Stevie Nicks Album Sales
 

So after some debate on Stevie's album sales a few weeks back, I decided to "Ask Billboard" which they update every Friday and luckily my question was picked. Other than TISL and SA, all the others were released prior to SoundScan, that is why their numbers are so low. It is only how many they have sold since 1991. Remember, SoundScan counts them at Point of Sale where as RIAA certification counts shipments. But it is kinda uplifting to see that Crystal Visions sold 348,000!


http://www.billboard.com/column/char...2.story?page=2

NICKS OF TIME

Hi Gary,

The legendary Stevie Nicks is releasing a new album soon. Could you please provide up-to-date sales totals for her albums?

Thanks,

John Irving
Austin, Texas
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Hi John,

Nicks releases "In Your Dreams" May 3. The Nicks-written, Dave Stewart-produced first single "Secret Love" is bubbling under the Adult Contemporary chart.

In what should be a tour bursting with beloved hits, Nicks and Rod Stewart's "Heart & Soul" trek runs March 20 through April 23 (although the pair's April 15 show in Phoenix is the closest they'll come to Austin ...)

Here is a look at Nicks' album sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan:

46,000, "The Soundstage Sessions" (2009)
348,000, "Crystal Visions... The Very Best of Stevie Nicks" (2007)
663,000, "Trouble in Shangri-La" (2001)
172,000, "The Enchanted Works of Stevie Nicks" (1998)
231,000, "Street Angel" (1994)
1,543,000, "Timespace: Best of Stevie Nicks" (1991)

Sales for albums released prior to the advent of SoundScan in 1991:
79,000, "The Other Side of the Mirror" (1989)
99,000, "Rock a Little" (1986)
200,000, "The Wild Heart" (1983)
855,000, "Bella Donna" (1981)

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), here are the certifications for Nicks' four pre-SoundScan era studio albums:

Platinum, "The Other Side of the Mirror"
Platinum, "Rock a Little"
2x Multi-Platinum, "The Wild Heart"
4x Multi-Platinum, "Bella Donna"

Nicks has collaborated on several songs with songwriter Rick Nowels, whose deep resume includes hits for Madonna, Belinda Carlisle and Colbie Caillat.

Nowels wrote three of my favorite Nicks songs: "I Can't Wait" (1986), "Two Kinds of Love," featuring Bruce Hornsby and Kenny G (1989), and "Maybe Love Will Change Your Mind" (1994).

In an e-mail last year, Nowels called "Two Kinds of Love" (which inexplicably failed to reach the Adult Contemporary chart upon its release as the second single from "The Other Side of the Mirror") "one of my faves too!"

"Madonna, Belinda, Stevie ... all goddesses of pop."

So, according to this, TISL kicked ass. Nice!! :D

So, wait, am I reading this correctly?

For example... according to this, Bella Donna has sold 850,000 copies SINCE 1991?

I know, thats what i noticed too.:thumbsup:

Yes ma'am. There are no SoundScan figures prior to 1991, but from 1991-2011 Bella Donna sold 855,000 copies, Wild Heart sold 200,000, and so on. But the only data we have for what they "sold" prior to 1991 is the RIAA certification, which also includes shipments. That also explains for why Street Angel has only sold 231,000 but was certified Gold by the RIAA in 1997.

Wow, I had no idea Street Angel's sales were so dismal. I always thought it went Gold? :confused:

It did, but...

"We are often asked why we don’t just use sales figures from SoundScan. SoundScan measures over-the-counter sales at music retail locations, while the RIAA®'s certification levels are based on unit shipments (minus returns) from manufacturers to a wide range of accounts, including non-retail record clubs, mail order houses, specialty stores, units shipped for Internet fulfillment or direct marketing sales, such as TV-advertised albums. "

Therefore an additional 269,000 copies of Street Angel were shipped out and never went thru a point of sale system. Some of which are probably still sitting on shelves.

I thought I heard that too. Weird. Doesn't make sense that the 3 cd boxed set sold nearly as many copies as a regular album, even if it was a poorly selling one.

Whats interesting in reading this is that from what I see is that Street Angel has sold more than the Enchanted Box Set???? Am I seeing that correctly. Wow !! To me the box set was better than SA. Doesn't look like Soundstage did very well though either. Looks like Mirror is the 2nd lowest with Soundstage the lowest right now. Very interesting. I wonder how the new 'IYD' will do when it comes out. We'll have to check that out after say 6 months than a yrs time to see. Wonder how FMacs have faired too? Esp those remastered one's?? Thanks for the info!!!:shrug:

What's really kind of odd about the number for Rock a Little is Billboard in one of their "Ask Billboard" responses back on May 30, 2008 pegged the sales at that time being 99,000 since 1991.

Is billboard even looking up the numbers or is RAL out of circulation and just not counted anymore? In 3 years no change? Can't be.

But... her catalogue is a slow seller ie TISL.

August, 2006 the sales were 655,000
May, 2008 the sales were 660,000
March, 2011 the sales are 663,000

In August, 2006 Street Angel was at 229,000 according to Billboard. Timespace was at 1.5 million and Enchanted 168,000.

If I remember correctly, Rock A Little and Street Angel officially went "out of print" somewhere around 2007?

Correction: Wild Heart, Rock A Little, The Other Side Of The Mirror, and Street Angel were apparently all dropped from active status (making them Out Of Print) sometime before 2009.

itunes? Aren't they on itunes? Those numbers count... or they should.

They are on iTunes and physical copies are available on Amazon. :shrug: I'm sure they count them, but I don't know if they have a separate category for digital sales and therefore they aren't lumped in with these. And with Amazon, it is kinda like the whole "what happens if they sell a used copy?" question that arose a few months back.

That's gotta be humiliating for Stevie... she's only sold half the fairly meager amount of copies of Street Angel that were shipped to retailers after TEN YEARS. No wonder she hates that album so badly! It's a monument to failure in her eyes. I still just wish she'd acknowledge there IS some good stuff on Street Angel, though.

I'm really shocked at TISL's numbers. It only sold 3,000 copies in 3 years!? I thought it would be in the 800,000's by now...