2009 / Decade Nielsen SoundScan Report

[Deleted]

5 Soundtrack/ Bodyguard x 11,815,000
Thru 1999 11,605,690 11,605,690
2000 50,233 11,655,923
2001 33,170 11,689,093
2002 25,347 11,714,440
2003 27,339 11,741,779
2004 20,220 11,761,999
2005 16,001 11,778,000
2006 11,552 11,789,552
2007 8,448 11,798,000
2008 7,000 11,805,000
2009 10,000 11,815,000

[Deleted]

4 Millennium/ Backstreet Boys x 12,109,000
Thru 1999 9,445,732 9,445,732
2000 2,259,643 11,705,375
2001 265,757 11,971,132
2002 59,672 12,030,804
2003 25,871 12,056,675
2004 12,325 12,069,000
2005 14,000 12,083,000
2006 8,491 12,091,491
2007 7,509 12,099,000
2008 5,000 12,104,000
2009 5,000 12,109,000

[Deleted]

3 Jagged Little Pill/ Alanis Morissette x 14,642,000
Thru 1999 13,542,393 13,542,393
2000 187,435 13,729,828
2001 160,226 13,890,054
2002 204,371 14,094,425
2003 106,397 14,200,822
2004 142,178 14,343,000
2005 110,000 14,453,000
2006 60,313 14,513,313
2007 43,687 14,557,000
2008 50,000 14,607,000
2009 35,000 14,642,000

[Deleted]

2 Come On Over/ Shania Twain 15,487,000
Thru 1999 12,110,660 12,110,660
2000 1,541,385 13,652,045
2001 494,972 14,147,017
2002 343,453 14,490,470
2003 406,441 14,896,911
2004 364,731 15,261,642
2005 93,358 15,355,000
2006 53,533 15,408,533
2007 40,467 15,449,000
2008 24,000 15,473,000
2009 14,000 15,487,000

[Deleted]

1 Metallica/ Metallica x 15,500,000
Thru 1999 11,715,533 11,715,533
2000 726,321 12,441,854
2001 540,034 12,981,888
2002 350,432 13,332,320
2003 470,988 13,803,308
2004 399,718 14,203,026
2005 341,974 14,545,000
2006 274,905 14,819,905
2007 257,095 15,077,000
2008 242,000 15,319,000
2009 181,000 15,500,000

[CookyMonzta]

Jan 6, 2010 22:32:54 GMT -5 badrobot said:

Jan 6, 2010 17:50:52 GMT -5 CookyMonzta said:

An increase? Hardly. I hope you took a good look at areyoureadytojump's list, going back to 1996. There was a time, back in the 1990s, when TWENTY albums sold 2M and/or went 2xP in a single calendar year.

Take a good look, boys and girls...Ten years ago (at the very least), you needed to go 3xP and then some to finish the year in the top 10. Now, all that is required may be platnium.

The average of the top 10 in 1999 was 5.469 million. In 2000, it was 6.042M, probably the highest since the introduction of the SoundScan tracking system.

The average of the top 10 in 2009 was 2.138M, which is a 60.9 percent drop from 1999 (a 64.6% drop from 2000).

If the rate of decline continues, by 2019 we will see an industry where the average of the top 10 albums of that year will be just under 836,000. To make the top 10 in 2019, you would simply need to go gold.

Looks simple; but unfortunately we are already in an age where even some artists, who were once multi-platinum, maybe as little as 2 years ago, are having trouble trying to sell 500,000. By 2015, going 2xP could very well be a thing of the past.

In the last decade, we witnessed the death of the full-scale music and movie superstore/megastore in the U.S. (Virgin, Tower and HMV). In this decade, we are likely to witness the death of the major music industry, as more and more artists will be inclined to bypass or reject the major labels altogether, and use the Web and the independent companies to reach their audience.

It was an increase over the previous year, which is what they said.

The top 9 albums of 2009 all sold more than the comparable top 9 albums of 2008. 5 albums sold 2m+ in 2009, 4 in 2008. That's an increase.

An increase of one double-platinum album is practically irrelevant when you consider that the #5 album of 2008 was only 85,000 away from 2 million. Overall the top 10 of last year averaged just over 268,000 more than the 2008 average. If it had not been for Susan Boyle, the top 10 of 2009 would have averaged just under 2 million, barely 100,000 ahead of the 2008 average.

As I said before, the industry has watched its sales decline 60% over the last decade. If by 2019 the industry declines another 60%, we could have a year where gold will get you into the top 10, and the number 1 selling album sells around 1.4 million.

Everyone is already aware of all the rest of what you said. The industry is doing poorly on the albums side, and digital album sales are not growing fast enough to offset the physical losses (and thus overall sales are down 13% this year).

An industry that bleeds 50 million physical album sales a year, while picking up around 10 million digital album sales, exemplifies the no-win situation the industry is in.

This is something which cannot be blamed on file sharing. Consider that music retailers like the Virgin Megastore made the listening station wildly popular because it gave the consumer a chance to hear old and new material before they considered purchasing.

The inclusion of listening stations in record shops obviously made the music cartels very nervous. When the Web became the biggest listening station around, the fat cats fell over each other trying to undermine the technology that was coming from the Web, its developers and its users, because they knew that, from this technology, a smarter consumer would be the result. No longer would they so blindly buy an entire album for one or two songs. They want to know exactly what they're getting, and they now know where to go to find out.

That is why the average multi-platinum album today sells 2 million, as opposed to 5 or 6 million ten years ago; not to mention that more and more people are not satisfied with the direction the music industry as a whole is going. Consider that current album sales are declining faster than classic/catalog album sales.

[badrobot]

You are going off on quite a long tangent that is irrelevant to the original comment, and your initial response was actually incorrect -- all they said was there was an increase of more 2m+ selling albums this year than last year. That is true. Everything else you've added is fine and dandy but beside the point, and has been talked to death for years now.

[cking33]

Jan 7, 2010 0:30:49 GMT -5 @2m said:

7 Beatles 1/ Beatles 11,564,000

Thru 1999 0
2000 5,068,300 5,068,300
2001 2,910,000 7,978,300
2002 691,700 8,670,000
2003 560,000 9,230,000
2004 634,012 9,864,012
2005 505,988 10,370,000
2006 451,222 10,821,222
2007 275,778 11,097,000
2008 248,000 11,345,000
2009 219,000 11,564,000

That's outstanding how well this has sold since 2002.

[neverduplicated]

Jan 7, 2010 0:33:05 GMT -5 @2m said:

1 Metallica/ Metallica x 15,500,000
Thru 1999 11,715,533 11,715,533
2000 726,321 12,441,854
2001 540,034 12,981,888
2002 350,432 13,332,320
2003 470,988 13,803,308
2004 399,718 14,203,026
2005 341,974 14,545,000
2006 274,905 14,819,905
2007 257,095 15,077,000
2008 242,000 15,319,000
2009 181,000 15,500,000

Wow! The recurrent sales for this album are extremely impressive considering it's not a greatest hits album and it was released in 1991.

[paulslilhellcat]

thanks for these certain albums that aren't greatest hits compilations that still sell in big numbers

[ktos]

Nielsen BDS: Inception-to-Date Top 10 Internet Streamed Songs

(based on streams captured from August 2005 – 1/3/2010)

Title/Artist

Streams
1. Hips Don’t Lie/ Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean
85,586,000
2. Because Of You/ Kelly Clarkson
43,872,000
3. Run It!/ Chris Brown
40,993,000
4. Girlfriend/ Avril Lavigne
38,919,000
5. Irreplaceable/ Beyonce
38,192,000
6. Check On It/ Beyonce feat. Slim Thug
37,838,000
7. Buttons/ Pussycat Dolls
36,354,000
8. You’re Beautiful/ James Blunt
35,178,000
9. My Humps/ Black Eyed Peas
34,642,000
10. Promiscuous/ Nelly Furtado feat. Timbaland 34,638,000

Huge advantage

[thehellion]

Jan 7, 2010 6:28:15 GMT -5 neverduplicated said:

Jan 7, 2010 0:33:05 GMT -5 @2m said:

1 Metallica/ Metallica x 15,500,000
Thru 1999 11,715,533 11,715,533
2000 726,321 12,441,854
2001 540,034 12,981,888
2002 350,432 13,332,320
2003 470,988 13,803,308
2004 399,718 14,203,026
2005 341,974 14,545,000
2006 274,905 14,819,905
2007 257,095 15,077,000
2008 242,000 15,319,000
2009 181,000 15,500,000

Wow! The recurrent sales for this album are extremely impressive considering it's not a greatest hits album and it was released in 1991.

Indeed. It should be able to make it to 16m in actual over the next 4-5 years although it may go 16xPlatinum before then.

By the way, does anyone know how much MJ sold in 2008 in the US? His massive sales in 2009 are enough to put him in the Top 30 biggest selling artists of the Soundscan era.

[Mike]

How is Taylor the #1 digital artist? I mean, I know she's had a good two years, but 24 million? Really? Her singles weren't nearly as successful as Rihanna's I feel like... Weird.

[Deleted]

There is more of them though

[dbt88]

Jan 7, 2010 11:54:49 GMT -5 Mike said:

How is Taylor the #1 digital artist? I mean, I know she's had a good two years, but 24 million? Really? Her singles weren't nearly as successful as Rihanna's I feel like... Weird.

Remember when majority of her singles were ruling iTunes and charting on Hot 100? I don't think that was due to airplay. Her fans eat up anything she releases. She's got more top40 hits than anyone in the last 2-3 years. That makes sense why she's sold more than Rihanna. But it's just so vomit-inducing

[badrobot]

Jan 7, 2010 11:54:49 GMT -5 Mike said:

How is Taylor the #1 digital artist? I mean, I know she's had a good two years, but 24 million? Really? Her singles weren't nearly as successful as Rihanna's I feel like... Weird.

It's sheer quantity.

If Gaga keeps up the pace though she could eclipse Taylor within a year or two. She managed 15m singles in her first year alone.

[neverduplicated]

I think Taylor's digital sales are also really high because her album sales are so high and because a lot of fans bought the bonus tracks on the Fearless Platinum edition separately instead of buying the whole album again.

[Tea-why]

Thanks guys for all of this info!!!! :o

[HolidayGuy]

Taylor Swift surely is enjoying both big album and digital-track sales.

Note Come on Over's decline in 2005, its first full year after the release of Twain's Greatest Hits. Expected, though. I'm surprised it sells as much as14k/year, with GH housing eight of its tracks.

[fridayteenage]

Actually, as lead artist Taylor had the most T40's of the decade, along with Em.

[ListenToItTwice]

So I guess MJ's the biggest selling album artist of the 08-09 two year period, followed by Taylor.

I wonder how long it will be before it gets really difficult to crack the Top 10 All-Time Digital Songs. The way sales are growing, the list is constantly getting more recent-hits-soaked. I know digital growth is slowing, but there's still significant growth.

Amazing to see Taylor as the #1 Digital Artist! I think badrobot is correct in saying that GaGa won't have too much trouble taking the title for herself.

[Choco]

Actually, I think GaGa sold 1m of Just Dance and around 100k of BDR & Poker Face during 2008 so she's around 16m right now.

[Rodze]

Jan 7, 2010 17:49:55 GMT -5 Choco said:

Actually, I think GaGa sold 1m of Just Dance and around 100k of BDR & Poker Face during 2008 so she's around 16m right now.

More like 2 million+ for her in 2008. 1.9m was for Just Dance and Poker Face alone.

So she's now close to 17.3 million. Knocking on the top 10.

[HolidayGuy]

Here are the top 10 for 1993, 1994 and 1995, as reference. Off-hand, I'm not sure if the 1993 list was posted in the NY Daily News- so, it may not be the year-end that Billboard published (as it did with 1994 and 1995, and years thereafter). For 1993, I have in my notes that it covered the 1/23/93-1/15/94 charts.

1995
1. Cracked Rear View- Hootie and the Blowfish: 7 million
2. CrazySexyCool- TLC: 4.8 million
3. Jagged Little Pill- Alanis Morissette: 4.2 million
4. Daydream- Mariah Carey: 3.9 million
5. The Hits- Garth Brooks: 3.8 million
6. Throwing Copper- Live: 3.5 million
7. II- Boyz II Men: 3.4 million
8. Anthology I- The Beatles: 2.9 million
9. Hell Freezes Over- The Eagles: 2.8 million
10. The Woman in Me- Shania Twain: 2.8 million

1994
1. The Lion King- Soundtrack: 4.9 million
2. The Sign- Ace of Base: 4.9 million
3. II- Boyz II Men: 4.3 million
4. August and Everything After...- Counting Crows: 3.8 million
5. Dookie- Green Day: 3.4 million
6. Not a Moment Too Soon- Tim McGraw: 3.2 million
7. Purple- Stone Temple Pilots: 3.1 million
8. Miracles- The Holiday Album- Kenny G: 3 million
9. Smash- Offspring: 2.9 million
10. Music Box- Mariah Carey: 2.7 million

1993
1. The Bodyguard- Whitney Houston/Soundtrack- 5.5 million
2. janet.- Janet Jackson: 4.3 million
3. Vs.- Pearl Jam: 3.8 million
4. Breathless- Kenny G: 3.8 million
5. Music Box- Mariah Carey: 3.3 million
6. The Chronic- Dr. Dre: 2.9 million
7. Unplugged- Eric Clapton: 2.9 million
8. In Pieces- Garth Brooks: 2.8 million
9. Core- Stone Temple Pilots: 2.7 million
10. Bat Out of Hell II- Meatloaf: 2.6 million
11. River of Dreams- Billy Joel: 2.6 million

[Black Jesus]

How the fuck did Taylor Swift become the #1 digital artist of the decade? Am I missing something?