Joe Kvidera passes on an interesting series of blog posts that purport to show official sales totals of Michael Jackson from around the world. I’m still absorbing the large amount of data myself that a poster named “Nelson” has shared, but here’s what seems to be the money graf:

WORLDWIDE SALES TOTAL in selected countries

SINGLES Total: 32,430,000 in selected countries
Australia: 525,000
Canada: 450,000
France: 4,275,000
Germany: 2,500,000
Japan: 370,000
US: 13,000,000
UK: 11,310,958

ALBUMS Total: 111,353,000 in selected countries
Australia: 2,835,000
Brazil: 8,220,000
Canada: 3,950,000
France: 5,100,000
Germany: 7,550,000
UK: 14,060,000
Japan: 3,638,000
U.S.: 55,000,000 (certified 58.5 in RIAA - HIStory 3.5, double albums)
Europe: 11,000,000 (complicate, introduced since 1996)

The Jackson camp, of course, makes the claim of 750 million sold. Let the analysis begin!

A few figures seem not quite right to me: Only 13M single sales in the US? Jackson has at least ten platinum singles, and quite a few more gold ones. (Most were from the pre-SoundScan era; if Nelson’s figures are not wrong, it’s powerful evidence that those RIAA certifications, which are based on shipments and not sales, are extremely unreliable indicators.*.)

And there are a lot of quadrants of the world not accounted for, from Asia to Africa.

More later. Besides the other MJ posts below, I also discussed Jackson’s inflated sales claims here.

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* They are much more reliable in the multi-platinum realm. A CD certified ten times platinum has probably sold more than 9.5 million. But a simple gold or platinum certification can remain on a record that shipped 500k or 1M but sold perhaps 50 percent of that. If Sony, under demands from Jackson’s management, kept insuring that the artist could claim platinum certs, if not sales, it would be easy for the figures cited by the poster to be correct. Still, I’m skeptical.

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Previously in Hitsville

• “Michael Jackson, Steve Jobs and the culture of Popism”
• Creeping Elvisism
• More crazy Michael Jackson math!
• Joe Jackson makes his public debut
• The Jackson family: Bring on the wills!
• MJ: The will battle is joined
• John Branca to the rescue?
• Where there’s a will …
• The death of Michael Jackson: Topics for further discussion
• Elvis and Michael: The Lost Boys
• Ongoing thoughts on Michael Jackson
• Michael Jackson and the ultimate crossover
• Can Michael Jackson play live?
  
• Catching up with Michael Jackson’s finances
• A footnote to the Neverland auction
• Thriller (and “Billie Jean”) 25 years later