gj wrote:Arriving late, but I found some of your numbers not correct or questionable.
Like 31m for Tim McGraw, when his RIAA shipments are around the 26-27m. Hard to believe, that his label would not update so much.
Same with A. Jackson. I think his Soundscan numbers are high too.
And does Shania's numbers include updates on The Woman In Me, and the numbers of her debut album?
Soundscan gave a Tim McGraw total of 26.3m in july 2004. Then his new album was released and has sold over 3.2m and is still on the chart selling 18,400 this week. Then his catalogue, particularly Greatest Hits (which is still on the chart) sells consistently well. So I see no problem at all with 31m, it is a conservative estimate.
Certifications, in his case, will lag soundscan sales. For example his Greatest Hits has sold 4,587,900. It is 4x platinum. Therefore it is 587,900 over its certification. It will have to reach 5m to get a new riaa award. Most of his catalogue has higher soundscan sales than his riaa certifications.
Before posting any of these figures I had to meticulously research each artists' catalogue. You have to believe me when I say this takes a huge amount of time. The aim is to get the most accurate possible figures.
Exactly the same reasoning applies to Alan Jackson. His official sales released by soundscan in july 2003 was 29.9m and my current estimate including sales of his new album and extensive catalogue is 32m. Conservative again.
I'm therefore disappointed that you find these figures questionable. Hell, I don't like their music, but that is irrelevant. Like it or not they are huge sellers in the US.
Shania Twain's total soundscan figure in july 2004 was 29.1m. And yes, this does include her entire catalogue. The Woman in Me sold 7,600,000 to february 2005. As with Time McCraw and Alan Jackson, I've added her sales since. Her soundscan sales are lower than the riaa total because she has sold so many through record clubs. Check on
http://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.p ... 47&start=0
to see her riaa sales, plus soundscan, plus some of the record club figures.
I have only posted totals for artists that I have accurate information on. If sales of only
one album by an artist is not available, I cannot post a total. This was the case for Eminem - I didn't have an up to date figure for just one album! As you see above, this information was kindly posted and now I can go ahead and added Eminem to the list.
These figures did not come out of thin air. If you do have better figures, please post them.
