Thriller (the album) is currently at #2 on the US iTunes charts.

Ms. BlueGangsta

Proud Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2016
Messages
2,880
Points
0
Location
A Place With No Name.
And the short film is at #31 (it was at #30).
JpSy4ct.jpg

I think it's crazy that this album is still out here slaying like this.:lol:
 
MJ is the king. Must be due to a discount. Expect it to chart high on the charts next week.
 
MJ is the king. Must be due to a discount. Expect it to chart high on the charts next week.

He sure is the King, and I figured it might be discounted but I'm not sure because I can't remember the original price of the album on Itunes.:(
Still really impressive that it's charting tho.
Not bad for an album that was released decades ago.:)
 
Last edited:
Wonder if Thriller might be able to hit that 34x plat mark later this year or early next year.
I think it's possible, especially if that Thriller project happens this year (probably in or close to October).
What do y'all think tho?
dd5996c7bc36801d5dc054d1af1ecf1d.png
 
Wonder if Thriller might be able to hit that 34x plat mark later this year or early next year.
I think it's possible, especially if that Thriller project happens this year (probably in or close to October).
What do y'all think tho?
dd5996c7bc36801d5dc054d1af1ecf1d.png

Depends on how good the project is. Keep in mind that the sudden jump in certifications a year ago was essentially a build-up of years and years and years of streaming in the United States, which were 'unleashed' when Billboard let down the floodgate and accepted streaming statistics.

I'm not really sure if we'll hit 34x Platinum in the next year. Streaming only counts for so much and while Thriller sells rather nicely for a catalogue album, it's not enough to boost the certification every year or two I believe. I think we can reasonably expect 34x by 2020/2021 though! :)
 
Depends on how good the project is. Keep in mind that the sudden jump in certifications a year ago was essentially a build-up of years and years and years of streaming in the United States, which were 'unleashed' when Billboard let down the floodgate and accepted streaming statistics.

I'm not really sure if we'll hit 34x Platinum in the next year. Streaming only counts for so much and while Thriller sells rather nicely for a catalogue album, it's not enough to boost the certification every year or two I believe. I think we can reasonably expect 34x by 2020/2021 though! :)
Yeah, I agree, the quality of the project does matter (a lot actually), and you could be right about your sales predictions.:yes:
To me the only thing about the Thriller project that's piqued my interest so far is the new ending, which I hope is never before seen footage of Michael.
Even then I bet it'll be a blink and you'll miss it type of thing.:lol:

But when it comes to the streaming thing I have a question if you don't mind.
Okay, so if I can remember correctly Thriller was certified at 30x plat then streaming became a part of actual sales and it was bumped up to 32x plat, and not long ago (earlier this year) it was certified 33x plat without the floodgate boost.
That means that from the time it was certified 32x plat to the time it was certified 33x plat that when both normal sales and streams were counted that the album had sold another one million in the US, right?

Or am I missing something?:)
 
Last edited:
^^^^^

You are correct, and not missing anything.

The new rules, and the popularity of the Thriller album and its singles, will see it pull even further away from its rivals, as each year goes by. ?
 
I personally don't think streaming should count when it comes to actual chart positions.
 
I personally don't think streaming should count when it comes to actual chart positions.

The way I see it, the charts are there to reflect popular music tastes and trends. How we listen to music has evolved drastically over the past decade or two. While Billboards/RIAA's rules might be controversial to some, you'd be losing a significant amount of important information by ignoring streaming. It simply has to be accounted for nowadays.

My two cents.
 
The way I see it, the charts are there to reflect popular music tastes and trends. How we listen to music has evolved drastically over the past decade or two. While Billboards/RIAA's rules might be controversial to some, you'd be losing a significant amount of important information by ignoring streaming. It simply has to be accounted for nowadays.

My two cents.

Yes, charts are there to reflect popular music tastes and trends. Yes, the way we listen to music has evolved, meaning streaming is much more important BUT sales are sales and streams are streams. They cannot be equated reliably (IMO).

The present situation is one where the inclusion of streaming in the main official chart in the UK (using a conversion factor to calculate equivalent sales) has caused confusion.

In the UK most people treat the 'official singles chart' (compiled by the 'Official Charts Company') as a sales chart still, but it really isn't. It's a combined chart and it is deeply flawed.

But there IS still an official sales chart:

http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-sales-chart/

And an official streaming chart:

http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/audio-streaming-chart/

They are separate and that works well. We can figure out which single sold most, and which single streamed most. Fine.

The problem is when the two are combined into the main chart - that is what causes important information to be lost, at least in many chart reports.

Often the most important chart positions (i.e. Top10 or Top5) rely upon how much streaming contributes to the overall picture.
Up to January '17 the company divided the number of streams by 100 to calculate the number of equivalent sales. Now they divide by 150. That's a big change. If it happened weeks or months earlier (or weeks or months later) it changes artists' chart positions (drastically in some cases!). This proves my point.
If they had chosen another number, that too would change chart positions. We're in a situation where the OCC's conversion factor now dictates who has a chart #1 and who doesn't, and that figure can be changed by them at any time.

The #1 single sold and the #1 streamed single cannot really be debated, but the country's official #1 single (overall) is often determined by the conversion factor. So the current 'Official Singles Chart' - the one that determines who gets awarded a #1 single - only reflects the OCC's decision on the weighting between streams and sales, it doesn't necessarily report the nation's most popular single in an accurate way.

I suspect the same will be true (to a greater or lesser extent) on the US charts.
 
sales

The thing that doesn't make a lot of sense to me is that in the US, a certain amount of streams now counts as the sale of 1 album. I think if a video gets 1.5 billion views on Youtube that would be considered a platinum album (1 million sold). So in theory, you could say the album that Gangnam Style by Psy came from sold a million copies. It hasn't because the RIAA only counts USA, and the Psy numbers are worldwide views. But to me a stream isn't a sale, it's like listening to the radio in the past. Radio airplay was used as part of the criteria for the singles charts in Billboard, but it didn't count as a sale. But lets say Psy's views did count. That would mean his album "sold" a million without anyone actually buying anything or even hearing any other song from the album. Streaming could also be sort of like playing a record or tape. Listening to a tape isn't a sale, and counting a stream as a sale is like saying playing a record a thousand times is a sale. What is also odd about counting streams as sales is that when there were record clubs (12 albums for a penny!), those didn't count as sales in Billboard/RIAA, nor did cutouts count as a sale. Cutouts were albums that had a slash or hole punched in it and were sold for cheap in stores. At least with the clubs and the cutouts, somebody actually bought a product.
 
^^^^^

You are correct, and not missing anything.

Thanks for clearing that up.:)

The way I see it, the charts are there to reflect popular music tastes and trends. How we listen to music has evolved drastically over the past decade or two. While Billboards/RIAA's rules might be controversial to some, you'd be losing a significant amount of important information by ignoring streaming. It simply has to be accounted for nowadays.

My two cents.
MTE.
This is very true.
Music consumption has changed and RIAA changed the rules in order to correctly reflect those changes.
To a certain extent it had to be done.
 
It's #14 now.

Oh wow.
Not bad, I actually expected it to quite a bit further down then #14 by now.:yes:
Overall, discounted or not Thriller charting so high in 2017 and nowhere near October is so random (in a good way).:lol:
It seems some other albums may have been discounted as well, but only Thriller reached #2.:D
 
Oh wow.
Not bad, I actually expected it to quite a bit further down then #14 by now.:yes:
Overall, discounted or not Thriller charting so high in 2017 and nowhere near October is so random (in a good way).:lol:
It seems some other albums may have been discounted as well, but only Thriller reached #2.:D

34 years ago on March 11, Billie Jean's video premiered on MTV. Perhaps that might be the reason behind the sudden boost in Thriller's sales.
 
It's going to be in the top 40 of the BB200 this coming week, having moved over 10,000 units.

https://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewto...=758b0a7722b32fae2f249d161c0b92a2&start=11200

Well damn!
Thriller is really out here trying to come for that 34x platinum certification while you have some artists/entertainers who are alive, touring, and making music that can't even go double paper clip.
Slay King.
Michael was/is one of the few artist/entertainers that had the hype PLUS the talent and stats to back it up.
 
Last edited:
Good performance there, but it shows that a sale price is now not as important in promoting an album as it used to be.
 
What's the standard price for Thriller at iTunes in US and what was the discount price?
 
$5.41 according to the screen cap posted earlier in this thread.

JpSy4ct.jpg


BTW, Thriller wasn't the only album on sale. From time to time they put selected classic albums on sale. For example, Purple Rain was also on sale at the same time as Thriller and it climed up to #5 while Thriller was #2. I think a number of other classic albums were on sale as well. Fleetwood Mac Rumours is at #32 on this week's pure sales chart, Bob Marley Legend at #43. I think all these and more were on sale.

Imagine if the sale was like $2.00 or something. It could maybe even get to number 1. I would like to see how Bad and Off The Wall would do if they were discounted.
 
Imagine if the sale was like $2.00 or something. It could maybe even get to number 1. I would like to see how Bad and Off The Wall would do if they were discounted.

The UK chart used to have eligibility rules like minimum pricing. I don't know if it still does or if they have similar rules for Billboard.
 
Back
Top