip the video and get into the figures.
Hi, can you update his sales? It’s been a long time since the last update and it would be nice to see if anything has changed.
what is justin timberlakes total for the 2000’s
Why is sexyback so low?
It sold over 8m in the US. 5m digital sales (despite being 3x plat) and is certified for over 3m ringtones.
Hi Fanofpop! By the date of the article, the US accounted for 8.5m of its global total. It was a much more modest seller elsewhere due to very back market condition with 730,000 units in the main 4 European markets. It is estimated on 600,000 copies in SK. Worth noting, if updated this figure would likely go up as since then we reviewed our formula multiple times. Back then, countries for which data is extrapolated were using raw market figures without considering the DLs/RTs split depending on the year. In concrete words, it downgraded great RT sellers from these years,… Read more »
4 minutes in madonna’s popularity analysis has 5,050,000
4 minutes in justin’s popularity analysis has 5,150,000
both digital sales
which one is the right one?
or has 4 minutes sold 100k during august 2017(madonna analysis) and february 2018 (justin analysis)?
Hi Marc!
As you may have seen through the various articles / updates formulas are constantly improved with newly identified data so in case of updated figures you should always rely on the most recent one!
OUTSOLD britney spears since he was released as solo artist. The sales of justified are more than britney’s self titled album…. I don’t understand how people here can say that JT neve had a huge success besides he dominated 2006-2007.
Any album from Bruno and Bieber had the same sales as Futuresex/Lovesounds sold
Gabriel,
You are wrong. Justified didnt sell more than “Britney”. Britney self title album sold 10.1 million copies while Justified 8.5 million. Justin is nowhere near as big as Britney was.
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Britney was released in 2001,Justin was still in *NSYNC.He out sold Britney since he went solo
Not quite 😉
Britney (2001) – 10,110,000 pure – 13,047,000 CSPC
Justified (2002) – 8,550,000 pure – 11,247,000 CSPC
In fact, even “In the Zone” surpasses “Justified” in terms of CSPC despite having three singles!
Gets to show she was bigger
So he out sold Britney since he went solo
Justin is at 54m CSPC while Britney is at 110m+. In what world did Justin outsell Britney?
honey britney has him beat with nearly doyble the album sales in total. dont get brave, loser
[…] Timberlake, a pop mega star with over 46 million records sold over his 2-decade long career, that’s surely going to keep everyone happy. Right? Well, no. Lets […]
As a singer who started from a popular boy band, Justin Timberlake is doing pretty well. He has surpassed total EAS of N’Sync and has stayed relevant as a solo artist for 16 years and counting. Well, I really couldnt think of any music artist who started with a popular group and became a successful solo artist and stayed relevant with that span of time and counting. He has longevity but… My big issue with JT is that he doesnt seem to really focus on his music career. I mean I know creating music is not about sales but sales… Read more »
Hi RLAAMJR!
Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Sting, Lionel Richie, etc. I’m sure they all disagree with you 😉
He could never have been as big as his competitors like Bruno, Ed Sheeran, Amy Winehouse or J.Bieber imo. Because he was to busy with his film career. His filmography is bigger then his discography. Says it all, really.
I did not understand what the reason you’re saying in the comments that JT never had was as big as his competitors like Bruno, Ed Sheeran and Bieber.
I think the FutureSex / LoveSounds era was huge and I would like to better understand your statement. I’m new to the readings on this site.
Hi Alisson! FS/LS was similar to the big albums of Bruno, Ed and Bieber in the US but that’s it. He never had albums spending 10+ weeks at #1, never really got the top seller of his era. He did top the Soundscan list in 2013 but only due to the lack of competition. Divide dominated like crazy, so did Purpose, with weeks at 1, 2 or even 3 singles simultaneously Top 3/5, Diamond albums in countries like France or Australia, something that James Blunt did in mid-00s. JT never managed this kind of success, he was big but not… Read more »
Reading the information you gave me, three questions came to me about JT’s career. First. Was it detrimental to the period he spent focusing on movies and forgetting his singing career, thinking of the fact that he could have achieved his greatest success by releasing an album in 2008 or 2009? Second. Would not it be unfair to compare Ed Sheeran, Bruno or Bieber considering they started their career in the age of youtube and spotify rise, and the JT in that decade is already considered a veteran? And it really does not have much popularity on youtube, not even… Read more »
Even if he was not to focus on his movies career. I doubted he will make that huge of an impact in terms of “Global” success. He is an R&B singer, and R&B singers always finds it tougher to sell outside of the English speaking world. If you look at Beyonce’s sales, a huge percentage of sales came from the English speaking countries, but in certain countries such as France or Germany (Which both is the top 5 biggest music market in the world), her sales are pathetic. When you look at Usher’s Confession album which was a huge success… Read more »
Hi Alisson! About the 3 questions: 1) Yes, JT could have got a higher total to date if he had been more prolific. Waiting 7 years after your more successful album is surely not optimized. His film career no doubt impacted negatively his efficiency in getting records ready. 2) We can’t say that really. There was no Spotify / YouTube at his prime, but album sales were much higher by then, the overall market was bigger in 2002 than it is now. He had a better contextual market and also more years to accumulate sales than Ed / Bruno /… Read more »
I don’t know exactly why, but I never liked the artists who are at the same time both singers and actors. 🙂
No singer/actor for you?
How about:
1. Frank Sinatra
2. Elvis
3. Sting
4. Oh yeah……..none of them have been done yet ……(better include police when doing Sting…….even if you do seperate it)
Honorable mention……….Rod Stewart (Play it to the bone…….I know I’m reaching, but really dying to see Rod [Jeff Beck/Faces included}
You forgot David Bowie, too. He had a cameo appearance in the Twin Peaks. 🙂
And I’m pretty sure Mick Jagger was in Freejack.
Will Smith? He released four studio albums.