US Billboard Charts (15/05/2021)

DIGITAL SONG SALES

37 27 -- 5 When Doves Cry - Prince ( 2 ) Warner, NPG
46 21 -- 6 Purple Rain - Prince And The Revolution ( 1 ) Warner, NPG

RODSERLING said:

feeluupp said:

If you had to estimate, how much has Purple Rain sold in USA since its 13x Platinum certiciation back in 1996.

I would think it stands at 18x Platinum by now if it had been re certified.

I would think it stands rather at 17* platinum, 20* platinum if you add the movie sales ( amd why not? It contains all the songs of the album!)

Im sure WB has the precise numbers for accounting purposes (???), why is this a secret? Any estimate on the international sales. I recall Prince speaking to the vague estimates on PR sales and how they impact on artist rights and underpayment.

jdcxc said:

I think Purple Rain sold in the range of 24/25 millions worldwide.
When you think about it, it sold nearby 20 millions in America ( north + south)
17M in the US, 1.2M in Canada...

I don't have the numbers in South America but an album such as MJ's Off The Wall sold 1 million with only 3 countries ( Argentina, Brazil, Mexico).
Invincible, which was a huge flop, sold 310.000 in 4 countries of South America.

So Purple Rain has surely sold at least one million in South America, 4 millions in Europe, 1 million in Asia, + 0.5 M outside ( Australia, South Africa...)

I don't know why WB doesn't want to recertify it anymore. Prince said it was because otherwise, it would be proven they owed him money.

Like I said in this thread, Beatles albums are undercertified too, and I don't think it s much a matter of money.

RIAA certifications rules are very obscure, especially nowadays.
Certifications from the Eagles were always unexplainable. With very low streaming and sales in recent years, their Greatest Hits just went a few years ago to find another 9 millions in certifications.

Most of the greatest hits releases in the soundscan era ( so we know what they ssold exactly from the beginning) are not recertified anymore. That s the case of the Very Best of Prince, Number Ones and the Essential from MJ, ONE from the Beatles...

Best selling albums in the US so far ( week 18)

#27 Purple Rain (59 000)
.
Last year, at week 18, PR was #74 and sold "only" 27k copies!
It sold in 2020 a total of 115 000 copies, including 98 000 vinyls.


The trend I pointed out in the first post of this thread seems to confirm itself : PR will sold probably more than 200k copies this year in the US!
Currently, it is gone to even reach 250k copies.

RODSERLING said:

PURPLEIZED3121 said:

forgive my ignorance but would a million views on youtube generate much revenue for the estate?

Thanks for all the chart stats btw - really find your threads useful.

Thanks for your support! 1 million views = 1000 $ to share with the label, the performers, the writer, the guys who own the publishing rights... It s not for me a case of making the estate rich, but to see if a new Prince track generate some interest. Clearly, it doesn't generate much interest, but it generates much more interest than the SOTT deluxe tracks that were stuck at like 20/30k views. For a few days, Welcome 2 America did 50k views a day. Yesterday it did 11k views. It s better than the SDEs, worst than the Originals tracks.

1m = $1k ?! Ouch!

RODSERLING said:

Best selling albums in the US so far ( week 18) #27 Purple Rain (59 000) . Last year, at week 18, PR was #74 and sold "only" 27k copies! It sold in 2020 a total of 115 000 copies, including 98 000 vinyls. The trend I pointed out in the first post of this thread seems to confirm itself : PR will sold probably more than 200k copies this year in the US! Currently, it is gone to even reach 250k copies.

Really hoping that the Revolution get decent royalty cheques from these sales - Rod, any ideas on the maths?

PURPLEIZED3121 said:

Each member doesn't make more than a few cents on a 15$ vinyl

RODSERLING said:

PURPLEIZED3121 said:

Really hoping that the Revolution get decent royalty cheques from these sales - Rod, any ideas on the maths?

Each member doesn't make more than a few cents on a 15$ vinyl

that's really awful to hear. Thanks for the info as always.

Best selling albums in the US in 2021 so far, as of week 19 :

#1 Dangerous : the double album - Morgan Wallen ( 226 000)
#21 Thriller - Michael Jackson ( 70 000)
#27 Purple Rain - Prince ( 62 000)

I really don't know who the fuck Morgan Wallen is.
.
But, is this reality or are we trapped in the Twilight Zone?

Back in 1984, who would have bet than 38 years after, Purple Rain and Thriller would still be competing for best selling album of the year? Above Queen, The Beatles...
To this point, this is beyond charts and sales, we are talking About destiny here.

You don't wanna know who Morgan Wallen is.

Best streamed video on YouTube official Prince channel :

#1 When Doves Cry (80 millions long+ short versions)
#71 Gett Off ( Houstyle mix) - 615.000
#72 Welcome 2 America - 558.000
#73 Blue Light - 548.000

But the two best played Prince videos are not on his official channel!
This is of course Purple Rain (217 Millions!), whose video was released by a smart guy on 22th April of 2016, so it bemefitted from Prince's death.

The famous Prince solo on While My Guitar Gently Weeps made 101 Millions on the official Rocknroll Hall Of Fame channel, since its released 9 years Ago.

Talking about this guitar solo, the new director's cut that has been released last month has just made 1.4 millions on the director'channel + 431.000 on the RNRHOF channel.

Best selling albums in the US so far in 2021, as of week 20 :

#26 Purple Rain ( 66 000 copies sold in 2021)

Last year, as of week 20 it sold "only" 31 000 copies, so the album is still in the race to double up in 2021 its last year sales (115 000, including 98 000 vinyls).

For the first time in years, physical sales have considerably increased.

As of now, Physical market in 2021 has 27 millions albums sold.
Last year it was only at 21 millions at that time of the year.
This is due to the vinyl sales having double compared to last year, despite CD sales still decreasing slightly.

So the fact that old albums such as Purple Rain or Thriller double up their sales this year, is in fact logical and follows the evolution of the market.

Best selling album in the US in 2021 so far, as of week 21 :

#1 Dangerous : the double album - Morgan Wallen (231.000)
#26 Purple Rain (70.000)

That means that in 2 weeks, the official #1 album sold 5 000 copies, while Purple Rain sold 8 000 !

US Billboard Charts (12/06/2021)

Album sales charts :

#1 Evermore
#19 Purple Rain
#20 Thriller

Soundtrack sales :

#1 Moana
#2 Purple Rain
#3 Frozen

Vinyl sales

#7 Purple Rain

Interesting article in the Billboard :

Taylor Swift’s Evermore returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart for a fourth nonconsecutive week on top, as the set vaults 74-1 with 202,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending June 3 (up 1,709%), according to MRC Data. Of that sum, album sales comprise 192,000 (up 8,307%) — marking the biggest sales week of 2021. It surpasses the previous largest sales week of the year, when Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) sold 179,000 in its first week (chart dated April 24).

(...)
Evermore’s 74-1 move is the biggest positional jump to No. 1 since the Jan. 19, 2008, chart, when Radiohead’s In Rainbows flew 156-1 after street date violation sales pushed it onto the chart a week early. It’s worth noting that since In Rainbows hit No. 1, three albums have re-entered the chart at No. 1: Chris Stapleton’s Traveller (Nov. 21, 2015), Prince’s The Very Best of Prince (May 7, 2016) and Bon Jovi’s This House Is Not for Sale (March 10, 2018)