9 hours ago, perfillusion said:

When Spears and all the other teeny bopper acts of the late 90s would add millions to their album sales through "Club Sales."

Club Sales was a very popular way of consuming music back in the day, and all of the big names sold millions through them:

 

BMG Record Club Sales 1989 to early 2003

 

1990 - Madonna - Immaculate Collection - 1,460,000

1991 - Nirvana - Nevermind - 1,240,000
1991 - BoyzIImen - Cooleyhighharmony - 1,130,000
1991 - Natalie Cole - Unforgettable - 1,030,000
1991 - Michael Jackson - Dangerous - 298,000

1992 - Whitney Houston - Bodyguard - 1,310,000
1992 - Kenny G - Breathless - 1,290,000
1992 - Billy Ray Cyrus - Some Gave All - 1,080,000
1992 - En Vogue - Funky Divas - 916,000
1992 - Celine Dion - Celine Dion - 624,000

1993 - Ace of Base - The Sign - 1,080,000
1993 - Toni Braxton - Toni Braxton - 972,000
1993 - Meatload - Bat Out of Hell II - 909,000
1993 - Abba - Gold - 884,000
1993 - Janet Jackson - Janet - 860,000 Limited
1993 - Mariah Carey - Musicbox - 735,000
1993 - Prince - The Hits I - 501,000
1993 - Shania Twain - Shania Twain - 390,000

1994 - Hootie/Blowfish - Cracked - 1,300,000
1994 - BoyzIImen - II - 1,290,000
1994 - TLC - Crazysexycool - 1,270,000
1994 - Green Day - Dookie - 1,260,000
1994 - Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night - 833,000

1995 - Janet Jackson - Design of Decade - 1,480,000
1995 - Shania Twain - Woman In Me - 1,240,000
1995 - Waiting to Exhale Soundtrack - 886,000
1995 - Mariah Carey - Daydream - 848,000
1995 - Michael Jackson - History - 730,000
1995 - Alanis Morissette - Jagged - 350,000 Limited

1996 - Jewel - Pieces Of You - 1,400,000
1996 - No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom - 1,320,000
1996 - Celine Dion - Falling Into You - 987,000
1996 - Toni Braxton - Secrets - 927,000
1996 - Fugees - The Score - 822,000
1996 - Aaliyah - One in a Million - 756,000 Limited
1996 - Backstreet - Another Level - 733,000
1996 - Nutty Professor Soundtrack - 642,000
1996 - Sheryl Crow - Sheryl Crow - 500,000

1997 - Shania Twain - Come On Over - 1,990,000
1997 - Backstreet Boys - Backstreet Boys - 1,720,000
1997 - Will Smith - Big Willie Style - 1,290,000
1997 - Matchbox 20 - Yourself Or - 1,180,000
1997 - Notorious BIG - Life After Death - 1,120,000
1997 - Celine Dion - Lets Talk About Love - 1,110,000
1997 - Sarah McLachlan - Surfacing - 985,000
1997 - Puff Daddy - No Way Out - 978,000
1997 - Titanic Soundtrack - 971,000
1997 - Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind - 842,000
1997 - Usher - My Way - 796,000
1997 - Selena - Dreaming Of You - 745,000
1997 - Mary J Blige - Share My World - 559,000
1997 - Janet Jackson - Velvet Rope - 420,000 Limited

1998 - N Sync - N Sync - 1,500,000
1998 - Dixie Chicks - Wide Open Spaces - 1,280,000
1998 - Mariah Carey - Number Ones - 1,000,000
1998 - Lauryn Hill - Miseducation - 880,000
1998 - DMX - It's Dark - 857,000
1998 - Brandy - Never Say Never - 665,000
1998 - Jewel - Spirit - 521,000
1998 - Madonna - Ray Of Light - 459,000

1999 - Britney Spears - Baby One More Time - 1,600,000
1999 - Backstreet Boys - Millenium - 1,590,000
1999 - Kid Rock - Devil Without A Cause - 1,310,000
1999 - Santana - Supernatural - 1,260,000
1999 - Eminem - Slim Shady - 1,160,000
1999 - Celine Dion - Decade Of Song - 1,100,000
1999 - Ricky Martin - Ricky Martin - 987,000
1999 - Christine Aguilera - Christine Aguilera - 935,000
1999 - TLC - Fanmail - 877,000
1999 - Destiny's Child - Writing on the Wall - 703,000
1999 - Kenny G - Faith - 503,000
1999 - LFO - LFO - 456,000
1999 - Mariah Carey - Rainbow - 443,000

2000 - Eminem - Marshal Mathers - 1,540,000
2000 - N Sync - No Strings - 1,520,000
2000 - Britney Spears - Oooops - 1,210,000
2000 - Backstreet Boys - Black and Blue - 992,000
2000 - Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory - 826,000

2001 - Alicia Keys - Songs in A Minor - 995,000
2001 - N Sync - Celebrity - 826,000
2001 - Nickelback - Silver Side Up - 692,000
2001 - Britney Spears - Britney - 588,000
2001 - Destiny's Child - Survivor - 439,000
2001 - Aaliyah - Aaliyah - 350,000 Limited

2002 - Shania Twain - Up - 477,000 Limited

 

https://www.ukmix.org/forum/chart-discussion/chart-analysis/36339-bmg-record-club-sales-analysis

 

Forgot to mention, I don't think Billboard ever counted club sales on their charts 

Edited April 22, 20224 yr by Jeremiah

24 minutes ago, EnigmaticAndroid said:

 

Well Riri 

Ya my 2014 self would be a hypocrite

Gotta be the hundreds of millions of streams that Tidal pulled out of thin air. It was funny watching the hive try and defend the numbers as though they were even somewhat reasonable and dismiss the whole thing as a smear piece by a racist Norwegian newspaper.

A few thousand BTS stans sharing credit cards and coordinating online to mass-buy their singles week after week to keep it afloat on the charts is definitely the worst. Pure fraudulence that made Billboard look like a joke.

 

Runner-up is TIDAL literally faking streams to boost Lemonade first week sales, someone did the math and every single account at the time would've needed to be streaming it 24/7 for the numbers to make sense, the only reason it's not #1 is because it seems to have been hushed up meanwhile we all saw the BTS stans on Twitter so we have concrete proof of that

 

Honorable mentions:

 

That U2 album that was forcefully uploaded onto people's iPods

 

Born This Way 99 cents oferta

 

Dua adding all these droplets and features from other artist's albums to her own albums to inflate certifications

 

Trollz going #1 because of stans mass buying online bundles

 

Taylor's Moonlight Candlelit, Witchy, Techno, Reggaeton, Polka, etc. remixes so she could get a quick lil #1 during her poetess in the woods era

 

Romance and Changes selling thousands of copies as part of tour bundles for tours that were then cancelled

 

30 being 3x Platinum because there are 700k copies gathering dust in Targets across America

It's nice being a fan of an organically succesful artisteeee

3 hours ago, unclefloprry said:

You talk like Prisoner was a hit or something lmao 

 

The week FN Moonlight was released, Plastic Hearts dropped from 34 to 78 on the BB200 after having previously spent 11 straight weeks in the top 40 

 

 It fell out of the top 100 (and then 200) pretty quickly after that too 

3 hours ago, Istan4R said:

I honestly don’t know. I haven’t really been a Rih fan since 2014.

 

Does that diminish the fact that Gaga still sold hers for a dollar though?

 

Quickly

This what you came back with?  

8 hours ago, moonlitdick said:

Lolz she ate that and you’re mad!!  

 

 

I was about to answer the same thing 

 

14 hours ago, Erreur2 La Nature said:

I still remember the Hive defending Tidal’s numbers as if they made any sense  That was such a funny time 

Can someone explain the Tidal streams thing? I’ve never understood what happened 

 

OT: Dua adding prisoner to FN when she’s a feature, labels sending songs to radio before their release so they could go #1 (Mariah’s team shameless lol) and Taylor releasing like 8 remixes for 39 cents 

27 minutes ago, Hurem said:

This what you came back with?  

Ya lmao what did you expect me to say when you randomly brought up a pop girls sales that I don’t Stan anymore 

 

Quickly

15 hours ago, mlaredoperez said:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mariah-carey-is-a-true-star-but-her-career-is-based_b_586c236ee4b068764965c508

"At the time of the article, “Loverboy” was being discounted to 49 cents and many stores were giving the song away for free. That song ended up hitting No. 2, despite tanking on radio. The song’s lack of success was one of the reasons for Mariah’s well-documented breakdown in 2001."

 

"In mid-1997, Mariah released the song “Honey,” which was not doing so well on the radio, at least not as well as expected. Call out research on the song was only average. However, when Sony discounted the song to 49 cents, the song immediately hit No. 1. Sony and Billboard were trying to give an illusion that Mariah was still a chart-topper, and it worked to a certain extent. In the spring of 1998, Mariah released another “No. 1” song, “My All,” which would have only been a top 10 hit had it not been discounted for 49 cents. The same could be said for future Mariah Carey “No. 1” songs such as “Heartbreaker” and “Thank God I Found You.”

 

 

Mariah definitely takes the crown when it comes to being The Queen of Chart Manipulation 

 

The New York Times even made her a focus of an article they wrote on chart manipulation when that trick was pulled on One Sweet Day too 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/25/arts/are-pop-charts-manipulated.html

 

The label also encouraged a rush of sales in the early weeks by giving out free copies to stores reporting to Soundscan or by offering them four singles for the price of one. Stores could then put "One Sweet Day" on sale for 49 to 99 cents, more than $2 below the average price of a single. This has become a common practice for promoting high-priority releases.

bts stealing 10 weeks from good 4 u is a crime 

Beyonce's Fraudmonade.

 

"Beyoncé’s and Kanye West’s listener numbers on TIDAL have been manipulated to the tune of several hundred million false plays… which has generated massive royalty payouts at the expense of other artists.

 

 

14 hours ago, perfillusion said:

When Spears and all the other teeny bopper acts of the late 90s would add millions to their album sales through "Club Sales."

can you explain more? i've always seen club sales mentioned but I never knew exactly what it meant.

14 hours ago, Mitsouko said:

Mariah (or anyone else) discounting singles or albums, back when both actually sold, isn't that bad. It's not even unethical. Music is an industry like any other and those sales were real sales, not fanbase-fueled BTS-type fraudulence. But this however...

Absolutely appalling, deplorable, regrettable, disgusting, grimy as hell, etc.

y'all cling to that article, when it's one of the only articles to say that

38 minutes ago, thetea said:

can you explain more? i've always seen club sales mentioned but I never knew exactly what it meant.

y'all cling to that article, when it's one of the only articles to say that

It’s literally only ever that article which cited horrible sources such as ONE store owner who found ONE mislabeled album and didn’t even sell it - and used it to make a claim that there were widespread barcode issues. Meanwhile Mariah was one of the only major artists not cited as an example of fraudulent activity in the extensive Sony lawsuit (while that user’s fave was).

If Mariah discounting a song is an issue we should all delete our faves  

 

I’m sure Mariah wasn’t the only person to discount either. Lots of artists might have done it but it only worked for Mariah. I find it very smart tbh. She is very close to 20 #1s  

Nothing will top Anti Samsung scam and her team begging and arguing with Billboard to count those free copies as real sales

5 hours ago, brainmaniac said:

The New York Times even made her a focus of an article they wrote on chart manipulation when that trick was pulled on One Sweet Day too 

 

you literally can't fake 16 weeks at #1. it would be impossible.

 

2 hours ago, suburbannature said:

It’s literally only ever that article which cited horrible sources such as ONE store owner who found ONE mislabeled album and didn’t even sell it - and used it to make a claim that there were widespread barcode issues. Meanwhile Mariah was one of the only major artists not cited as an example of fraudulent activity in the extensive Sony lawsuit (while that user’s fave was).

exactly. they cling to this article when it's the only article to say that. people really need to do research and not blindly believe random articles that fulfil their narrative

Gaga 99c deal

Beyonce and Kanye's Tidal Fake stream

 

6 minutes ago, thetea said:

you literally can't fake 16 weeks at #1. it would be impossible.

Says who? We don’t know how long the One Sweet Day discount was in effect. And The NY Times article mentioned it was “weeks”

1 minute ago, brainmaniac said:

Says who? We don’t know how long the One Sweet Day discount was in effect. And The NY Times article mentioned it was “weeks”

if you had bothered to read what @suburbannature said then you'd know that was untrue. Discounting a single doesn't mean that anyone will buy it at the discounted price, and for 16 weeks at that. Sure, maybe her team made its stay at #1 longer by discounting it, but it'd be impossible to fake that record without real demand for the song which it had. It got that record because of high airplay and sales, if it were possible to fake that record then why haven't other artists been able to do it until recently? 

21 hours ago, Johnny Jacobs said:

Lady gaga's 99 cent album sale.. 

 

 

BTS in General 

 

Taylor releasing folklore with 9 different covers (it was iconic tho tbh) 

 

It was 8 covers and Billboard only counts 4 copies per person so even if some buy the 8 copies only 4 were counted. Also 4 cover or more cover it’s very common nowadays, we have seen Katy, Justin, Ariana and all of them fail miserably to have decent pure sales

32 minutes ago, thetea said:

if you had bothered to read what @suburbannature said then you'd know that was untrue. Discounting a single doesn't mean that anyone will buy it at the discounted price, and for 16 weeks at that. Sure, maybe her team made its stay at #1 longer by discounting it, but it'd be impossible to fake that record without real demand for the song which it had. It got that record because of high airplay and sales, if it were possible to fake that record then why haven't other artists been able to do it until recently? 

No one said that a gun was held to the heads of consumers and they were forced to buy One Sweet Day or else, but the article mentions that the singles were discounted nearly 90 percent from 3 dollars to 49 cents and obviously a huge discount of that level will be a huge motivation for people on the fence or more casual fans 

 

Again, the article doesn’t say how long the discount was for, so we can’t say it was for 16 weeks or not. But they do indicate that it wasn’t just for 1 week

Edited April 22, 20224 yr by brainmaniac

12 hours ago, Jeremiah said:

Club Sales was a very popular way of consuming music back in the day, and all of the big names sold millions through them:

 

BMG Record Club Sales 1989 to early 2003

 

1990 - Madonna - Immaculate Collection - 1,460,000

1991 - Nirvana - Nevermind - 1,240,000
1991 - BoyzIImen - Cooleyhighharmony - 1,130,000
1991 - Natalie Cole - Unforgettable - 1,030,000
1991 - Michael Jackson - Dangerous - 298,000

1992 - Whitney Houston - Bodyguard - 1,310,000
1992 - Kenny G - Breathless - 1,290,000
1992 - Billy Ray Cyrus - Some Gave All - 1,080,000
1992 - En Vogue - Funky Divas - 916,000
1992 - Celine Dion - Celine Dion - 624,000

1993 - Ace of Base - The Sign - 1,080,000
1993 - Toni Braxton - Toni Braxton - 972,000
1993 - Meatload - Bat Out of Hell II - 909,000
1993 - Abba - Gold - 884,000
1993 - Janet Jackson - Janet - 860,000 Limited
1993 - Mariah Carey - Musicbox - 735,000
1993 - Prince - The Hits I - 501,000
1993 - Shania Twain - Shania Twain - 390,000

1994 - Hootie/Blowfish - Cracked - 1,300,000
1994 - BoyzIImen - II - 1,290,000
1994 - TLC - Crazysexycool - 1,270,000
1994 - Green Day - Dookie - 1,260,000
1994 - Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night - 833,000

1995 - Janet Jackson - Design of Decade - 1,480,000
1995 - Shania Twain - Woman In Me - 1,240,000
1995 - Waiting to Exhale Soundtrack - 886,000
1995 - Mariah Carey - Daydream - 848,000
1995 - Michael Jackson - History - 730,000
1995 - Alanis Morissette - Jagged - 350,000 Limited

1996 - Jewel - Pieces Of You - 1,400,000
1996 - No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom - 1,320,000
1996 - Celine Dion - Falling Into You - 987,000
1996 - Toni Braxton - Secrets - 927,000
1996 - Fugees - The Score - 822,000
1996 - Aaliyah - One in a Million - 756,000 Limited
1996 - Backstreet - Another Level - 733,000
1996 - Nutty Professor Soundtrack - 642,000
1996 - Sheryl Crow - Sheryl Crow - 500,000

1997 - Shania Twain - Come On Over - 1,990,000
1997 - Backstreet Boys - Backstreet Boys - 1,720,000
1997 - Will Smith - Big Willie Style - 1,290,000
1997 - Matchbox 20 - Yourself Or - 1,180,000
1997 - Notorious BIG - Life After Death - 1,120,000
1997 - Celine Dion - Lets Talk About Love - 1,110,000
1997 - Sarah McLachlan - Surfacing - 985,000
1997 - Puff Daddy - No Way Out - 978,000
1997 - Titanic Soundtrack - 971,000
1997 - Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind - 842,000
1997 - Usher - My Way - 796,000
1997 - Selena - Dreaming Of You - 745,000
1997 - Mary J Blige - Share My World - 559,000
1997 - Janet Jackson - Velvet Rope - 420,000 Limited

1998 - N Sync - N Sync - 1,500,000
1998 - Dixie Chicks - Wide Open Spaces - 1,280,000
1998 - Mariah Carey - Number Ones - 1,000,000
1998 - Lauryn Hill - Miseducation - 880,000
1998 - DMX - It's Dark - 857,000
1998 - Brandy - Never Say Never - 665,000
1998 - Jewel - Spirit - 521,000
1998 - Madonna - Ray Of Light - 459,000

1999 - Britney Spears - Baby One More Time - 1,600,000
1999 - Backstreet Boys - Millenium - 1,590,000
1999 - Kid Rock - Devil Without A Cause - 1,310,000
1999 - Santana - Supernatural - 1,260,000
1999 - Eminem - Slim Shady - 1,160,000
1999 - Celine Dion - Decade Of Song - 1,100,000
1999 - Ricky Martin - Ricky Martin - 987,000
1999 - Christine Aguilera - Christine Aguilera - 935,000
1999 - TLC - Fanmail - 877,000
1999 - Destiny's Child - Writing on the Wall - 703,000
1999 - Kenny G - Faith - 503,000
1999 - LFO - LFO - 456,000
1999 - Mariah Carey - Rainbow - 443,000

2000 - Eminem - Marshal Mathers - 1,540,000
2000 - N Sync - No Strings - 1,520,000
2000 - Britney Spears - Oooops - 1,210,000
2000 - Backstreet Boys - Black and Blue - 992,000
2000 - Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory - 826,000

2001 - Alicia Keys - Songs in A Minor - 995,000
2001 - N Sync - Celebrity - 826,000
2001 - Nickelback - Silver Side Up - 692,000
2001 - Britney Spears - Britney - 588,000
2001 - Destiny's Child - Survivor - 439,000
2001 - Aaliyah - Aaliyah - 350,000 Limited

2002 - Shania Twain - Up - 477,000 Limited

 

https://www.ukmix.org/forum/chart-discussion/chart-analysis/36339-bmg-record-club-sales-analysis

 

Forgot to mention, I don't think Billboard ever counted club sales on their charts 

What are club sales? Could you explain me please?

Pablo actually made big numbers (at the time) when it was released to Spotify, it went #1 off streams alone

TIDAL comes to mind instantly... the way ATRL mods would give you WPs for even mentioning it, and they just getting away with it unscathed. SHAME!