Latest Billboard album sales

[SpyNote]

Keith Caulfield is a Billboard magazine writer, who happens to be a Stevie Nicks fan

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Billboard's experts answer your questions. For December 31, 2003, 12:00 AM

Keith Caulfield fields questions from Billboard.com readers.

BOUT ONE: STEVIE vs. THE MAC

Hi Keith,

I always read your column and now have a question myself. Could you give a rundown of the sales of Stevie Nicks' albums? I am a big fan, but have never seen any figures from her music output? How do her sales compare to those of Fleetwood Mac?

Thank you, Keith, and "I Can't Wait" to see your column response.

Chris Holt

Hi Chris,

Here is the rundown on Stevie Nicks' Nielsen SoundScan era (1991-present) albums and their respective sales:

"Timespace - The Best Of Stevie Nicks" (1991), 1.4 million
"Street Angel" (1994), 226,000
"Enchanted" (1998), 162,000
"Trouble In Shangri-La" (2001), 640,000

As for Fleetwood Mac's Nielsen SoundScan-era albums, here they are:

"25 Years - The Chain" (1992), 79,000
"Time" (1995), 50,000
"The Dance" (1998), 4.3 million
"The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac" (2002), 796,000
"Say You Will" (2003), 793,000

[Johnny Stew]

Interesting info, Daniel... thanks for posting that.

And it looks like our lady does pretty good for herself.

[macfan 57]

That's interesting. The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac has outsold Say You Will. Also, I'm a little curious about the Chain box set. There were 4 CDs in the box set. I wonder if the 79,000 figure is the number of box sets sold or if it includes the 4 CDs. If that's the case, that would mean that only less than 20,000 box sets have been sold. I find that hard to believe.

[markolas]

Those seem like awfully low figures for Street Angel and Enchanted. Didn't I read that both of those went gold?

[iamstevienicks]

The gold figure would be for how many copies shipped not sold

[CarneVaca]

Originally posted by macfan 57
That's interesting. The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac has outsold Say You Will.

Ultimately it will probably the case. However, considering The Very Best of came out several months before SWY, the difference is negligible.

[skcin]

Originally posted by macfan 57
That's interesting. The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac has outsold Say You Will. Also, I'm a little curious about the Chain box set. There were 4 CDs in the box set. I wonder if the 79,000 figure is the number of box sets sold or if it includes the 4 CDs. If that's the case, that would mean that only less than 20,000 box sets have been sold. I find that hard to believe.

I believe it's per unit, so it would be 79,000 box sets sold.

Paula

[dissention]

Considering that SYW got a chilly reception from the general public/casual fans, I think it has done amazingly well.

[John Run]

A couple of points. The writer from Billboard gives you soundscan numbers as of November 2003 so Holiday sales will add to some of the above mentioned totals.

Billboard is very tight with soundscan and only reports those numbers. Soundscan has a lot of holes in its totals. No club sales, no 3rd party vendor sales, no venue sales, and those few small independant shops left often go without reporting to soundscan. Some internet retailers are not counted. DVD-A's, SACD's, &Alternate or Special Versions of releases are not included in a title's totals, but are often counted seperately.

Sales DB's end up being maintained by record companies and the RIAA through contracted Accounting firms, currently Deloitte. Soundscan is just part of that number.

So for those of you who think some of the numbers seem low, well you are right.

Happy New Year

John

[SpyNote]

Those seem like awfully low figures for Street Angel and Enchanted. Didn't I read that both of those went gold?

Actually, these numbers reflect actually sales figures, not RIAA certifications, which is why the numbers appear low (which iamstevienicks alluded to).

RIAA certifications are determined by how many units of product are shipped to retailers, with each multiple disc counting towards the tally. For example, if 200,000 copies of Enchanted shipped to retailers, the tally towards RIAA certification would be 600,000 copies since the set has 3 CDs. But the actual number of sets sold is usually considerably less.

[ShangriLaTroubl]

i would think SYW should be certified platinum soon if it has sold already that many.


Chris

[laurarox]

I thought Enchanted went Gold. Doesn't that mean it sold 500,000 copies?

[stevierocks87]

Originally posted by laurarox
I thought Enchanted went Gold. Doesn't that mean it sold 500,000 copies?

I think there's a different system for box sets, but I'm not sure what is is.....

adam

[Cammie]

Any chance you could check up on
Lindsey's OOTC? It did as much as
Enchanted if I remember correctly!
Are these hard facts from retailers?
SYW is rather low for The Mac! So...
The Dance made over a mill!Sky

[hayley]

Enchanted was certified gold. There are two sets of numbers that get people confused- gold/platinum certification has nothing to do with the number of units scanned and counted by Soundscan. Certfications are based on the number of units shipped. While Soundscan numbers count multi-disc packages as one unit, the RIAA's certification counts multi-disc sets as multiple numbers- for example, one copy of Enchanted would SCAN as one unit, but be counted in shipments as THREE units.

And John Run, you're mostly correct regarding Soundscan, but it's not difficult by any measure to get a venue merch stand, for example, hooked to Soundscan. Any touring entity that doesn't adopt the relatively simple process of reporting to Soundscan is lazy, and is only hurting themselves.

As for the label counting the "true" number of sales... ideally, sure they do- in reality, it's incredibly difficult for ANYONE to gauge what the real figures are for any given release, whether it be Soundscan, the artist, the record company, or the auditors.