'Rivers Of Babylon' is definitely in one of my (pre-download) Guinness books as a 2-million seller.

I suppose getting some new updates on the sales is always good although some are wrong. I Gotta Feeling is closer to 1,360,000 now and some of the newer songs have less in that chart than they actually do. Still, the older songs have been updated a bit, especially ones near the top.

 

A bit anticlimactic but some people kind of saw that coming :lol:

STIUTK is pretty timeless I think, it's the reason it sold so well in the first place cus it stood out so much.

 

Things like Party Rock Anthem, Gangnam Style and Only Girl/We Found Love will sound incredibly "early 2010s" in a decade's time.

 

I actually think with songs like those, in the future you won't be able to tell what time period they came from (unless you knew when the artists were popular, etc. of course). Those songs could be from the late 90's imo, like the same time as Gina G, Aqua, Eiffel 65, etc. They sounded dated even when they came out.

Are we reaching a time when selling a million isn't as impressive as it once was because it's becoming less rare?

Are we reaching a time when selling a million isn't as impressive as it once was because it's becoming less rare?

 

 

It's about speed now. I'm more impressed by Get Lucky than Use Somebody or will be about Bad Romance.

It's about speed now. I'm more impressed by Get Lucky than Use Somebody or will be about Bad Romance.

Have you read next Sunday's commentary? :P

Surely songs selling a million has always been getting less rare? Barring the odd revision of historic sales, the number of million-sellers can only go up.

Reaching a million in the mid-late 00s was pretty much impossible unless you were an X Factor or Comic Relief single. As ridiculous as it sounds now I genuinely thought as recently as 2008 that we'd never get another true million seller ever again.

 

'I Gotta Feeling' in early 2010 was the first non-talent show/charity track to do so since Kylie's Can't Get You Out of My Head nine(!) years earlier. Then all hell broke loose :D

I disagree, I think sales for Blurred Lines will start to tail off soon, I think it will plateau at around 1.3-1.4m. If it does pass the 2m mark, it will be a long way down the line, at least another decade if not more.

 

By 'pushing towards 2m' I meant say 1.8m or so, perhaps by this time next year.

Surely songs selling a million has always been getting less rare? Barring the odd revision of historic sales, the number of million-sellers can only go up.

 

Less infrequent should perhaps have been used instead of rare. And it wasn't the milllion sellers themselves that were becoming rare - as you said your self, they do keep coming. But the passing of the million mark has become less rare since 2010.

Edited June 29, 201312 yr by AnthonyT

Have you read next Sunday's commentary? :P

 

 

The CIA sent me a version. :D

Some dance songs age well one of the oldest from 77 Donna Summer I Feel Loved sounds amazing now still!

 

yes it does, it blew my mind the first time i heard it (an instant number one) and changed the sound of dance music. There are plenty of classic dance records (I love dance music) most recently Titanium and Moves Like Jagger (a disco record really), the ones that sound special will always stand out B-)

 

 

Less infrequent should perhaps have been used instead of rare. And it wasn't the milllion sellers themselves that were becoming rare - as you said your self, they do keep coming. But the passing of the million mark has become less rare since 2010.

 

But it's also helping songs that are actual classics reach the million mark when their sales halted (under a million) after they was first physically released. See: Wonderwall, Torn, Fairytale Of New York, Angels....

Edited June 29, 201312 yr by Ne Plus Ultra

But it's also helping songs that are actual classics reach the million mark when their sales halted (under a million) after they was first physically released. See: Wonderwall, Torn, Fairytale Of New York, Angels....

 

While the others were already close, FTONY wasn't remotely near until the download era.

While the others were already close, FTONY wasn't remotely near until the download era.

But with guaranteed sales of several tens of thousands every year, the well known Christmas songs are something of a special case and over the years sales will obviously mount up.

 

Aerosmith's 'I don't want to miss a Thing' only sold around 600k when first released but has now sold a million. I've heard it's something to do with Father's Day but 400k?? I don't recall the track ever charting significantly at that time of year.

'I Don't Want To Miss A Thing' has added 27 top 100 weeks in the digital era and a lot more in the top 200. It's a popular choice on talent shows and has been boosted by iTunes price reductions a few times.

Also, maybe the Christmas songs aren't quite as special a case as they appear - because almost all their sales are compressed into about six-eight weeks of the year, it's very visible - whereas a song that sold the same amount annually but evenly spread over 52 weeks wouldn't chart as much.

Whilst not at all worthy of such hype by the OCC, I do think it's remarkably impressive that an act like Daft Punk has managed to sell 1 million plus of a single.

Also, maybe the Christmas songs aren't quite as special a case as they appear - because almost all their sales are compressed into about six-eight weeks of the year, it's very visible - whereas a song that sold the same amount annually but evenly spread over 52 weeks wouldn't chart as much.

 

I estimate that FTONY sells ~150/wk through the off-season, but Mariah only ~50/wk...

Whilst not at all worthy of such hype by the OCC, I do think it's remarkably impressive that an act like Daft Punk has managed to sell 1 million plus of a single.

 

 

Is it down to Pharrell? I wonder if it didn't have vocals would it have done as well? I'd have much preferred it that way.