CSPC: Prince Popularity Analysis

Digital Singles Sales – Part 4

As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 1,5 ratio between one album and one digital single.

New Power Soul (1998) – 0 equivalent albums

All tracks – 0

The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale (1999) – 0 equivalent albums

All tracks – 0

Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic (1999) – 2,000 equivalent albums

All tracks – 10,000

The Rainbow Children (2001) – 0 equivalent albums

All tracks – 0

Musicology (2004) – 30,000 equivalent albums

All tracks – 200,000

3121 (2006) – 30,000 equivalent albums

All tracks – 200,000

Planet Earth (2007) – 15,000 equivalent albums

All tracks – 100,000

LotusFlow3r (2009) – 15,000 equivalent albums

All tracks – 100,000

Plectrumelectrum (2014) – 8,000 equivalent albums

All tracks – 50,000

Art Official Age (2014) – 8,000 equivalent albums

All tracks – 50,000

Hit n Run Phase One (2015) – 8,000 equivalent albums

All tracks – 50,000

Hit n Run Phase Two (2015) – 5,000 equivalent albums

All tracks – 30,000

Orphan – 222,000 equivalent albums

How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore – 100,000
Nothing Compares 2 U – 300,000
Erotic City – 560,000
Our Destiny – 60,000
Remaining tracks – 460,000

Apart from the few orphan songs that have been available ever since as any other catalog tune, new releases from the last 20 years had very different treatments. Many weren’t added to iTunes right away, others have been available on ringtones only. None did that well in any case. It concludes on a strange situation were Prince sold 25 million out of its near 30 million digital units with 1982-1992 in spite of various releases during the iTunes era.