Are the worldwide sales numbers for the Spice Girls albums on Wikipedia accurate? (23 / 20 million for Spice / Spiceworld)

Then I think we can at least say that 21 is more successful than any Spice Girls album was, if you consider the market conditions (In Germany she'll even sell more).

Of course, if you look at their cultural impact, only a few acts can beat the Spice Girls.

I often talk about Adele with my friends and everybody's like WHY is she so popular? So yea, she's not having the same cultural impact as Spice Girls, Madonna, Lady Gaga etc.

Does anybody know how many downloads of SLY were sold last week?

Doesnt matter about how the industry is at the moment. She has still sold nowhere near the amount the Spice Girls have worldwide and thats all that matters.

Does anybody know how many downloads of SLY were sold last week?

 

Approx 275k

Doesnt matter about how the industry is at the moment. She has still sold nowhere near the amount the Spice Girls have worldwide and thats all that matters.

 

That's not true though! The Spice Girls' best selling album sold 23 million (if you take the wikipedia figures as correct). 21 has sold 10 million and will probably end up with 15 million approx. That's an 8 million difference. I would estimate the number of people who have heard Spice is 30 million at most. With illegal downloads being so big these days I can't imagine 21 not having been heard by at least 30 million. Of course I can't prove any of this but I do think it's likely. Now, whether Adele or the Spice Girls were bigger in pop culture is debatable, but I do think the sales argument favours Adele.

That's not true though! The Spice Girls' best selling album sold 23 million (if you take the wikipedia figures as correct). 21 has sold 10 million and will probably end up with 15 million approx. That's an 8 million difference. I would estimate the number of people who have heard Spice is 30 million at most. With illegal downloads being so big these days I can't imagine 21 not having been heard by at least 30 million. Of course I can't prove any of this but I do think it's likely. Now, whether Adele or the Spice Girls were bigger in pop culture is debatable, but I do think the sales argument favours Adele.

 

You cant estimate who may or may not have heard them or who may or may not have downloaded them. Facts are facts. Spice Girl were by far bigger

Doesnt matter about how the industry is at the moment. She has still sold nowhere near the amount the Spice Girls have worldwide and thats all that matters.

 

It's not. If an album sells 100,000 copies in a country with a population of 1 million and another one sells 200,000 copies in a country with a population of 20 million, you can't say that the second one was more successful in its country.

The same applies to comparisons of sales from the 90s and today, only that it's not population but market size that differs.

You cant estimate who may or may not have heard them or who may or may not have downloaded them. Facts are facts. Spice Girl were by far bigger

 

Sales in 2011 are incomparable to sales from when the Spice Girls were big. It is not fair to compare the sales of 21 to that of Spice/Spice World/Spice Rack/whatever and you know this. It is the same thing with The Fame by Lady GaGa. To suggest the Spice Girls or anyone who has ever had an album outsell The Fame (13 million, I think?) is automatically bigger than Lady GaGa currently is is foolhardy. Your logic (bigger sales = bigger impact) is extremely flawed as it suggests that hardly anybody in the 2000's had as huge an impact as a large amount of people in the 90's. To estimate whether an act in the 90's is as big as an act in the 10's you will need to estimate and will need to speculate as the statistics alone are not enough to come to a conclusion.

Edited September 13, 201113 yr by Umi

Sales in 2011 are incomparable to sales from when the Spice Girls were big. It is not fair to compare the sales of 21 to that of Spice/Spice World/Spice Rack/whatever and you know this. It is the same thing with The Fame by Lady GaGa. To suggest the Spice Girls or anyone who has ever had an album outsell The Fame (13 million, I think?) is automatically bigger than Lady GaGa currently is is foolhardy. Your logic (bigger sales = bigger impact) is extremely flawed as it suggests that hardly anybody in the 2000's had as huge an impact as a large amount of people in the 90's. To estimate whether an act in the 90's is as big as an act in the 10's you will need to estimate and will need to speculate as the statistics alone are not enough to come to a conclusion.

 

I agree

 

@DannyBoy, do you really think album nowadays will go and sell 20-30 million worldwide? Sales of albums are dying everywhere and it's a fact. You simply cannot compare nowadays sales with 10 years back.

I remember when Michael Jackson's Invincible sold 10 million and was regarded as a huge flop.

Sales in 2011 are incomparable to sales from when the Spice Girls were big. It is not fair to compare the sales of 21 to that of Spice/Spice World/Spice Rack/whatever and you know this. It is the same thing with The Fame by Lady GaGa. To suggest the Spice Girls or anyone who has ever had an album outsell The Fame (13 million, I think?) is automatically bigger than Lady GaGa currently is is foolhardy. Your logic (bigger sales = bigger impact) is extremely flawed as it suggests that hardly anybody in the 2000's had as huge an impact as a large amount of people in the 90's. To estimate whether an act in the 90's is as big as an act in the 10's you will need to estimate and will need to speculate as the statistics alone are not enough to come to a conclusion.

 

And estimating and speculating are not enough to come to a conclusion either because that is your own opinion. You may think your estimates put her bigger than the spice girls but others wouldnt. And its the facts that will last. In 10 or 20 years times people will looks at facts and thats it. What illegal downloads or what "may" have listened to at the time will not even come into to question. People just see facts.

And estimating and speculating are not enough to come to a conclusion either because that is your own opinion. You may think your estimates put her bigger than the spice girls but others wouldnt. And its the facts that will last. In 10 or 20 years times people will looks at facts and thats it. What illegal downloads or what "may" have listened to at the time will not even come into to question. People just see facts.

 

And those 'facts' that people see are misleading.

I often talk about Adele with my friends and everybody's like WHY is she so popular? So yea, she's not having the same cultural impact as Spice Girls, Madonna, Lady Gaga etc.

 

 

Every single person I meet or know loves Adele & understands completely why she's so popular, so i dont think you can follow your comment with that statement.

 

Doesnt matter about how the industry is at the moment. She has still sold nowhere near the amount the Spice Girls have worldwide and thats all that matters.

 

It kinda does, because depending on how the industry is doing results in how the music is selling.

 

Anyway everyone 21 isnt even nearly finished, it has millions of sales still left in it :o, so have this convo at the end of its chart run! (2013 :heehee:)

Edited September 15, 201113 yr by Karma

And those 'facts' that people see are misleading.

 

They arent. Spice Girls have sold way more than Adele.

 

I understand what peope are trying to say but it doesnt change anything. In 10 years time when people look back, they wont care about how many copies Adele, woulda, coulda, should sold. People will go by what she actually sold.

 

The music industry has been going up and down since the 50s. Some decades albums were huge, singles werent. Some decades singles were huge, albums werent. Do people take that into consideration when they are comparing acts ? No. And they wont do it now or in the future either.

We weren't talking about who actually sold more because this one is obvious. We were talking about who was bigger at their time:

 

We dont actually know that. But the original poster stated that Adele is bigger than the Spice Girls were back then. That is not the case

 

If only total sales were relevant for this, 18 out of the 20 biggest hits in history (well, since 1958) in the U.S. would have been released in the last 4 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-...e_United_States

I think we all agree that these can't be considered as the biggest hits of all times.

Edited September 15, 201113 yr by AshDeluxe

Every single person I meet or know loves Adele & understands completely why she's so popular, so i dont think you can follow your comment with that statement.

 

So what's your explanation then?

 

All I see in her is pretty much what Dido once had.

Edited September 15, 201113 yr by SKOB

We weren't talking about who actually sold more because this one is obvious. We were talking about who was bigger at their time:

If only total sales were relevant for this, 18 out of the 20 biggest hits in history (well, since 1958) in the U.S. would have been released in the last 4 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-...e_United_States

I think we all agree that these can't be considered as the biggest hits of all times.

 

The original post was that Adele is bigger now than the Spice Girls were at their time. And its simplly not true. Because sales are different now, we certaimly cant based it on a sales becuase people are just guessing and estimating that she is bigger based on the decrease over time, which is only persoanl opinion, not fact. More people "may" have heard 21. Then again they also "may not". There is no evidence this is the case. Just people guessing and estimating which is pointess.

 

If we are basing it on cultural. Then there is no doubt its The Spice Girls.

 

She is the biggest star at the moment against people who are releasing music at the same time as her. That is fact. There is no point comparing her to people like the Spice Girls who were releasing music over a decade ago. It was a different music scene back then and all these guessing and estimates show nothing.

Edited September 15, 201113 yr by Dannyboy

They arent. Spice Girls have sold way more than Adele.

 

I understand what peope are trying to say but it doesnt change anything. In 10 years time when people look back, they wont care about how many copies Adele, woulda, coulda, should sold. People will go by what she actually sold.

 

The music industry has been going up and down since the 50s. Some decades albums were huge, singles werent. Some decades singles were huge, albums werent. Do people take that into consideration when they are comparing acts ? No. And they wont do it now or in the future either.

 

This post explains exactly why the sales info is misleading. Album sales are far lower now than they were when The Spice Girls were big. Just because SG have higher sales does NOT mean they were bigger at the time than Adele is now. 21 may even end up overtaking the sales of SG's album(s) if it continue to sell well indefinitely.

 

And just because the public don't consider differing sales periods doesn't make it any less a valid point. People in general are fairly unknowledgeable of the ins and outs of the chart, whereas people on BuzzJack (which is a chart/music discussion forum) are more likely to understand that sales levels change over the years.

Edited September 15, 201113 yr by Bré

This post explains exactly why the sales info is misleading. Album sales are far lower now than they were when The Spice Girls were big. Just because SG have higher sales does NOT mean they were bigger at the time than Adele is now. 21 may even end up overtaking the sales of SG's album(s) if it continue to sell well indefinitely.

 

And just because the public don't consider differing sales periods doesn't make it any less a valid point. People in general are fairly unknowledgeable of the ins and outs of the chart, whereas people on BuzzJack (which is a chart/music discussion forum) are more likely to understand that sales levels change over the years.

 

So what other facts can we go by ?

 

Because all im seeing its people using the words "estimate" "guessing" "may" "could" "should". These are not facts, just peoples opinion.

 

The fact is you can not compare the two acts so it was stupid to do so in the first place. Compare her to someone who is releasing music now, not someone a decade ago because both successes cant be measured against each other.