Comments on: Toppling ‘The Wall’: The Farce Of Double-Counting In The RIAA’s All-Time Platinum List http://idolator.com/5051293/toppling-the-wall-the-farce-of-double-counting-in-the-riaas-all-time-platinum-list Music News, Reviews, and Gossip on Idolator.com Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:30:32 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: omega23 http://idolator.com/5051293/toppling-the-wall-the-farce-of-double-counting-in-the-riaas-all-time-platinum-list/comment-page-1#comment-923051 omega23 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:06:06 +0000 3a42c1d734f245e6f6562cb4c1448f7e#comment-923051 @<a href="#comment-711082" rel="nofollow">Chris Molanphy</a>: What got me here was trying to find the last time Prince's "Purple Rain" received certification. I feel like it has been sitting at 13 million as long as I've been tracking album sales. It must be higher by now. @Chris Molanphy: What got me here was trying to find the last time Prince’s “Purple Rain” received certification. I feel like it has been sitting at 13 million as long as I’ve been tracking album sales. It must be higher by now.

]]> By: omega23 http://idolator.com/5051293/toppling-the-wall-the-farce-of-double-counting-in-the-riaas-all-time-platinum-list/comment-page-1#comment-923041 omega23 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:00:37 +0000 3a42c1d734f245e6f6562cb4c1448f7e#comment-923041 @<a href="#comment-711082" rel="nofollow">Chris Molanphy</a>: I totally agree with Chris M., and thank you Chris for putting this out there. As to the guy who said "who cares," how did you get here? You navigated your way to this page, read the thread, added a comment, and yet you still failed to realize this is a talking point about the most successful, biggest-selling albums in the history of the most successful country (in history). Anyhow, my thoughts on the revised list are that it doesn't have this strange emergence of titles that pop-up simply b/c of a policy-change that is nothing more than a loophole to artists such as Garth Brooks who, as mentioned above, milked the policy and probably spotlighted how it will eventually have to be replaced. Let's hope so. And when looking at those titles I can't recall them ever having the sustained impact of titles like "Rumours" or Shania Twain's "Come On Over." These were industry-defining statements that often have one thing in common: nobody could have ever predicted their widespread, massive international success. But something tells me that the Garth Brooks camp was well aware of the RIAA doulbe-counting policy that so benefitted his "Double Live." And as for Use Your Illusion I & II, this was a case where both cd's actually cost the price of: two albums! This is never the case with these double-discs, and apparently was not the case before my time either. The week that UYI I & II were released they both sold neighboorhood 700K each, prob over 1.5M combined. If it were sold as a double-disc that would stand as one of the biggest weeks ever for an album and would have probably been #1 at the time, even though it would have likely included only around 700K-800K individual buyers. These are all asterisk-noted sales figures, to me. @Chris Molanphy: I totally agree with Chris M., and thank you Chris for putting this out there. As to the guy who said “who cares,” how did you get here? You navigated your way to this page, read the thread, added a comment, and yet you still failed to realize this is a talking point about the most successful, biggest-selling albums in the history of the most successful country (in history). Anyhow, my thoughts on the revised list are that it doesn’t have this strange emergence of titles that pop-up simply b/c of a policy-change that is nothing more than a loophole to artists such as Garth Brooks who, as mentioned above, milked the policy and probably spotlighted how it will eventually have to be replaced. Let’s hope so. And when looking at those titles I can’t recall them ever having the sustained impact of titles like “Rumours” or Shania Twain’s “Come On Over.” These were industry-defining statements that often have one thing in common: nobody could have ever predicted their widespread, massive international success. But something tells me that the Garth Brooks camp was well aware of the RIAA doulbe-counting policy that so benefitted his “Double Live.” And as for Use Your Illusion I & II, this was a case where both cd’s actually cost the price of: two albums! This is never the case with these double-discs, and apparently was not the case before my time either. The week that UYI I & II were released they both sold neighboorhood 700K each, prob over 1.5M combined. If it were sold as a double-disc that would stand as one of the biggest weeks ever for an album and would have probably been #1 at the time, even though it would have likely included only around 700K-800K individual buyers. These are all asterisk-noted sales figures, to me.

]]> By: DocStrange http://idolator.com/5051293/toppling-the-wall-the-farce-of-double-counting-in-the-riaas-all-time-platinum-list/comment-page-1#comment-711072 DocStrange Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:33:15 +0000 3a42c1d734f245e6f6562cb4c1448f7e#comment-711072 <P>@<A href="http://idolator.com/5051293/toppling-the-wall-the-farce-of-double+counting-in-the-riaas-all+time-platinum-list#c7834519">Chris Molanphy</A>: Not only that, as much as I love <I>Dark Side</I> and believe it is culturally important, sonically innovative and should easily be your first Floyd purchase (it definitely shouldn't be that Greatest Hits album that Capitol and/or Columbia put out a few years ago. I refuse to recognize its existance for excluding "Free Four"), it's not the band's best album (<I>Wish You Were Here</I> is).</P> <P>I'll also mention that I <I>do</I> love <I>The Wall</I> (notably "Hey You", "Run Like Hell" and "Comfortably Numb"), but no one remembers it being so popular that it's allegedly the fourth biggest selling album of all time. This is why I believe that <I>Dark Side</I> has to have easily sold more copies (it was on the chart non-stop from 1973 until 1988 and there's an urban legend that there's a record pressing plant in Germany thats sole purpose is to produce copies of the album. I don't know how long <I>The Wall</I> was on, but it sure didn't sell as much, hence why I believe it only sold as half as many copies as it the RIAA does)</P> @Chris Molanphy: Not only that, as much as I love Dark Side and believe it is culturally important, sonically innovative and should easily be your first Floyd purchase (it definitely shouldn’t be that Greatest Hits album that Capitol and/or Columbia put out a few years ago. I refuse to recognize its existance for excluding “Free Four”), it’s not the band’s best album (Wish You Were Here is).

I’ll also mention that I do love The Wall (notably “Hey You”, “Run Like Hell” and “Comfortably Numb”), but no one remembers it being so popular that it’s allegedly the fourth biggest selling album of all time. This is why I believe that Dark Side has to have easily sold more copies (it was on the chart non-stop from 1973 until 1988 and there’s an urban legend that there’s a record pressing plant in Germany thats sole purpose is to produce copies of the album. I don’t know how long The Wall was on, but it sure didn’t sell as much, hence why I believe it only sold as half as many copies as it the RIAA does)

]]> By: Chris Molanphy http://idolator.com/5051293/toppling-the-wall-the-farce-of-double-counting-in-the-riaas-all-time-platinum-list/comment-page-1#comment-711082 Chris Molanphy Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:53:46 +0000 3a42c1d734f245e6f6562cb4c1448f7e#comment-711082 <p>@<a href="#c7832292">DocStrange</a>: Thank you for chiming in. You and I are on opposite sides of the aisle on Floyd (barring a handful of tracks, I mostly can't stand 'em), but I'm glad you agree with me that it's a perversion of history to call the record that happens to be their big double-album their best-seller. You feel the same way about Floyd and <i>The Wall</i> that I feel about the Beatles and the White Album.</p> <p>(And BTW, you actually underestimate <i>Dark Side</i> a bit -- it doesn't have "pretty good sales to this day," it has <i>insane</i> weekly sales for a record that's that old. A <i>Billboard</i> feature a couple of years ago about the album's longevity pointed out that at certain points in recent years it's sold as much as 10,000 copies a week. I mean, that's better than the <i>entire bottom half of a typical week's Billboard album chart</i>. Crazy. I may not like Floyd, but: damn, props.)</p> <p>Re: Hootie -- what's most fun about the list above (both RIAA-corrupt and my revision) is how it throws together albums that have sold steadily over time with one- to two-year flashes in the pan. I'd say Hootie is just about the flashiest, whereas Meat Loaf's <i>Bat Out of Hell</i> is the tortoise--never rose higher than No. 14, but it sells a couple hundred thousand a year, like clockwork.</p> @DocStrange: Thank you for chiming in. You and I are on opposite sides of the aisle on Floyd (barring a handful of tracks, I mostly can’t stand ‘em), but I’m glad you agree with me that it’s a perversion of history to call the record that happens to be their big double-album their best-seller. You feel the same way about Floyd and The Wall that I feel about the Beatles and the White Album.

(And BTW, you actually underestimate Dark Side a bit — it doesn’t have “pretty good sales to this day,” it has insane weekly sales for a record that’s that old. A Billboard feature a couple of years ago about the album’s longevity pointed out that at certain points in recent years it’s sold as much as 10,000 copies a week. I mean, that’s better than the entire bottom half of a typical week’s Billboard album chart. Crazy. I may not like Floyd, but: damn, props.)

Re: Hootie — what’s most fun about the list above (both RIAA-corrupt and my revision) is how it throws together albums that have sold steadily over time with one- to two-year flashes in the pan. I’d say Hootie is just about the flashiest, whereas Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell is the tortoise–never rose higher than No. 14, but it sells a couple hundred thousand a year, like clockwork.

]]> By: CarsmileSteve http://idolator.com/5051293/toppling-the-wall-the-farce-of-double-counting-in-the-riaas-all-time-platinum-list/comment-page-1#comment-711092 CarsmileSteve Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:48:24 +0000 3a42c1d734f245e6f6562cb4c1448f7e#comment-711092 <P>mmmmmmmmm, lovely stats. i ♥ stuff like this.</P> mmmmmmmmm, lovely stats. i ♥ stuff like this.

]]> By: DocStrange http://idolator.com/5051293/toppling-the-wall-the-farce-of-double-counting-in-the-riaas-all-time-platinum-list/comment-page-1#comment-711102 DocStrange Thu, 18 Sep 2008 01:04:16 +0000 3a42c1d734f245e6f6562cb4c1448f7e#comment-711102 <p>Again, as a Pink Floyd fanboy (who was devastated at the loss of Rick Wright as well), the whole "<i>The Wall</i> sold 25 million copies" thing always pisses me off too. It really doesn't matter since <i>Dark Side of the Moon</i> (a much better album which still has pretty good sales to this day) sold more copies around the world if you count <i>The Wall</i> as a double album or not.</p> <p>On a side note, it is truly depressing that Hootie & The Blowfish sold that many albums. What were we thinking?</p> Again, as a Pink Floyd fanboy (who was devastated at the loss of Rick Wright as well), the whole “The Wall sold 25 million copies” thing always pisses me off too. It really doesn’t matter since Dark Side of the Moon (a much better album which still has pretty good sales to this day) sold more copies around the world if you count The Wall as a double album or not.

On a side note, it is truly depressing that Hootie & The Blowfish sold that many albums. What were we thinking?

]]> By: Aaron Poehler http://idolator.com/5051293/toppling-the-wall-the-farce-of-double-counting-in-the-riaas-all-time-platinum-list/comment-page-1#comment-711112 Aaron Poehler Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:30:54 +0000 3a42c1d734f245e6f6562cb4c1448f7e#comment-711112 <p>The entire point of the system is to generate BS promotional statistics, just like the Grammys, the top album sales charts, etc. and it's all rotten with corruption from top to bottom, so while I agree the stats on multiple-disc albums are bullshit, it's only the tip of the iceberg.</p> The entire point of the system is to generate BS promotional statistics, just like the Grammys, the top album sales charts, etc. and it’s all rotten with corruption from top to bottom, so while I agree the stats on multiple-disc albums are bullshit, it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

]]> By: moulty http://idolator.com/5051293/toppling-the-wall-the-farce-of-double-counting-in-the-riaas-all-time-platinum-list/comment-page-1#comment-711122 moulty Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:55:13 +0000 3a42c1d734f245e6f6562cb4c1448f7e#comment-711122 <p>Buy more copies of <i>Purple Rain</i> people!</p> Buy more copies of Purple Rain people!

]]> By: How do I say this ... THROWDINI! http://idolator.com/5051293/toppling-the-wall-the-farce-of-double-counting-in-the-riaas-all-time-platinum-list/comment-page-1#comment-711132 How do I say this ... THROWDINI! Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:04:04 +0000 3a42c1d734f245e6f6562cb4c1448f7e#comment-711132 <P>@<A href="http://idolator.com/5051293/toppling-the-wall-the-farce-of-double+counting-in-the-riaas-all+time-platinum-list#c7821803">Chris Molanphy</A>: Yeah, I can see that people would want Michael to be #1, even given all of his, let's say, issues. For me, besides being a big Michael fan, its because I always consider Thriller to be the "true" best selling album because the Eagles album is a Greatest Hits compilation, which seems like cheating to me. <I>Of course</I>, its easier to sell more copies of an album that's <I>all</I> hits. (Not that Thriller wasn't mostly hits, but you know what I mean.)</P> @Chris Molanphy: Yeah, I can see that people would want Michael to be #1, even given all of his, let’s say, issues. For me, besides being a big Michael fan, its because I always consider Thriller to be the “true” best selling album because the Eagles album is a Greatest Hits compilation, which seems like cheating to me. Of course, its easier to sell more copies of an album that’s all hits. (Not that Thriller wasn’t mostly hits, but you know what I mean.)

]]> By: Chris Molanphy http://idolator.com/5051293/toppling-the-wall-the-farce-of-double-counting-in-the-riaas-all-time-platinum-list/comment-page-1#comment-711142 Chris Molanphy Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:10:36 +0000 3a42c1d734f245e6f6562cb4c1448f7e#comment-711142 <p>@<a href="#c7821440">Elijah-M</a>: Whoops, you're right -- my bad. According to Wikipedia, it's 99 minutes long! Damn!</p> @Elijah-M: Whoops, you’re right — my bad. According to Wikipedia, it’s 99 minutes long! Damn!

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