“I dunno what the rule on timing is, but I would guess that digital albums are reported to the RIAA by the labels for certification at the same time as shipments. It’s a strange system, since one number represents an actual sale while the other represents a potential sale; but the RIAA isn’t going to change the shipment rule for physical product now.”

They are indeed. Once you get the right number of shipments, you grab those and the digital figures, send them all to the legal firm the RIAA uses, and within a day or two they let you know you’re certified.

The problem with the “sales to customer” rule is that it can only come from SoundScan which uses a formula to extrapolate sales from stores that don’t report to them. Although shipments are fakey, SoundScan numbers are fakier. The truly funhouse stuff starts when you see SoundScan sales that are higher than shipments (happens more often than you think).

@Chris or someone who knows: “gotta feeling” (thankfully) overtook “boom boom pow” on the hot 100, and no Jackson songs are up there. Is there a lag in singles sales reporting or something? I feel like his songs should be all over the top 10 based on sales alone (and I’m sure airplay has spiked considerably as well).

I think the best baseball comparison is Babe Ruth vs. Hank Aaron, with MJ in the Babe Ruth role. Aaron didn’t have any outstanding years; from what it seems like, people just looked up one day and he was closing in on 700 home runs. I don’t know the figures, but I’m guessing the Eagles got their sales the same way. So I don’t think it’s a matter of album vs. greatest-hits package — it’s a preference for the fervor of a specific cultural moment over a steady trickle of buyers going “Hey, ‘Witchy Woman,’” shrugging and tossing it in the cart alongside the laundry detergent.*

* rash generalization

I think that’s a great solution. It would also hopefully discourage labels from issuing more compilations from an artist than albums of original material. OK, probably not, but I can dream.

I’m in the “Compilations shouldn’t count” camp. If the case were Hotel California -vs- Essential MJ I would be on the side of Hotel California.

@k-rex: I’ve disliked The Eagles for far longer than Lewbowski (which I’ve never seen) has existed.

The fact is, a “best of” or “greatest hits” isn’t an album. I could go in depth like Throwdini or others, but I don’t think that even needs explanation. I think it’s dumb that those are counted towards #1 album sales. If I asked someone what their favorite Bowie album is, and they said Changes, I’d say “No, what’s your favorite ALBUM?”. Same in this case, although I know Idolator has a lot of chart junkies, but I’d say “No, that’s a greatest hits…I asked whats the greatest selling ALBUM”.

First, while I will admit to loving Michael Jackson, I am agnostic on the Eagles, and don’t really care about them one way or another. I don’t even consider them to make the music of an “average American” that should be looked down upon by music snobs, but rather just older music that my parents liked that I never really got into.

My bias out of the way, to me, its just that a great hits compilation seems like cheating. Of course people will buy a greatest hits album, as it represents great songs made over an extended period of time. But its really a celebration of an artist, not an album, which, to me at least, is what the greatest selling album of all time should be — a celebration of an album. Thriller sold so many albums because Quincy Jones and MJ came together to make a whole bunch of fantastic songs at once. The Eagles sold so many albums because they had a lot of hit songs. There is a distinct difference in those two scenerios.

A comparison might be Barry Bonds/Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa v. Lou Gehrig. Yeah, Gehrig is no longer the single season home run king, but those other guys had to cheat a bit to hit more than 61 homeruns. Yeah, they still hit the home runs, but the record counts a little less because of means by which they got there.

Has anyone ever asked the Eagles for their thoughts on the matter? Or if they would make a difference to them to know that they released an album of entirely new songs that sold as much as Thriller or their own greatest hits collection.

Yes, there’s plenty of people who can’t stand the Eagles (and I’m not gonna argue over personal taste), but I’ve got a feeling that the people complaining about a compilation being #1 would be upset regardless of the artist (at least I hope so, cuz otherwise it’s a bit hypocritical, no?).

Personally, I think it’s kinda silly to get riled up about the whole compilation/album issue in the first place. I mean, in a world where the industry is bottoming out (partly) thanks to our ability to save $20 and get only the songs we *actually want* … of *course* there’s gonna be a good deal of compliations leading the charts! Can that really be a surprise?

I don’t wanna put words in others’ mouths, but to be honest, whether someone’s upset because it’s the Eagles or because it’s a comp, I think it boils down to basically the same issue: hardcore music fiends (I’m trying to avoid slipping into negative name-calling) who are upset that our top selling disc is a symbol of the “average American” (i.e., people who enjoy repetition/familiarity in what they listen to, see music as background for other tasks, etc…you know, the Wal-Mart shoppers who outnumber independent record store shoppers a hundred to one).

Not trying to be snarky or stir up trouble; that’s just honestly the vibe I get. Seems like a stratification issue. I’d love to be proven wrong; anyone care to explain what’s wrong with a compilation (any compilation) holding the record?

What if the situation was the converse? Eagles’ Hotel California was number one, and we wanted Michael Jackson’s Number Ones to overtake it (again)? Would you be defending the Eagles?

I love you for giving me this idea in time for a long weekend :)

The policy ever since iTunes went online is that, if you buy a “bundle” of songs designated as an album — from iTunes, Amazon, etc. — then the industry, Soundscan, Billboard, etc. track it as an album for charting and certification purposes. So digital Thrillers are just as good as shipped Thrillers for Sony’s purposes.

I dunno what the rule on timing is, but I would guess that digital albums are reported to the RIAA by the labels for certification at the same time as shipments. It’s a strange system, since one number represents an actual sale while the other represents a potential sale; but the RIAA isn’t going to change the shipment rule for physical product now.