Actual current album sales
 

I see that it looks as if eponymous Fleetwood Mac (1975) and Rumours have been re-certified putting Fleetwood Mac at 7x platinum and Rumours at 21x platinum for sales in the US. But I have a difficult time believing Tusk is still at 2x platinum, Mirage still at 2x platinum or Tango still at 3x platinum. The Dance would have to be much higher than 5x platinum by now. Probably 1x diamond. Greatest Hits would be higher than 8x platinum, it’d be at least 1x diamond. Say You Will has to be platinum by now. I suppose we can only guess. I can’t see Reprise paying for the rest to be re-certified by the RIAA.

I am a little surprised that, with Everywhere being used in popular commercials recently, that Tango and Greatest Hits didn’t sell more; maybe they did, but just not enough to show.

I read recently that Tusk, being a double album, means that when one person buys a copy, it’s reflected as two copies being sold; so if Tusk is currently at two million sold, that means only one million people bought it. And two million is after nearly 25 years! That really puts in perspective how much of a disappointment the album was in sales after Rumours, at least on paper. I understand nothing FM had released would have sold the same as Rumours, and the price was really expensive, but still.

SYW platinum? Shirley, you jest. That thing's a turd clogging a toilet. I'd rather hear Dolly Parton fartin' Jolene on the terlet than hear SYW. I watch Destiny Rules every few years, when I'm having a bad day, just to remind myself that it all isn't so bad, in comparison.

I posted something similar awhile back but for the older Mac albums. Some albums were certified platinum while others stuck at gold and not updated for decades. I read that the band or the record company has to request and pay for the update. It appeared back then and now the band really does no care for the older certifications. I dont know why but Mirage and Tusk are sort of forgotten albums by the Mac. Both were not great with critics. Say You Will and BTM were never loved in the states during release so I would not think they grew much in sales because few know they even exist.
Didn't Stevie's OSOTM album finally go platinum several years ago? Apparently she or her record company cares to keep updating. I bet Street Angel is like BTM and SYW and will never go platinum.
Tango charted at a modest #7 on Billboard. For the amount of charting radio friendly singles it surprised me how little it sold in the states. Yes I know it was successful. I am only saying that with 3 hit videos, 2 top ten and 2 top 20 songs it should have sold more back then. There were albums released around that time that only had one or two hits and sold more.

Should be interesting to know worldwide sales. For example Thriller worldwide sales is 70 million worldwide vs 34 million in the US, or Saturday Night Fever is 40 million vs 16 million (both wikipedia info).

Ok I know Fleetwood Mac is not as well known worldwide as Michael Jackson, specially nowadays, but the numbers sure are still considerable different. Wikipedia page says Rumours worldwide sales is 40 million (2013 Ken Caillat book) vs 21 million in US. Couldn't find Tusk and Mirage numbers, but Tango wikipedia page says worlwide sales were 15 million vs 3 million in US

Don't know the actual current worldwide numbers.

SYW is a turd. A big turd with zero concept.

It and BTM. A FEW decent songs, but not a good album overall.

Does anyone have the latest sales numbers for Time?

Looks like maybe 50,000.

Edit- haha, I HAD I link to a British site that stated Time sold 50k. I forgot to include the link, and can't find it now.

On another thread someone was commenting on BTM being a success. Put it this way. Both BTM and SYW sold about the same amount of copies 500k. Not too shabby but both were considered disappointments. But BTM has to be put in perspective. In 1990 there was not digital sales like when SYW came out. It was all hard copy sales and bands that had platinum sales were sometimes disappointed. For a supergroup Fleetwood Mac not to have a platinum album was shocking in 1990. Stevie also struggled with her OSOTM album the year prior. BTM was the justification to disband because all their hard work had their worst sales since Heroes are Hard To Find. It stung everyone in the band and even the record company. The headlines screamed, yes Fleetwood Mac really does need Lindsey Buckingham. The music industry was changing and it was one year before grunge. However even stupid bands could score a platinum release in 1990. People still bought music then. Janet Jackson's albums were going diamond. Platinum was a base line.

I found this page. Time is not included.

BTM total numbers are far higher than SYW. But sales may be understated, and to compare numbers details and dates you have to click on each album. I guess they are no current sales.

https://bestsellingalbums.org/artist/4282

Wow, someone updated over the years and it says BTM went platinum. But this chart has been unreliable and posted here before.
When SYW was released in 2003, the music industry had slumped. No one was buying music as much. Remember when they had to crack down on illegal downloads and all this copyright stuff came to light. The point I was making that even though BTM and SYW sold about the same in the year of their debut, music still sold like crazy in 1990 so it was far more disappointing than SYW sales.
Mystery To Me needs an update on this chart and stuck at 500k. But Extended Play has a whopping 2,000 sales. :eek:

Time sold negative 12 copies

Extended Play actually performed better than that. According to Billboard in 2013, the EP's first week sales stood at 9,000 units. The same article said that Say You Will sold 864,000 copies.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130614...rling-hits-new

This is such a circular topic without an answer. The RIAA certification is a paid subscription service that has increasingly declined in its scope of use. The only people who know the true sales numbers are the record companies and to a lesser extent artist representative agencies. Some of these totals through RIAA have not been updated in 20 plus years. A generation has been born and can drink now. Streaming and downloads have totally changed the public uptake and monetary equation. In the new world, Tango is a streaming hit and Mirage is a dud. Easiest way to understand the continued interest in Fleetwood Mac is the value of the rights sales made by Stevie, Lindsey, and Christine. Business don't pay ~$100 million each on average for music that hasn't been bought in 30 years and has limited return on invest in the subsequent 7 year period.

It’s only cuz it went gold rather quickly

Gold turd. :laugh:

I like about 1/2 of SYW. It definitely has some substance, though it lacks an acceptable narrative arc. The songs are just strung together without much thought to sequence. (By comparison, TUSK’s seeming randomness feels intentional—and effective.)

At the time, some critics panned Christine’s ITM by comparing it less favorably to SYW. 20 years later, Christine’s tuneful solo record holds up WAY better. There is a sense of progression in the sequence and a story threading through those songs. Plus, it sounds more like FM than FM did without her. In short, Christine was the central ingredient in FM.

CHRISTINE WAS THE BALANCE THAT MADE IT ALL WORK. I hope they never try to resurrect anything from the shards of what's left.

The recent box set of the pre-Nicks albums should have spiked some of those numbers especially Mystery To Me. It would be great for its 50th anniversary to finally get an updated number. It would warm my heart to see it go platinum.
The Dance and the reinvigorated draw of the band spiked all album sales. Its what also dragged Stevie's OSOTM over the platinum line a few years later when her solo career started to pack the house again. Her Street Angel tour had her playing the Ohio Fair. Her second leg was never announced but was cancelled. The year of Enchanted one year post Dance had her packing arenas again. The sales numbers are so out of wack. In 2004 Chris's In The Meantime sold 50k copies. Not successful at all. However today that would be not too shabby. Did not Buck/Vie sell about 50k copies during its early release and debuted in the top 20. It just shows how things have changed so much.
What I have never seen official numbers on is Chris's 1984 solo album. I think it only reached about #26 on the charts and I don't think it went even gold in its debut year. I would think it went gold by now? However its something that we will never know. I have tried for years to find sales numbers on that album. It had some radio success like Law and Order but did not sell well. What are the numbers on Law and Order? There is only one interview (that was posted year about a year ago) was when Tango was just released and Chris was interviewed. She was asked about her solo album and she said that she needed to be honest that she was disappointed with the lack of success the album had. I think Lindsey expressed similar aspects about Law and Order. While they had a hit single and got recognized as a solo artist, the album did not sell or chart well which sort of irked both of them.

I read an article years ago about how state fairs were able to get more and more big name acts- it said that a state fair can pay more than a typical venue because the payout is not contingent on how many tickets are sold. In other words, a performer could make a million dollars for one show no matter how many (or how few) tickets are sold. I saw Stevie at the Ohio State fair… and before Covid I saw Dolly Parton there. Neither one of them were touring the state fair circuit LOL- for both of them, the Ohio State fair was just one stop on a lengthy tour.

I agree. Though actually I like 44% of the album. :laugh:

I remember I read an article previous of the release date, commenting the expections of the new album. It said something like Fleetwood Mac has us used to good albums.... Unfortunately this was not the case. Obviously it couldn't be. Christine was not there.

Calm down
I was just stating things you already know. Street Angel was not successful and the tour was not hugely successful either. But she always draws a crowd. Her Timespace tour in the middle of a recession was not packing them in either. I was just saying that she once joked that she does not play state fairs. But she did. I am sure there was a good crowd there. But you are smart enough to know that fairs or amusement parks are a way of getting a bigger crowd rather than playing a separate venue. Chris did it on her solo tour too playing the Great Adventure Amusement Park in 1984.
I am sure you don't disagree with my point that the Dance restarted her solo career.
But maybe you do.
I am not bashing Stevie just stating the reality.

Going back to my earlier post about album sales. In those days that is how the artists made money. Chris had good taste and I am sure she spent good money to rent that famous studio in Switzerland and hire big guns like Eric Clapton. When its all said and done creatively it paid off but financially she may have broke even. Lindsey may not have spent as much but Law and Order barely cracked the top 40. Today no one cares about album sales if they can make big bucks off touring. But Chris and Lindsey could not do either... make big bucks of their early solo albums nor tour. It was all Stevie darling.

Oh yeah, Stevie’s career was at her lowest point in 1994, I definitely agree. Street Angel was a disappointment and she wasn’t selling out shows. I guess I disagree that playing a state fair in and of itself was evidence her career was on the skids. I mean, Bob Dylan, Def Leppard, John Mellencamp, and many other big names have played at state fairs before, and they mostly toured venues as well. If it hadn’t been for the Dance, I really don’t think Stevie would have resurrected her career.

What is good is very good, I think. It’s just not terribly band centered. Nick and John act like (very effective) studio musicians. And there isn’t much musical chemistry between the two leads.

Still: Everybody Finds Out, Say Goodbye, Red Rover, the title track, and Steal (with the five of them) are worthwhile. There are a few other good ones, too. But overall, the album is a slog. Compare its bloated form to the sleek BuckVie—and to the well-balanced ITM.

The more I listen to, In The Meantime, I realize more and more just what the band had lost. It's heart and soul. And listening to SYW sounds like some random good music without a core, warmth, a concept, and a lot of ego and self indulgence.

Spot on, Tony. :xoxo:

PS, thank God for the spirit catcher!!! It could have been a disaster, otherwise.

According to Lindsey in a 2018 interview with Stereogum, Law and Order and Go Insane each sold around 300,000 copies.

https://www.stereogum.com/2025688/li...ac/interviews/