Understanding: Music Clubs #2 – The Eagles, Mariah Carey

Daydream

Album – Certification – Date – Soundscan – Unsold units – Gap
Daydream – 6xP – 01/02/1996 –  3,900,000 – 1,800,000 – 300,000
Daydream – 9xP – 03/04/1997 –  6,900,000 – 100,000 – 2,000,000
Daydream – 10xP – 12/18/1998 –  7,450,000 – Irrelevant – 2,550,000

Just like Music Box, Daydream moved outstanding numbers at Clubs end. A huge #1 smash during 1995 Christmas season, it shipped 6 million units in spite of 3.9 million Soundscan sales for the year, with strong expectations for it to quickly reach that target. This album is the perfect illustration that Club sales happened when an album was also hot on retailers, mostly from the third month to the third year.

During its first 18 months, Daydream sold undoubtedly faster than Music Box. Nevertheless, it faced worst the test of time and only added about 200,000 units all included since the last award.

Please notice the album gained 1.1 million sales from March 1997 to December 1998 with a 50:50 split between Soundscan and Clubs. Although this one was fresher, this proves Music Box did sell some copies on Clubs between its November 1997 certification and the collapse due to #1’s release one year later, some 150,000 units if the ratio to Daydream is the same.