Latest on MJJC

The Michael Jackson Chart Watch

katara said:
He had a massive increase on youtube also. In fact he is the biggest legacy act on the site (including queen and the beatles) he has 12,683,995,965 views on his page.
Click to expand...

I knew his YouTube channel has grown a lot, but I didn't realize what that looked like beyond subscribers. I certainly didn't realize what his streaming growth looked like either. I'm floored. What's amazing is that given the timeline of the last 3 years, this would suggest that LN helped his numbers, right? It can't just be a coincidence. I'm amazed.
 
staywild23 said:
I knew his YouTube channel has grown a lot, but I didn't realize what that looked like beyond subscribers. I certainly didn't realize what his streaming growth looked like either. I'm floored. What's amazing is that given the timeline of the last 3 years, this would suggest that LN helped his numbers, right? It can't just be a coincidence. I'm amazed.
Click to expand...
Yes it infact did. Here is an article about that with the data.

"I wrote about this in July, and then again in October. But here’s how Michael Jackson’s catalog fared in sales, year to year with 2018, according to numbers from Buzz Angle.

Believe it or not, fans could not stop to get enough of Jackson’s music. His total album project number for 2019 was 953,414. Compare to that to 646,195 in 2018. That’s all sales and streaming for albums and singles. That’s a 47% rise from year to year.

Better still were his streaming numbers. In 2019, the total came approximately to 1.8 billion streams. In 2018, Jackson had 1.2 billion. That’s a rise of 50%. People wanted to stream Michael Jackson songs. And they really did.

Some numbers were down slightly. That was in downloads/CD sales for albums, and downloads for singles. This seems on par for the music biz as a whole now. Fans no longer care to download the music into their phones or iTouch or MP3 players. They’re happier to just turn on Spotify or Apple Music and play the music within their subscriptions.

Buzz Angle also computes number of “spins” for songs on the radio. And that’s interesting because there was a call to boycott Michael’s music at some radio stations. His 2019 spins were up, from 570,000 to 593,000. So the boycott didn’t do any damage."

www.showbiz411.com

Year End Thriller: Michael Jackson Sales Up Year-to-Year Roughly 50%, Streaming Booms, Fans Can't Stop Til They Get Enough

I wrote about this in July, and then again in October. But here's how Michael Jackson's catalog fared in sales, year to year with 2018, according to numbers from Buzz Angle. Believe it or not, fans could not stop to get enough of Jackson's music. His total album project number for 2019 was 953,41
www.showbiz411.com www.showbiz411.com
 
katara said:
The Jackson 5 and the jacksons are counted as seperate acts on spotify. So while Michael's motown solo albums count for his streams his j5/jacksons albums don't.
Click to expand...
Seems entirely reasonable to me.

katara said:
He had a massive increase on youtube also. In fact he is the biggest legacy act on the site (including queen and the beatles) he has 12,683,995,965 views on his page.
Click to expand...
I've seen this for myself. I never used to bother with his YT page and then 2 / 3 years ago started to drop in more regularly and it's been fabulous to see the figures going up the way they have. Love it. The figures for YT I can understand, it's streaming figures I have trouble with, lol

katara said:
Buzz Angle also computes number of “spins” for songs on the radio. And that’s interesting because there was a call to boycott Michael’s music at some radio stations. His 2019 spins were up, from 570,000 to 593,000. So the boycott didn’t do any damage."
Click to expand...
That's interesting. Here in the UK his music was more or less dropped from BBC Radio 2. They always denied it but it was pretty obvious from all the reports on this. I don't listen to R2 so can't comment on whether the situation has changed. I remember they tried to spin it as they needed to play stuff that was more relevant to their listeners. The R2 audience is mostly people in Michael's own age bracket. So that was always a nonsense argument.
 
zinniabooklover said:
Seems entirely reasonable to me.


I've seen this for myself. I never used to bother with his YT page and then 2 / 3 years ago started to drop in more regularly and it's been fabulous to see the figures going up the way they have. Love it. The figures for YT I can understand, it's streaming figures I have trouble with, lol


That's interesting. Here in the UK his music was more or less dropped from BBC Radio 2. They always denied it but it was pretty obvious from all the reports on this. I don't listen to R2 so can't comment on whether the situation has changed. I remember they tried to spin it as they needed to play stuff that was more relevant to their listeners. The R2 audience is mostly people in Michael's own age bracket. So that was always a nonsense argument.
Click to expand...
I am in USA so I can't say for other countries, but I hear Michael all the time on the radio, out in stores, in reasturants. Especially in 2019 it was awesome. I hear him more now than I did when I became a fan in 2015. And Thriller, bad, and off the wall are ususally stocked in the music section at walmart, target, bookstores, and record stores (vinyl and cd). Especially around his birthday, death anniversary, and halloween. I'm not surprised to hear the uk stations boycotted though. As the director of LN is from the uk. :(
 
Some more charts for you guys.
billboard top album sales - thriller #20 was #29
billboard top vinyl sales - thriller #10 was #11
 
katara said:
I am in USA so I can't say for other countries, but I hear Michael all the time on the radio, out in stores, in reasturants. Especially in 2019 it was awesome. I hear him more now than I did when I became a fan in 2015. And Thriller, bad, and off the wall are ususally stocked in the music section at walmart, target, bookstores, and record stores (vinyl and cd). Especially around his birthday, death anniversary, and halloween. I'm not surprised to hear the uk stations boycotted though. As the director of LN is from the uk. :(
Click to expand...
Tbh, I don't listen to radio anymore even though I grew up on it - I'm the same age as Michael so radio and vinyl, that was how I accessed music all through my formative years. But I remember all the hoo-ha when they dropped Michael's music off R2 - in the wake of the tv programme, IIRC. As for DN being British, yeah, so much to be proud of. DN and his tv programme, The Sun newspaper coming up with the 'WJ' so-called nickname. Ye gods!

I don't know if other UK stations dropped him. There are quite a few new 'vintage' radio stations in the UK now. I keep meaning to check them out to see if they play Michael's stuff.

I'm so old school I still buy all my music on CD. Michael's stuff is still available from HMV although they no longer have the full range that they had even a few years ago. But he's there and his vinyl stuff is always on prominent display in HMV which makes me happy. If he has a track on a new compilation CD they always play him. It's all good. :D
 
I collect vinyl records and I am 25. Vinyl is more than 70% of phyiscal record sales now, way more than cds. That's why billboard created a new chart to track vinyl sales specifically.
 
katara said:
Some more charts for you guys.
billboard top album sales - thriller #20 was #29
billboard top vinyl sales - thriller #10 was #11
Click to expand...
Another question for you! Do you know the difference between Billboard Top 200 Albums and the top Album Sales? IS it that the top 200 albums includes streaming and sales, whereas the album sales is just actual physical copies being sold?

I think all of this bodes very well for Thriller40.
 
katara said:
Some more charts for you guys.
billboard top album sales - thriller #20 was #29
billboard top vinyl sales - thriller #10 was #11
Click to expand...
There you go. The vinyl still has it! I know the actual sales figures for vinyl won't be massive but this is all about chart positions. Different thing altogether. This is so nice to see.
 
staywild23 said:
Another question for you! Do you know the difference between Billboard Top 200 Albums and the top Album Sales? IS it that the top 200 albums includes streaming and sales, whereas the album sales is just actual physical copies being sold?

I think all of this bodes very well for Thriller40.
Click to expand...
Billboard 200 is streaming and sales. Top album sales is where you have to buy it. and vinyl chart is just the vinyls being sold.
 
katara said:
I collect vinyl records and I am 25. Vinyl is more than 70% of phyiscal record sales now, way more than cds. That's why billboard created a new chart to track vinyl sales specifically.
Click to expand...
I am 34 and almost exclusively buy vinyl, if I buy music at all, and have since my early 20s. But I already preordered the Thriller40 CD and have recently bought The Ultimate collection on cd and a bunch of used MJ cds. First time I have bought CDs in about 10 years! haha
 
staywild23 said:
I am 34 and almost exclusively buy vinyl, if I buy music at all, and have since my early 20s. But I already preordered the Thriller40 CD and have recently bought The Ultimate collection on cd and a bunch of used MJ cds. First time I have bought CDs in about 10 years! haha
Click to expand...
if i see a new cd of mj in the store i will buy it but if they have the vinyl i will buy that instead LOL. I still stream music though and have a premium spotify subscription. its more covineant. vinyl is more of a collectors item for me.
 
katara said:
if i see a new cd of mj in the store i will buy it but if they have the vinyl i will buy that instead LOL. I still stream music though and have a premium spotify subscription. its more covineant. vinyl is more of a collectors item for me.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I agree with that. I also have premium Spotify and it's how I listen to the vast majority of music. But I also usually will get to know an album best when I put the record on while I'm working on art or something. I am not a collector by any means, it's just my preference for physical media.

I heard somewhere that cassettes are coming back which I find miraculous lol.
 
staywild23 said:
Yeah, I agree with that. I also have premium Spotify and it's how I listen to the vast majority of music. But I also usually will get to know an album best when I put the record on while I'm working on art or something. I am not a collector by any means, it's just my preference for physical media.

I heard somewhere that cassettes are coming back which I find miraculous lol.
Click to expand...
they are a little bit but its even more of a niche than vinyl. you can buy them at stores like urban outfitters but it isn't being sold in major chains like vinyl is now.
 
Depending on what is released on the week of thriller40 launch, the album could go number 1. madonna's remix album she just released went top 10 this week and her numbers are no where near Michael's.
 
Preorders for cds/vinyl are counted on the charts the week that they shipped out.
 
katara said:
I collect vinyl records and I am 25. Vinyl is more than 70% of phyiscal record sales now, way more than cds. That's why billboard created a new chart to track vinyl sales specifically.
Click to expand...
I can't be bothered with vinyl anymore. Takes up too much space. I was sorry to see vinyl go. A 12" is way better for the graphic design. CD's are rubbish bc they are so small. The design always looks crap, imo. But they take up less space and have a much better shelf life. The sound on vinyl might be better - opinions vary, lol - but I'm all about practicality. And vinyl now is so expensive. So that's not happening. I am really pleased that vinyl is doing so well, though. Vinyl sales have been really good for indie record shops.
 
katara said:
Depending on what is released on the week of thriller40 launch, the album could go number 1. madonna's remix album she just released went top 10 this week and her numbers are no where near Michael's.
Click to expand...
It did??? I had no idea! Man, I love that you follow this stuff so much. I have a huge interest in the charts, but I don't really understand the numbers. I report stuff on this thread that I understand, but that's pretty limited lol.

I am actually shocked to hear that Madonna's remix album charted that high. Her numbers kinda suck. I mean, in comparison to Michael's. For example, I follow the Billboard top 100 artists pretty regularly and I've never seen Madonna in the top 100 since I started following, but Michael always has been. Same for similar acts. That's pretty exciting!

I've seen fans on Twitter talking about wanting to get Thriller (the song) to number 1 this year, which might be tough. But I love the positivity. Very, very exciting to imagine Thriller, the full album, charting so high!
 
katara said:
Preorders for cds/vinyl are counted on the charts the week that they shipped out.
Click to expand...
Dude, you are answering every question I've ever had lol. Bless you. I've been wondering this for ages, since I preordered everything when it first released!
 
staywild23 said:
It did??? I had no idea! Man, I love that you follow this stuff so much. I have a huge interest in the charts, but I don't really understand the numbers. I report stuff on this thread that I understand, but that's pretty limited lol.

I am actually shocked to hear that Madonna's remix album charted that high. Her numbers kinda suck. I mean, in comparison to Michael's. For example, I follow the Billboard top 100 artists pretty regularly and I've never seen Madonna in the top 100 since I started following, but Michael always has been. Same for similar acts. That's pretty exciting!

I've seen fans on Twitter talking about wanting to get Thriller (the song) to number 1 this year, which might be tough. But I love the positivity. Very, very exciting to imagine Thriller, the full album, charting so high!
Click to expand...
Yeah it charted on the top 10. It was mostly physical sales though not as much as streams so i predict a huge drop next week. Plus she had box sets, different editions, that all count towards one album. She has about 5billion streams total on spotify which is half of Michael's numbers. Her numbers were much worse a few years ago she has gained a lot. I am a fan of Madonna, Janet, Whitney & Prince, and I follow their charts.

Prince had a posthumous album last year (welcome2america) that only streamed about 12million total for the entire thing. He only has 2billion streams on spotify. Besides purple rain, him and janet have by far the worst streaming out of the "80s legends". Whitney has 4 billion, and Janet has 1billion.
 
Last edited:
katara said:
Yeah it charted on the top 10. It was mostly physical sales though not as much as streams so i predict a huge drop next week. Plus she had box sets, different editions, that all count towards one album. She has about 5billion streams total on spotify which is half of Michael's numbers. Her numbers were much worse a few years ago she has gained a lot. I am a fan of Madonna, Janet, Whitney & Prince, and I follow their charts.

Prince had a posthumous album last year (welcome2america) that only streamed about 12million total for the entire thing. He only has 2billion streams on spotify. Besides purple rain, him and janet have by far the worst streaming out of the "80s legends". Whitney has 4 billion, and Janet has 1billion.
Click to expand...
I can't help but wonder what accounts for these numbers. I mean, Michael was very clearly the biggest out of all of them and always had been. But he also has gone through the ringer in terms of his reputation and legacy being attacked constantly in a way no one else has really. I've often wondered just how huge he would be had none of that ever happened. But that's another conversation...

Something I have been very curious about is why Prince and Janet's numbers are so low. I don't follow any numbers of anyone but Michael (and never did of any artist I've ever liked until Michael). But I sometimes compare things like, for example, number of members of each subreddit. And I'm sort of shocked by how different they are:

r/MichaelJackson - 26.8K
r/Prince - 19.2k
r/Madonna - 10k
r/Janet Jackson - 1.8k
r/Whitney - 481

I don't know what this really means, or suggests, about their legacies as artists. But I find it completely fascinating, nonetheless. I feel like Michael is extremely well known amongst young people with the others being far, far less known.
 
Michael is the biggest solo legacy act with half the effort.

If the estate would do a remaster/rerelease on dangerous and HIStory now I believe it would do really well too. Not as well as thriller obviously but it would be a decent boost. TDCAU is a huge streaming hit for a pre2000 act. As is black or white and remember the time. You are not alone and earth song is a moderate streaming hit also. We are lucky because his remasters count towards the same album unlike madonna and prince. All of their compliations and rereleases count towards different albums instead of the songs original parent album due to some issue with her song credits. Michael didn't release so much either making it easier to calculate. That's why thriller and thriller 25/ bad and bad 25 have the same numbers for the original album tracks. It depends on the song credits.
 
staywild23 said:
I can't help but wonder what accounts for these numbers. I mean, Michael was very clearly the biggest out of all of them and always had been. But he also has gone through the ringer in terms of his reputation and legacy being attacked constantly in a way no one else has really. I've often wondered just how huge he would be had none of that ever happened. But that's another conversation...

Something I have been very curious about is why Prince and Janet's numbers are so low. I don't follow any numbers of anyone but Michael (and never did of any artist I've ever liked until Michael). But I sometimes compare things like, for example, number of members of each subreddit. And I'm sort of shocked by how different they are:

r/MichaelJackson - 26.8K
r/Prince - 19.2k
r/Madonna - 10k
r/Janet Jackson - 1.8k
r/Whitney - 481

I don't know what this really means, or suggests, about their legacies as artists. But I find it completely fascinating, nonetheless. I feel like Michael is extremely well known amongst young people with the others being far, far less known.
Click to expand...
Janet unfortuantely suffered from major blacklisting at the time where the industry was in a transition to the digital era (aka itunes era). Not only that but she didn't promote her previous work during that crutial time. 20 yo should've been a control rerelease, not a new album. Unlike madonna who after american life flopped (around the same time as the janet superbowl) did her reinvention greatest hits tour to bring it back to boost her catalouge.

Prince didn't want his music on the internet at all for free which explains his streaming. He sued fans who posted clips from their concert viewing on facebook. It caused a controversy and backlash at the time. So it made my generation and younger not know anything about him besides a select few of people that cared to dig for it.
 
Here is Michael's top 50 most streamed songs

# ALBUM SONG STREAMS Sales estimate
1 Thriller 25 Super Deluxe Edition Billie Jean 1,184,018,063 1,261,786
2 Thriller 25 Super Deluxe Edition Beat It 742,469,566 791,236
3 Bad 25th Anniversary Smooth Criminal - 2012 Remaster 471,679,393 502,660
4 Features Don???t Matter To Me (with Michael Jackson) 437,623,296 466,367
5 Thriller 25 Super Deluxe Edition Thriller 415,058,758 442,320
6 Off the Wall Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough 358,759,093 382,323
7 Bad 25th Anniversary Man in the Mirror - 2012 Remaster 356,384,726 379,793
8 Bad 25th Anniversary The Way You Make Me Feel - 2012 Remaster 319,760,651 340,763
9 Off the Wall Rock with You - Single Version 310,741,113 331,151
10 Thriller 25 Super Deluxe Edition P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) 293,190,382 312,448
11 XSCAPE Love Never Felt So Good 266,473,757 283,976
12 Bad 25th Anniversary Bad - 2012 Remaster 241,230,059 257,074
13 HIStory - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE - BOOK I They Don't Care About Us 229,557,005 244,635
14 Dangerous Remember the Time 202,894,416 216,221
15 Number Ones Black or White - Single Version 182,583,523 194,576
16 Bad 25th Anniversary Dirty Diana - 2012 Remaster 168,195,133 179,242
17 Dangerous Black or White 167,485,388 178,486
18 Dangerous Heal the World 152,965,552 163,013
19 Thriller 25 Super Deluxe Edition Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' 136,210,131 145,157
20 XSCAPE Love Never Felt So Good 135,476,734 144,375
21 Thriller 25 Super Deluxe Edition Human Nature 131,301,390 139,925
22 Bad 25th Anniversary I Just Can't Stop Loving You (feat. Siedah Garrett) - 2012 Remaster 124,988,700 133,198
23 Michael Hold My Hand (with Akon) 96,688,707 103,039
24 HIStory - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE - BOOK I You Are Not Alone 92,207,713 98,264
25 HIStory - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE - BOOK I Earth Song 91,234,567 97,227
26 Number Ones Thriller - 2003 Edit 85,800,027 91,435
27 Bad 25th Anniversary Leave Me Alone - 2012 Remaster 85,142,912 90,735
28 Thriller 25 Super Deluxe Edition The Girl Is Mine (with Paul McCartney) 83,828,367 89,334
29 Invincible You Rock My World 79,314,149 84,524
30 Features Say Say Say - Remastered 2015 74,791,605 79,704
31 Number Ones You Rock My World - Radio Edit 66,082,059 70,422
32 HIStory - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE - BOOK I Scream 64,203,272 68,420
33 Off the Wall Off the Wall 63,429,157 67,595
34 Michael Jackson's This Is It Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) - Remastered Single Version 60,514,464 64,489
35 Ben Ben - Single Version 58,800,410 62,663
36 Bad 25th Anniversary Liberian Girl - 2012 Remastered Version 58,239,698 62,065
37 Got To Be There Rockin' Robin 49,969,930 53,252
38 BLOOD ON THE DANCE FLOOR/ HIStory In The Mix Blood on the Dance Floor 49,247,591 52,482
39 Orphan We Are The World - Live 45,448,572 48,434
40 Dangerous Jam 44,824,809 47,769
41 The Essential Michael Jackson The Way You Make Me Feel - Single Version 43,995,722 46,885
42 Off the Wall She's Out of My Life - Single Version 43,026,337 45,852
43 XSCAPE A Place With No Name 42,052,908 44,815
44 Off the Wall Workin' Day and Night 41,975,845 44,733
45 Dangerous Dangerous 41,207,574 43,914
46 Thriller 25 Super Deluxe Edition The Lady in My Life 40,825,425 43,507
47 Thriller 25 Super Deluxe Edition Baby Be Mine 40,102,722 42,737
48 Dangerous Give In to Me 40,029,652 42,659
49 Dangerous Who Is It 37,575,262 40,043
50 HIStory - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE - BOOK I Stranger in Moscow 36,462,589 38,858
 
I don’t think labels counts top songs as single sales anymore after the full album is released unless they are double counted for the album and the song which you can’t do. So all of these songs besides the features go to their parent album.
 
We should have a streaming party in this website sometime since there are a lot of people that post here. It would help dangerous and history reach their next milestone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top