Also, how well do you think Musicology had done if it wasn't included with the concert ticket sales?

Well Musicology got to #3 in the UK album charts and that is WITHOUT concert ticket sales.

And i think it went platinum. Or was it double platinum?

Musicology had more success in the UK than Any of Prince's first four albums!

GoldenGlove said:

dont think so...it went gold with 100,000 sales in the uk....it was only on the uk album chart for about 6 weeks so i dont think it sold much more than 100k..

if you are talking worldwide then it would be somethimg like this:

1 purple rain
2 diamonds and pearls
3 1999
4 batman
5 around the world in a day
6 sign o the times
7 parade
8 lovesexy
9 symbol
10 maybe musicology if you include concert giveaways

In the United States, it'd be something like this...

1. Purple Rain (13 mil)
2. 1999 (4 mil)
3. Batman (2 mil)
4. Diamonds & Pearls (2 mil)
5. Around the World in a Day (2 mil)
6. Musicology (2 mil)
7. Emancipation (2 mil)
8. Sign O' The Times (1 mil)
9. (1 mil)
10. Prince (1 mil)
11. Parade (1 mil)
12. Controversy (1 mil)

no other Prince albums have reached platinum status in the U.S., except for
The Hits 1
The Hits 2
The Hits / B-sides (all 3)
The Very Best of Prince

Snap said:

So if you average out the numbers.....he's got about '3 million strong' fans in the U.S.....

I'm not sure what the sales figures are, but Prince's highest charting UK albums were:

#1 Lovesexy (sold much more in Europe/UK than in USA)
#1 Batman
#1 Graffiti Bridge
#1
#1 Come
#2 Diamonds & Pearls
#2 The Very Best of Prince
#3 Musicology
#4 Parade (sold much more in Europe/UK than in USA)
#4 Sign O' The Times
#4 The Hits / B-Sides (all 3)
#4 The Gold Experience
#5 Around the World in a Day
#5 The Hits 1
#5 The Hits 2
#7 Purple Rain

Lovesexy was to Europe what the Purple Rain craze was to the US.

I went through Uptown's The Vault and made a list of when it mentions the sale figures for each album. Some it doesn't mention, and some it isn't clear whether it is the total figure to-date - however, if it helps, here it is:

For You - 430,000 US
Prince - 1 million US
Dirty Mind - 500,000 US
Controversy - 1 million US
1999 - 3 million US
Purple Rain - 11 million US (5 million rest of the world)
Around The World In A Day - 2.4 million US
Parade - 1.6 million US (1.9 million rest of the world)
Sign O' The Times - US 1.6 million (1.6 million rest of world)
Lovesexy - 750,000 US (1.9 million rest of the world)
Batman - 1.7 million US (4.4 million rest of the world)
Graffiti Bridge - 500,000 US
Diamonds & Pearls - 2 million US (4 million rest of the world)
The Symbol Album - 1 million US
The Hits/The B-sides - 1 million US
The Hits Vol 1 - 1 million US
The Hits Vol 2 - 1 million US
Come - 350,000 US
The Black Album - 295,000 US
The Gold Experience - 530,000 US
Chaos & Disorder - 140,000 US
Emancipation - 570,000 US
Crystal Ball - 350,000 US
The Vault, Old Friends For Sale - 140,000 US
Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic - 350,000
The Very Best Of Prince - not mentioned
The Rainbow Children - 130,000 US
One Nite Alone - not mentioned
One Nite Alone Live - not mentioned
N.E.W.S. - not mentioned

Interestingly, I looked up what the different certificates were here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w...tification

And there's a list of artists with the most gold and platinum albums. Prince comes in at 21 with 22 albums. Ehhhh?! And who is Reba McEntire? Oh, Country and Western. That explains why I don't know her!

List of artists with most gold and platinum albums

These artists have the most gold and platinum albums (each album is counted only once even if the album was certified gold, platinum, and multi-platinum):

1.Elvis Presley (97)
2.Barbra Streisand (49) (the female with the most multi-platinum titles - 13)
3.The Beatles (43)
4.The Rolling Stones (41)
5.Neil Diamond (38)
6.Elton John (37)
7.Frank Sinatra(33)
8.Bob Dylan (33) (two with The Band)
9.George Strait (32)
10.Kenny Rogers/First Edition (29)
11.Aerosmith (25)
12.Willie Nelson (24)
13.Kiss (24)
14.Rod Stewart (24)
15.Reba McEntire (23)
16.Rush (23)
17.Alabama (22)
18.Chicago (22)
19.Eric Clapton (22)
20.Willie Nelson (22)
21.Prince(22)
22.Hank Williams, Jr. (22)
23.Barry Manilow (21)
24.The Beach Boys (20)
25.John Denver (20)
26.Jefferson Airplane (20)
[Edited 11/5/05 12:32pm]
[Edited 11/5/05 12:34pm]
[Edited 11/5/05 12:35pm]

Wow! Thanks for the input everybody! Well done Metalorange!

Hopefully, Skipper will adding another album to that list very soon. BTW, 1999 was and continues to be off the hook!

Thanx Metalorange,always wondered how well each album did
in the charts/sales.

Strange that Emancipation sold more than Gold in US!!
And in that other list(SNAP) it even sold more than SOTT!!
Is that right???

Paisley4u said:

emancipation only sold around 600,000 copies in the us, they tripled the sales because it was a triple album for some mad reason!
[Edited 11/6/05 4:59am]

Paisley4u said:

I've read that Emancipation is credited as having sold 2 million - but that is only because being a triple cd set, they multiplied the amount sold by 3! That seems to me to be a misleading figure and in that context puts it above Sign. I don't know whether they did that also with Prince's other double/triple albums and the actual total package sold is much less. Also, apparently some rating systems use the total number of albums shipped to stores, rather than actually sold - which is probably why you see them trying to sell of Emancipation really cheaply in some stores!

With all that, it is hard to find the true figure, it would be good to have verified up-to-date figures, certainly since Prince started selling 'privately' via his website, it is difficult to gauge the success of his latter albums.

All data dated September 1993, collected by Minneapolis Star-Tribune journalist Jon Bream , with additional data from Billboard, Rolling Stone and Time Magazine:

Album = Worldwide sales in 1993
(RIAA certification till 1993 end;
US estimated sales till 1993 end;
some specific countries MINIMUM sales till 1993)
(k= x1000 ; m=million)

For You = 800k (not RIAA certified; in US 400k sold)

Prince = 1.75m (RIAA P=1m)

Dirty Mind = 1.8m (RIAA G=500k)

Controversy = 2.3m (RIAA P=1m)

1999 = 5m (RIAA 3xP=3m; 2.3m sales in US when "Purple Rain" was released)

Purple Rain = 14.7m (RIAA 10xP=10m in 1989 with US 1993 sales at more than 12m, Canada=600k, UK=600k, Germany=500k, Australia=200k, Japan=200k)

Around The World In A Day = 4.35m (RIAA 2xP=2m, but Jon Bream says 3.4m in US, shipped 2.7m in US on release week; UK=100k, Japan=100k)

Parade = 3.5m (RIAA P=1m, J.B. says 1.9m ; UK=300k, France=300k, Germany=250k, Netherlands=100k, Japan=80k)

Sign Of The Times = 3.75m (RIAA P=1m, J.B. says 1.8m ; UK=300k, Germany=250k, France=200k, Netherlands=100k, Australia=35k, Japan=50k)

Lovesexy = 2.65m (RIAA G=500k, J.B. says 990k; shipped 700k in US at release week; UK=300k, Germany=250k, France=200k, Japan=40k, Netherlands=50k)

Batman = 4.6m (RIAA 2xP=2m; UK=300k, France=300k, Germany=250k, Japan=175k, Netherlands=50k)

Graffiti Bridge = 2m (RIAA G=500k; UK=100k, Japan=75k)

Diamonds And Pearls = 5.8m (RIAA 2xP=2m; Warner 2.5 US + 3.3 outside US ; France=450k , Australia = 280k , UK=900k, Germany=250k, Netherlands=100k, Japan=60k)

Symbol = 3.45m (RIAA P=1m; UK=300k, Japan=85k)

From Jon Bream data we have

Worldwide sales = 55.5m

Now, some RIAA awards were given some time after 1993, so some data must be added:

i would say:
1999 from 5m to 5.5m (RIAA 4xP=4m in 1999)
Purple Rain from 14.7 to a minimum of 17m (this album according to Billboard sold within a year of release 4.5m outside US and RIAA 13xP=13m in 1996)

this means more 3m ... new total = 58.5m

Following albums, a kind of rough calculation:

The Hits/The B-Sides , global sales above half-million, let's say a maximum of 750k
The Hits 1 + The Hits 2 = at least a combined 2m from US and a probable combined international minimum of at least combined 1.5m
Come, 1m worldwide (US=500k, UK=100k, Japan=80k)
The Gold Experience, also 1m worldwide
Emancipation, EMI said 1million triple albums worldwide (US=700k shipped, Japan=95k)
The Black Album, around 750k worldwide (350k in US and 60k in Japan)
The Crystal Ball, 300k worldwide
New Power Soul, i would say 500k
Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic, no more than 1m
The Very Best Of Prince, 1.7m (1m in US, UK=300k)

This last = estimated 12.4m

1) Total ESTIMATED global sales (albums only) = 70.9 = roughly 71m (around 42.5m in US) (MINIMUM number)

And singles?
A quick estimation (NOT official), global sales

When Doves Cry = 3m
Purple Rain, Kiss, Batdance = 2m each
Let's Go Crazy, Gett Off, The Most Beautiful Girl In The World = 1.5m each
I Wanna Be Your Lover, 1999, Thieves In The Temple, Cream = 1m each
Raspberry Beret, Sign Of The Times, Alphabet Street, Sexy MF, 7 = 750k each
Little Red Corvette, U Got The Look, Diamonds And Pearls = 500k

2) Estimated total for more succeful singles = 22m (only in US from RIAA = 9.5m)

3) Estimated total albums+singles Prince sold in carreer = 93m

4) If we count individual discs inside double and triple albums we should add roughly more 12m

5) Total final estimated RECORDS sold by Prince since 1978 till 2001= 105m

Presently with the additional sales of "Musicology", at more than 3 million worldwide and the renewed catalog sales of "The Very Best of Prince" we can considerer total career sales of Prince (albums + singles) at around 110 million records.

His Top-10 best-selling albums worldwide shall be:

1 - Purple Rain
2 - Diamonds And Pearls
3 - 1999
4 - Batman
5 - Around The World In A Day
6 - Sign Of The Times
7 - Parade
8 - Symbol
9 - Musicology
10 - Lovesexy
[Edited 11/7/05 0:42am]

Edu said:

Excellent work! I pretty much asumed the top 3 and kinda figured numbers 4 and 5. Amazing how SOTT is widely considered his best work while enjoyable but not quite brilliant(IMO) albums like Diamonds and Pearls and Batman out sold it considerably.I have a feeling the cost of the SOTT cds played a factor in that.Somewhat unfortunately, the hype over the movie is what put Batman up there rather than the hype over the musician's music.

plus with Batman, do you know how many kids had their parents buy it for them just because it had the Batman logo on it? LOTS!! "uh, excuse me m'am, but that's a Prince album you're buying for your 7-year old there"

Cool reads, I never knew Diamonds&P was SO successful
one of my personal favs!