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Reply #120 posted 09/19/19 9:07pm

Moonbeam

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These aren't sales, but for a current snapshot of the potential commercial appeal of various albums, I've looked at Spotify stream data over the past 3 months. For each album, I've recorded the median and mean average daily streams. The median is probably a better measure of the "depth" of the albums, as it reflects the streams of the song that is in the middle. The mean is affected by songs with huge "star power", such as "Kiss" and "Raspberry Beret". Not sure which is more relevant for album sales.

Albums ranked by median average daily streams:

Purple Rain: 8,095
Sign o' the Times: 1,736
Prince: 1,190
1999: 1,095
Parade: 1,055
Dirty Mind: 845
Batman: 530
The Gold Experience: 511
Around the World in a Day: 477
Controversy: 454
Diamonds and Pearls: 442
Lovesexy: 337
For You: 335
Musicology: 274
Art Official Age: 264
Symbol: 222
3121: 153
HitnRun Phase Two: 141
The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale: 126
Graffiti Bridge: 113
HitnRun Phase One: 110
Come: 107
Plectrumelectrum: 99
Planet Earth: 88
The Rainbow Children: 81
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic: 76
Emancipation: 72
Lotusflow3r: 66
20Ten: 60
One Nite Alone: 51
MPLSoUND: 50
Chaos and Disorder: 49
Crystal Ball: 47
The Truth: 44
NEWS: 44
The Chocolate Invasion: 42
The Slaughterhouse: 36
Xpectation: 29

Albums ranked by mean average daily streams:

Purple Rain: 39,784
Parade: 13,168
1999: 10,166
Around the World in a Day: 9,406
Prince: 4,951
Sign o' the Times: 2,775
Diamonds and Pearls: 2,655
Controversy: 1,799
Dirty Mind: 1,544
Batman: 1,370
The Gold Experience: 1,360
Symbol: 1,043
For You: 902
Lovesexy: 700
Art Official Age: 546
Musicology: 542
3121: 467
One Nite Alone: 352
Graffiti Bridge: 320
HitnRun Phase Two: 297
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic: 296
Come: 261
Planet Earth: 261
HitnRun Phase One: 235
The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale: 170
The Rainbow Children: 132
Lotusflow3r: 130
Emancipation: 115
Plectrumelectrum: 112
Chaos and Disorder: 84
20Ten: 79
The Chocolate Invasion: 78
Crystal Ball: 71
MPLSoUND: 69
NEWS: 68
The Truth: 63
The Slaughterhouse: 51
Xpectation: 38

It seems like Prince and the 1985-1987 albums hold up the most among albums that haven't received a deluxe release yet.

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 #121 posted 09/19/19 10:55pm

VaultCurator

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I'm surprised that the album 'Prince' is as high as it is on both lists. I'm guessing this must be on the strength of 'I wanna be be your lover'.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against it, I just expected pretty much all the 80s albums and a few of the 90s ones to surpass it in popularity.

Very disappointed to see Chocolate Invasion and Slaughterhouse as low as they are. The world is missing out on some great songs there. If Sony ever reissue those two they should release some singles and try to get some radio play. I reckon those LPs could be very popular.
[Edited 9/19/19 22:56pm]
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Reply #122 posted 09/19/19 11:10pm

Moonbeam

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VaultCurator said:

I'm surprised that the album 'Prince' is as high as it is on both lists. I'm guessing this must be on the strength of 'I wanna be be your lover'. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against it, I just expected pretty much all the 80s albums and a few of the 90s ones to surpass it in popularity. Very disappointed to see Chocolate Invasion and Slaughterhouse as low as they are. The world is missing out on some great songs there. If Sony ever reissue those two they should release some singles and try to get some radio play. I reckon those LPs could be very popular. [Edited 9/19/19 22:56pm]


"I Wanna Be Your Lover" certainly helps Prince in terms of the mean, but it's not a big outlier in terms of his hits - it's the 8th most streamed Prince song over the past 3 months. It could have 1 billion streams and the median would still be the same, however. Here are the 9 songs on the album ranked by average daily streams:

"I Wanna Be Your Lover": 32,795
"I Feel for You": 3,495
"It's Gonna Be Lonely": 3,243
"Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad": 1,543
"Sexy Dancer": 1,190
"Bambi": 832
"When We're Dancing Close and Slow": 560
"Still Waiting": 500
"With You": 398

For comparison, here are the songs from Parade, rumored to be the next deluxe release:

"Kiss": 142,228
"Sometimes It Snows in April": 6,019
"Girls & Boys": 2,111
"Mountains": 2,109
"Anotherloverholenyohead": 1,836
"Under the Cherry Moon": 1,267
"Venus de Milo": 842
"New Position": 372
"I Wonder U": 349
"Christopher Tracy's Parade": 326
"Do U Lie?": 290
"Life Can Be So Nice": 271

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 #123 posted 09/20/19 12:28am

WhisperingDand
elions

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VaultCurator said:

I'm surprised that the album 'Prince' is as high as it is on both lists. I'm guessing this must be on the strength of 'I wanna be be your lover'. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against it, I just expected pretty much all the 80s albums and a few of the 90s ones to surpass it in popularity. Very disappointed to see Chocolate Invasion and Slaughterhouse as low as they are. The world is missing out on some great songs there. If Sony ever reissue those two they should release some singles and try to get some radio play. I reckon those LPs could be very popular. [Edited 9/19/19 22:56pm]

Growing up I'd always defer to self-titled releases thinking they're (usually) the start of the journey, perhaps that's the mindset.

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Reply #124 posted 09/20/19 4:30am

violetcrush

WhisperingDandelions said:



VaultCurator said:


I'm surprised that the album 'Prince' is as high as it is on both lists. I'm guessing this must be on the strength of 'I wanna be be your lover'. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against it, I just expected pretty much all the 80s albums and a few of the 90s ones to surpass it in popularity. Very disappointed to see Chocolate Invasion and Slaughterhouse as low as they are. The world is missing out on some great songs there. If Sony ever reissue those two they should release some singles and try to get some radio play. I reckon those LPs could be very popular. [Edited 9/19/19 22:56pm]

Growing up I'd always defer to self-titled releases thinking they're (usually) the start of the journey, perhaps that's the mindset.


Yes, I bet new fans are curious to hear his first album.
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Reply #125 posted 09/20/19 4:56am

RODSERLING

jaypotton said:

RODSERLING said:



Catalogue sales according to Billboard are sales from after two years after the initial release.
After two years, an album become an "old" album, its promotion is finished and only its legacy can make people buy it.


Ah ok thanks. So I saw somewhere else you said that "Prince" has more catalogue sales than "Diamonds & Pearls" but would a chunk of those sales be from the period after Purple Rain was released 84/85?


I don't know what exactly sold "Prince from 1981 to 1990, surely around 200.000 copies, maybe more. But that was 30 years ago ! So it doesn't reflect actual tastes.
.
I was talking about soundscan sales from 1991 to 2019.
Especially, in 2016, it sold 50.000 copies in the US alone, making it the best selling Prince album behind PR and 1999.
.
IWBYL is also making huge streaming audio/video numbers compared to, let's say, others SOTT tracks.
.
Interestingly, in many countries on Amazon "Prince" regularly tops the others Prince studio album. Maybe it s because it is called Prince, and people are buying it because they don't know what it is...
.
So it seems there is some appetite recently for this album from casual consumers. So these are interesting statistics. And the album is officially from the seventies, so it s kind of appealing period, different from the 1980, that regularly comes back in style.
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Reply #126 posted 09/20/19 5:01am

RODSERLING

herb4 said:



jaypotton said:


RODSERLING said:
Catalogue sales according to Billboard are sales from after two years after the initial release. After two years, an album become an "old" album, its promotion is finished and only its legacy can make people buy it.

Ah ok thanks. So I saw somewhere else you said that "Prince" has more catalogue sales than "Diamonds & Pearls" but would a chunk of those sales be from the period after Purple Rain was released 84/85?


Thx, jay, for asking that because I was wondering the same thing but I'll stand by my assertion that neither WB nor the estate are going to invest themselves in that nuance and will likely just look at total numbers. If I had to bet, I'd say both will focus on total sales to determine what's what and how to proceed.

I could see them skipping Batman since it's so weighed down by the times and the film, but D&P had several hits and, if I'm not mistaken, is his 2nd or 3rd highest selling album ever so I can't see the people lined up to cash in on this stuff glossing over that fact for the sake of artistic integrity or considering "well, yeah, but 'catalogue sales'"

If you happen to know, beyond 1999 and PR, or "the usual suspects", which of his albums has the strongest legs related to your definition? Meaning sales over time I guess. I'm genuinely curious.

Eventually, they're gonna have to do a vault dump and give the hardcore followers what they want -after they're done milking his commercial legacy and once interest has dried up to the point that only the die hards will pony up - but, sadly, I think that will take some time.



None of the D&P tracks tops half or third the IWBYL streaming numbers. Strange, but true.
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Reply #127 posted 09/20/19 5:59am

ChocolateBox31
21

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RODSERLING said:

jaypotton said:
Ah ok thanks. So I saw somewhere else you said that "Prince" has more catalogue sales than "Diamonds & Pearls" but would a chunk of those sales be from the period after Purple Rain was released 84/85?
I don't know what exactly sold "Prince from 1981 to 1990, surely around 200.000 copies, maybe more. But that was 30 years ago ! So it doesn't reflect actual tastes. . I was talking about soundscan sales from 1991 to 2019. Especially, in 2016, it sold 50.000 copies in the US alone, making it the best selling Prince album behind PR and 1999. . IWBYL is also making huge streaming audio/video numbers compared to, let's say, others SOTT tracks. . Interestingly, in many countries on Amazon "Prince" regularly tops the others Prince studio album. Maybe it s because it is called Prince, and people are buying it because they don't know what it is... . So it seems there is some appetite recently for this album from casual consumers. So these are interesting statistics. And the album is officially from the seventies, so it s kind of appealing period, different from the 1980, that regularly comes back in style.

People ALWAYS leave out IWBYL when discussing Prince's(r.i.p.) first cross over appeal. That song was HUGE for him and was actually his first crossover hit shooting straight up the billboard pop charts. That hit came for him at the very end of the disco era. That's why it's still so popular with ALL listeners. Because it still has that old disco sound to it. Plus a touch of that new wave Minneapolis sound he was so famous for starting. I LOVE IT! Especially the instrumental breakdown at the end which was ALL HIM.

Also it's the song that got him on American Bandstand. Which was the right of passage back then for ANY artist wanting recognition.

[Edited 9/20/19 9:04am]

"That mountain top situation is not really what it's all cracked up 2 B when eye was doing the Purple Rain tour eye had a lot of people who eye knew eye'll never c again @ the concerts.just screamin n places they thought they was suppose 2 scream."prince
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Reply #128 posted 09/20/19 7:18am

RODSERLING

ChocolateBox3121 said:



RODSERLING said:


jaypotton said:
Ah ok thanks. So I saw somewhere else you said that "Prince" has more catalogue sales than "Diamonds & Pearls" but would a chunk of those sales be from the period after Purple Rain was released 84/85?

I don't know what exactly sold "Prince from 1981 to 1990, surely around 200.000 copies, maybe more. But that was 30 years ago ! So it doesn't reflect actual tastes. . I was talking about soundscan sales from 1991 to 2019. Especially, in 2016, it sold 50.000 copies in the US alone, making it the best selling Prince album behind PR and 1999. . IWBYL is also making huge streaming audio/video numbers compared to, let's say, others SOTT tracks. . Interestingly, in many countries on Amazon "Prince" regularly tops the others Prince studio album. Maybe it s because it is called Prince, and people are buying it because they don't know what it is... . So it seems there is some appetite recently for this album from casual consumers. So these are interesting statistics. And the album is officially from the seventies, so it s kind of appealing period, different from the 1980, that regularly comes back in style.

People ALWAYS leave out IWBYL when discussing Prince's(r.i.p.) first cross over appeal. That song was HUGE for him and was actually his first crossover hit shooting straight up the billboard pop charts. That hit came for him at the very end of the disco era. That's why it's still so popular with listeners. Because it still has that old disco sound to it. Plus a touch of that new wave Minneapolis sound he was so famous for starting. I LOVE IT! Especially the instrumental breakdown at the end which was ALL HIM.




100% agree with you.
That's why numbers and sales are so interesting, it always shows some truth, that sometimes we forgot, and it tells so much about people.
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Reply #129 posted 09/20/19 5:46pm

Shockedelicus

SOTT and Parade, so - after a fashion, Dream Factory can finally be released. Maybe I'm out of the loop but where's The Black Album?

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Reply #130 posted 09/21/19 12:03am

JudasLChrist

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OMG, yessssss.

HatrinaHaterwitz said:

A deluxe DVD set of '80's concerts...



IJS! cool

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Forums > Prince: Music and More > What deluxe version would YOU like to see next?