November 6, 201113 yr Author well isn't only girl like 10k away from 1 million, OCC claimed it will pass a million in a few weeks. Yes, which is why I mentioned it in the first post :P
November 6, 201113 yr The OCC are re-looking at all UK Million Selling Singles. I asked them, (last Week), if there have been 107 or 109, & they told me that they can 'only' find 107. But, they are re-calculating them all - and they'll let us know their 'findings' later in 2011. Here is what they told me, in an E-mail:, "I believe that you are correct and Rihanna was the 107th million seller, however the data we have on million sellers is not that great, so we are redoing the work to calculate all historic million sellers. There will be a story published on this before the end of the year detailing all million selling singles." I'm asking them if we can have the Top 100 Best Selling UK Albums up-dated, too.
November 6, 201113 yr I think TTs Rule the World has a decent shot. It's now well. Over 800k (I think, vidcapper?) And sells very consistently. Gets airplay and used on XF montages etc all the time and TT are still huge so don't see that going away. You've got to think Sailing (Rod Stewart) and Especially for You (Kylie and Jason) are making it soon if not already the mystery missing two... Also pretty sure Adele will become the biggest selling single by UK solo female in the next few weeks
November 6, 201113 yr The OCC are re-looking at all UK Million Selling Singles. I asked them, (last Week), if there have been 107 or 109, & they told me that they can 'only' find 107. But, they are re-calculating them all - and they'll let us know their 'findings' later in 2011. Here is what they told me, in an E-mail:, "I believe that you are correct and Rihanna was the 107th million seller, however the data we have on million sellers is not that great, so we are redoing the work to calculate all historic million sellers. There will be a story published on this before the end of the year detailing all million selling singles." I'm asking them if we can have the Top 100 Best Selling UK Albums up-dated, too. Great Zeus thanks for this, at least they seem to be listening to you and issuing some sort of reasonable response
November 6, 201113 yr I thought When We Collide reached a million a couple weeks ago already Edit: My mistake, it was just mentioned as having nearly made it Edited November 6, 201113 yr by AcerBen
November 6, 201113 yr The reason i bring it up is because I'm currently doing my top 40 xmas songs from 2010 (i know i'm pretty late this year,should have don't it in January) and was trawling through the sales vault and it said it was on 750,454 then it sold 85k app last year,just failing to make the top 200 of the year (the Pogues sold 89k making it to no189 or something). They might be underestimating Mariah's sales because of the adjustments they made to 1994-1996. If I understood correctly what they did to those sales, they're all surely under. I don't get why they didn't just recalculate the sales with the correct multiplier. What they actually did was worse than leaving them as they were.
November 6, 201113 yr I don't mean to sound 'thick', but AcerBen, can you explain about the different 1994 to 1996 calculation methods, to me - so I can put the case to The OCC, & know what I'm talking about? Also - which method do you, (& other 'Chart Fans'), prefer?
November 6, 201113 yr I don't mean to sound 'thick', but AcerBen, can you explain about the different 1994 to 1996 calculation methods, to me - so I can put the case to The OCC, & know what I'm talking about? Also - which method do you, (& other 'Chart Fans'), prefer? Since 2007, some singles released in this period have had their sales revised DOWN considerably in e.g. various Top 100 lists shown on MTV and 4Music channels Explained by MFR in this thread: The reason for the differences would be due to different methodologies being used and revised interpretations of previously announced figures. In the case of Saturday Night by Whigfield, the 800,000 sales is the Defined Universe Sales figure (DUS) and relates the number of copies sold in the identified universe of record shops. Earlier figures were based on sales figures compiled by 1. recording the number of sales from shops in the sample in each week. 2. these figures were scaled down using complex algorithms to a standard 250 shop figure (i.e. the panel sales figure). 3. this figure was then multiplied up by the amount (the multiplier) deemed to be the best fit for the number of shops in the UK at the time. The multiplier could be varied from year to year as the number of shops selling recorded music increased or decreased. Gallup maintained a register of these shops which was then taken over by Millward Brown and OCC. The reason for the difference between the 800,000 figure quoted here and 1.092 million quoted previously is that in 1994 the Defined Universe was only around 3200 shops whereas the multiplier used for singles at the time (17) was based on the assumption that there were (approximately) 4250 shops. The Defined Universe was expanded rapidly during the mid-1990s. By 1997 OCC had concluded that 99% of all singles sales and 95% of all album sales were occurring in the Defined Universe and so DUS figures replaced panel sales times multiplier-based figures. A smaller multiplier is still used to allow for product known to be distributed outside the Defined Universe, a calculation now presumably nearly obsolete as not many singles are sold physically. To answer the original question I would say that the OCC figures are now very accurate. Prior to that they were less accurate, but many of the differences are down to interpretation rather than errors, at least as far back as when Gallup took over the chart in 1983. Presumably, in this chart they also had Spaceman by Babylon Zoo at around 945,000 rather than 1.1 million. If so, the reason for the difference would be same as for Whigfield and the others mentioned. So basically, the originally published sales figures for this period were too high, but the DUS figures they sometimes quote these days are too low. They ought to just recalculate the sales but they haven't bothered. It surely wouldn't be that difficult to take the DUS figures and multiply them by 15 or whatever instead, which would give a more accurate estimation of the sales. I think they are being inconsistent because Saturday Night and Back For Good for example probably wouldn't be million sellers if they were going by DUS sales + downloads. They need to work out what they are going to do if they are serious about re-calculating the list of million sellers. Check out this Haven thread from page 10 onwards where people who know better than me are talking about the 1994-1996 problem.
November 6, 201113 yr What complicates the matter further is that Alan Jones and Gallup (in the 80s) were working to different multipliers as far as I am aware so the figures he quoted at the time Gallup never agreed with! The whole thing is a mess but I agree the OCC need to decide once and for all what they are going by, in my opinion they should use the figures that were produced at the time and move on (they are the ones I use anyway) so then we'll agree :lol: :D
November 6, 201113 yr I really should stay out of these threads - Chasing Cars selling so much is depressing.
November 7, 201113 yr I Dont Want To Miss A Thing - Aerosmith currently on 975k should pass a million within the next years or so.
November 7, 201113 yr I Dont Want To Miss A Thing - Aerosmith currently on 975k should pass a million within the next years or so. Source for these sales? I'm sure I remember seeing a much lower tally (like 800k-ish) not that long ago. I don't think it'll take that long for it to sell 25k if that is right, it pops up again in the chart from time to time anyway (has had 5 top 100 weeks this year) and I'd think it has fairly strong cherrypicks (at least a few hundred a week). Edited November 7, 201113 yr by Bré
November 7, 201113 yr Source for these sales? I'm sure I remember seeing a much lower tally (like 800k-ish) not that long ago. I don't think it'll take that long for it to sell 25k if that is right, it pops up again in the chart from time to time anyway (has had 5 top 100 weeks this year) and I'd think it has fairly strong cherrypicks (at least a few hundred a week). 4Music top 50 selling chick flick songs had it at 960k a few weeks ago (however I think the chart is older than that) Andy at Haven has got it on 975k on his top 200 all time thread.
November 7, 201113 yr 4Music top 50 selling chick flick songs had it at 960k a few weeks ago (however I think the chart is older than that) Andy at Haven has got it on 975k on his top 200 all time thread. Ah, okay. Should definitely pass the mark in the near future in that case. Which would put it joint with Angels as the lowest-peaking million seller - although obviously Chasing Cars will take that record in a couple of years' time. Edited November 7, 201113 yr by Bré
Create an account or sign in to comment