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1. Is there a place to find worldwide sales?
No, not at the moment. Record label press releases/annual reports, national recording associations and credible music magazines (e.g. Billboard) are the only places to find accurate worldwide sales, but even
those can be trumped up, so the best way to figure out world sales is to look at sales in the top markets in the world and the size of the markets to the whole world's market. Websites like Mediatraffic and World Top 50
are not official, at all.
2. When worldwide sales are reported are they actual sales or shipments?
Worldwide sales figures are compiled from certifications (which are shipments not actual sales) from around the world. All the figures on this site besides the Soundscan figures on the US album page are estimated shipments.
Labels do know much an album has actually sold, because there are sales tracking systems (like Soundscan) in every big market and there are record labels for every big market to keep track of that information.
Record labels use opt to use shipment figures, because they don't change constantly (like actual sales figures) and label's/artist's actually make money for the amount of albums shipped an accepted by retailers anyways.
Really, actual sales are only used as an inclination of how many albums need to be shipped. Even Soundscan figures now aren't completely comprehensive, some stores aren't counted and in the 1990's/early 2000's record club sales were high and not counted by Soundscan.
3. Why is there such a discrepancy between Mariah's Soundscan + BMG numbers and her shipment numbers? For example, Music Box and Daydream, they are millions below their shipment number, are they over-shipped?
BMG wasn't the only or biggest record club in the 1990's. Columbia House was the biggest record club in the 1990's. Mariah could have sold millions in the Columbia House record club, but we would never know because figures aren't available for them. There is also no such thing as 'over-shipped' because retailers pay labels for the accepted shipment. If labels could just ship as many records as they wanted and get paid for them, labels wouldn't be merging, because of
financial problems. Having said all that, Mariah's albums are not the only albums with such huge discrepancies, there are many albums with even bigger discrepancies than Music Box and Daydream, but they still are not 'over-certified'. Here are a few examples:
- Jewel's Pieces Of You sold 9 million (600k more than Daydream)
in Soundscan and BMG sales and it's certified 12x Platinum (2 million more
than Daydream).
- Shania Twain's The Woman In Me sold 8.8 million copies
(400k more than Daydream) in Soundscan sales and BMG record club
sales and it's certified 12x Platinum (2 million more than Daydream)
- Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard sold 13.1 million copies in Soundscan
and BMG sales and it's certified 17x Platinum.
- Hootie & The Blowfish's Cracked Rear View sold 11.4 million
copies in Soundscan and BMG sales and it's certified 16x Platinum.
4. Mariah's official site says The Emancipation of Mimi has sold 10 million worldwide and Mariah has sold over 160 million units worldwide, why does your site have a lower figure for both?
Mariah's sales have been well documented and 160 million albums does not make sense. Mariah had sold 150-160 million albums and singles at the signing of her Virgin/EMI deal. Mariah's said herself in 2005, that she sold over 150 million records (albums and singles) in the 1990's and that Music Box sold over 30 million records (albums and singles worldwide). 160 million albums and singles is too low. Mariah's sold at least 20 million albums this decade (including catalogue sales of Merry Christmas and #1's), plus around 5-10 million singles so her albums and single sales are at least at 180 million. Perhaps, her label is adding her US single sales to her album sales, that gives you over 160 million units worldwide. Mariah's sales
aren't even the only ones like this, Michael Jackson, Abba, Madonna and Celine Dion have all had very weird total sales claims recently, too.
As for The Emancipation of Mimi it was at 7.7 million worldwide with 5 million in the US (according to the IFPI in Dec. 05) and 9 million worldwide with 6 million in the US (according to Billboard, her label and tour press releases in June 06). The album hasn't been re-certified in any of the big markets since June and also
if you add up sales for The Emancipation of Mimi in North America, Brazil, Europe, Asia and Australasia (over 90% of the world's market) you get around 8.5 million, so I have a feeling the 10 million figure is projected or something.
5. I've heard that Mariah has multiple million-selling albums in China, true or false?
Although, I don't have figures for Mariah in China, I can assure you that it's false. Billboard reported in 1999, that the Titanic Soundtrack was the first international album to sell 1 million, Billboard also noted that the only artist to sell even close to 500,000 in China was Michael Jackson. China's music market also isn't very big, it's now about the size of Canada's and sales would even be lower since it's not an English speaking market. The Emancipation of Mimi allegedly sold over 200,000 copies there and it was considered a big deal, so her having multiple or even one million seller is definitely false.
6. What is the difference between Mediabase and BDS/Billboard?
Billboard uses BDS for its Airplay stats, and the BDS panel of stations is a bit different from the Mediabase panel. BDS counts more Pop/dance stations than Mediabase and fewer Rhythmic/Urban stations. I don't know why Mediabase and BDS wouldn't count all the stations they can, but they don't. As for the % difference - it varies by song because it depends which formats a song is strongest at. A song like I Know What You Want - which is was played mostly at Rhythmic/Urban stations - lost up to 15 million impressions between Mediabase and BDS. Songs that get the majority of their airplay from Pop/Mainstream Top 40 radio are the opposite, their impressions from BDS are usually higher than their impressions from Mediabase.
7. What is the difference between Hits Daily Double numbers and Soundscan numbers?
Hits Daily Double tabulates their sales figures via store reports (as in, a store manager or someone literally phones/faxes in sales reports). Soundscan measures their sales via computerized scans. Each time you buy a CD and it's scanned for pricing, that is counted as a Soundscan sale. This method is thus more accurate because store reports are influenced by human error/bias.
8. What is the difference between the Digital Tracks and Digital Songs (Billboard) chart?
Digital Tracks are for all different versions of a song, (e.g. explicit version, album version, radio version, clean version, remixes etc.) they all chart separately on the Digital Tracks chart. The Digital Songs chart (which Billboard uses to compile the Billboard Hot 100)
combines all versions of a song.
9. Is Merry Christmas the best selling Christmas album of all time?
Merry Christmas is definitely the best selling Christmas album by a female artist (worldwide). Celine Dion's These Are Special Times is the only female album that could have sold more, but it only collectively sold 8-8.5 million in North America, Europe, Japan, South Korea and the Australian Continent, compared to the around 10 million Merry Christmas sold
in the same regions.
Thanks to all the people who have contributed questions and thanks to Jason and David for answering some of these questions.
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