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Forums > Prince: Music and More > How many copies of Purple Rain and Very Best of Prince have sold since his passing? ANyone know?
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Thread started 05/10/16 6:01pm

cjmc2006

How many copies of Purple Rain and Very Best of Prince have sold since his passing? ANyone know?

I hope both albums sell at least a million or two copies this year!

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Reply #1 posted 05/10/16 6:05pm

TrivialPursuit

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He's sold over 4M units, but I think some of those are singles on places like iTunes, not just albums.

Sorry, it's the Hodgkin's talking.
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Reply #2 posted 05/10/16 6:28pm

Moonbeam

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Based on the articles from Billboard, here are some rough guesses in the US:

The Very Best of Prince: 100K + 216K + 55K = 371K

Purple Rain: 62K + 133K + 60K = 255K

The Hits/The B-Sides: 24K + 56K + ? = at least 80K

Ultimate: 9K + 37K + ? = at least 46K

1999: 13K + 33K + ? = at least 46K

For the most recent week, The Hits/The B-Sides is 29th this week in album sales, Ultimate is 22nd and 1999 is 8th.

feeluupp would be able to give better figures.

Sources:

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7350372/beyonce-earns-sixth-no-1-album-on-billboard-200-chart-with-lemonade

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7358025/drake-views-debuts-at-no-1-on-billboard-200-charts-sets

http://www.billboard.com/charts/top-album-sales

Feel free to join in the Prince Album Poll 2018! Let'a celebrate his legacy by counting down the most beloved Prince albums, as decided by you!
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Reply #3 posted 05/10/16 7:10pm

cjmc2006

aS LONG AS IT COUNTS - THE itunes STUFF. i WANNA SEE tvbop GO mULTIPLATINUM

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Reply #4 posted 05/10/16 8:02pm

Moonbeam

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Taken from comments at Billboard:

Pure album sales (without TEA+SEA):
1.( -) Drake - "Views" - 851.6k (851.6k) (NEW)
2.( 1) Beyonce - "Lemonade" - 196.2k (681.4k) (-60%)
3.( 3) Prince - "Purple Rain" - 60.3k (3,362.3k) (-55%)
4.( 2) Prince - "The Very Best of" - 55.4k (2,474.1k) (-74%)
5.( -) Rob Zombie - "The Electronic..." - 40.1k (40.1k) (NEW)
6.( -) Various - "NOW 58" - 37.4k (37.4k) (NEW)
7.( 7) Chris Stapleton - "Traveller" - 24.8k (1,278.0k) (-1%)
8.( 6) Prince - "1999" - 23.6k (69.5k) (-32%)
9.(11) Adele - "25" - 22.1k (8,680.2k) (+18%)
10.(-) Sixx:A.M. - "Prayers for the Damned" - 18.4k (18.4k) (NEW)

I'm guessing the 69.5k total for 1999 is just for the last 3 weeks, while the 3.3M and 2.4M for Purple Rain and The Very Best of Prince are total sales during the Soundscan era.

Feel free to join in the Prince Album Poll 2018! Let'a celebrate his legacy by counting down the most beloved Prince albums, as decided by you!
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Reply #5 posted 05/11/16 4:44pm

Moonbeam

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More comments from Billboard:

Came across some Prince albums sales numbers that are up to date (from 1991 to 05/05/2016), if you are interested:
The Very Best Of - 2,473,611
Purple Rain - 3,362,603
The Hits/The B Sides - 793,343
Ultimate - 338,197
1999 - 862,770
Sign 'O' The Times - 348,487
Controversy - 258,240
Dirty Mind - 180,245
Prince - 268,446
Around The World In A Day - 228,292
Parade (Under The Cherry Moon) - 290,143
Art Official Age - 164,498
Diamonds & Pearls - 2,478,345
Musicology - 2,049,000
The Hits 2 - 1,738,000
The Hits 1 - 1,451,000

Feel free to join in the Prince Album Poll 2018! Let'a celebrate his legacy by counting down the most beloved Prince albums, as decided by you!
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