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It is essential to provide reliable sources when editing this article. For examples, see the references section. Unsourced or unreliably sourced additions will be removed immediately.
The list is frequently edited in good faith; however, sales figures published by reliable sources may need to be verified with certification databases to avoid inflated figures. Albums without sufficient certifications to support published claimed figures may not be added to the list. Editors should expect all albums' claimed figures be supported by the following specified amount of certified units. To be on this list, albums must have:
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Following the discussion on Talk:List of best-selling music artists, I think we should have the same discussion here too. The methodology that was previously used on best-selling music artists was found to violate WP:OR and I'm guessing the current methodology for this article does the same as well and needs to updated. Want to see other editors before making adjustments to it. Erick (talk) 03:34, 6 February 2024 (UTC)
The sales seem incredibly inflated, Nielsen Soundscan reported that the album had sold less than 1 million from 1993-1995 in the United States but it recieved certifications for 8 million. From 1991 to 2006 Nielsen said it had sold 5 million during that period despite the fact it recieved certifications for 17 million. 2006 to 2020 again Nielsen said it only sold 6.4 million even including stream equivalent units, but it got certified for a additional 9 million.
If we can use the claimed figures for Eagles greatest hits with this amount of inflated sales numbers, then it should only be fair to use the 100 million claimed sales of Thriller Never17 (talk) 03:23, 28 March 2024 (UTC)
I propose deleting the "Timeline of the best-selling albums" section. The unfortunate reality is that we do not know what were the all-time best-selling albums in the pre-Thriller era. Record sales tracking for much of the 20th century was very crude at best. Determining how much an album sold was difficult enough in the US, let alone globally. The sources in the section are not based on certifications and contain very dubious or contradictory assertions. The Sheila Weller article cited for Carole King's Tapestry says that by 1976, "global sales of her eight solo albums totaled 20 million", even though as of 2024, her certified sales are less than 19 million, despite some very recent sales audits in the US, King's largest market by far. Many of the other sources are also media articles (or even less reputable sources like Barnes & Noble), which, as we know, rely on the numbers provided by the artist's representatives or record company, which are often inflated for promotional purposes. For instance, the claim that The Sound of Music soundtrack sold 15 million copies is based on an Allmusic article which says clearly that the record company (RCA) was their source.
Relying primarily on non-certified numbers opens a Pandora's box. Many of you are probably familiar with the claims that Iron Butterfly's 1968 album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida sold 8 million copies in its first year and 30 million copies overall. While these claims are not supported by certification data, they have been repeated by journalists and made their way in various articles and books, so why not then include the album in this article, both in the main section and in the timeline section?
I'm a music stats geek as much as the next person, but I think sometimes it's better to just admit that we don't don't have good data and therefore cannot make certain statistical rankings. --NicolasJz (talk) 17:06, 1 April 2024 (UTC)
I don't want to make a big deal out of this because obviously it's not the most important thing on Wikipedia. For my own knowledge and for future editing, I would just like to understand what is the favoured methodology to use and to see it applied consistently. Best --NicolasJz (talk) 19:18, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
UK... music sales certifications were established in 1959. As an example, Elvis Presley was awarded a Silver Record for 250 000 UK sales of his 1960 LP G.I. Blues in 1962. [ https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Disc/1962/DISC-1962-02-17.pdf](spread across pages 8-9).The BPI certification began in 1973. But to pretend that 14 years' worth of Silver(and Gold) Records simply never existed is farcical.
Canada..[1]. 1970. Note too that if one searches for Led Zeppelin II on the Music Canada website, you are informed when the album went Platinum etc. But not when it was certified Gold in Canada. Because that happened in 1970. So, there are at least 5 years' worth of Canadian Certifications...ignored. It appears that the "Platinum" Certification goes back to 1975 in Canada, but Gold was around long before that.
In the British case, much of the information is available in book form, and should be utilised. Canadian Certifications appear much trickier to track down, but hopefully I am mistaken about that. But, to claim that "UK Certification began in 1973, and Canadian Certification began in 1975" is wrong on multiple levels. 197.83.246.171 (talk) 09:52, 4 April 2024 (UTC)