ManinIronMask
Prowler
Telepathically, Nigel Goldenfeld says they don't publish Goldman Sachs numbers because Matt Richmond would be killed. Yes, they've sold a lost more copies of the Number of the Beast than that.
Worldwide album sales
- Thread starter ManinIronMask
- Start date
The rules on this were discussed on here somewhere (maybe this thread) and are pretty complicated. Basically, to be considered a double album it has to be a certain time length. Something like 90 minutes, which TBOS falls short of.
Number 6
Ancient Mariner
But TBOS is 92 minutes long.
Ok. I did the research and it has to be over 100 minutes:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_certification#Multi-disc
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_certification#Multi-disc
SirRobbins
Ancient Mariner
Iron Maiden DVD sales from IRAA.... Platinum equals 100,000 units sold for Video formats... (Video Long Form as they are called)
Platinum DVDs are
En Vivo
Flight 666
Live After Death (rerelease)
The Early Days
Rock in Rio
Live After Death (original release)
Multiplatinum are as follows:
Visions of the beast (200,000)
Gold (50,000 units)
Maiden England
Behind the Iron Curtain
12 Wasted Years
Albums platinum and gold and when they reached that certification
Platinum albums:
NOTB - October 2nd, 1986
POM - November 5th, 1986
Powerslave - June 17th, 1991
LAD - June 17th, 1991
SIT - July 20th, 1992
Gold albums:
SSOASS - June 6th, 1988
NPFTD - November 27th, 1990
Killers - January 2oth, 1987
Platinum DVDs are
En Vivo
Flight 666
Live After Death (rerelease)
The Early Days
Rock in Rio
Live After Death (original release)
Multiplatinum are as follows:
Visions of the beast (200,000)
Gold (50,000 units)
Maiden England
Behind the Iron Curtain
12 Wasted Years
Albums platinum and gold and when they reached that certification
Platinum albums:
NOTB - October 2nd, 1986
POM - November 5th, 1986
Powerslave - June 17th, 1991
LAD - June 17th, 1991
SIT - July 20th, 1992
Gold albums:
SSOASS - June 6th, 1988
NPFTD - November 27th, 1990
Killers - January 2oth, 1987
[citation needed]
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
Judging by NPFTD, heyday 80s albums went gold immediately with 500k sales, then needed up to 7 years or never(!) reached 1 million. That is absurd indeed. It implies that Seventh Son sold less than 500k units between June 6th, 1988 and now in the USA.
soundwave
Educated Fool
Part of the problem is that prior to 1991, sales reporting in the States was based on a loose survey system of record stores - not exactly the most precise method (and there were allegations of fudging the numbers by labels to look good, in addition to human error and store bias towards certain genres). It wasn't until SoundScan was rolled out in 1991 that the industry started using a computerized system to more accurately gauge sales. Any published number pre-1991 is a 'ballpark'....
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/billboard-soundscan/
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/billboard-soundscan/
Sth2112
Ancient Mariner
I have also read somewhere (either from Dave Mustaine or on the Megadeth forum) that record companies have to pay a fee to RIAA if they want the album to be eligible for certification.
Not a big amount of money, just a few hundred dollars, but in these hard times in the music industry, your former label probably don’t want to spend money doing this to their former client...
Not a big amount of money, just a few hundred dollars, but in these hard times in the music industry, your former label probably don’t want to spend money doing this to their former client...
RLonger
Educated Fool
Sth2112 - indeed, that's all right. Maiden albums were released there by multiple labels over the 3 decades. Cumulated sales may be much bigger than certificated number, so probably both of us are right.
If read "Run To The Hills" by Mick Wall you could find some data and articles about the band, recommend: "Classic Rock" 1999 - issue with Maiden on the cover.
SirRobbins
Ancient Mariner
the charts would prove his statement. It charted for a LONG time and charted well for that long time. It had tracks played on US radio more than prior albums and is one of only 4 albums to even reach Platinum in the states.
SirRobbins
Ancient Mariner
Seventh Son was their first somewhat disappointing album in the states. It went Gold in the USA just weeks after release which is 500k copies alone in the USA so it's still a lot and doesn't show much signs of disappointment until you see their former album's sales..... just never was certified platinum in the USA. SIT was the last of the platinum certifications in the states...
D
Deleted member 7164
Guest
I wanted to find Iron Maiden sales in former Yugoslavia. I didn't find exact numbers but the first generic google search gave out an interesting result, some investigative journalism article from 1984 about true vs reported record sales. The context of the article is about licensing model changing from pressing cost price-based to end product price-based, and arrival of exclusive contract, which made foreign music way more expensive. Therefore marking the beginning of contemporary music business in this area.
And there it says, under those circumstances, Jugoton (company from Zagreb, nowadays Croatia Records) got the EMI licence, and pressed 30.000 copies of Powerslave in the Q4 1984 and they "had no plans" to continue in 1985. In that quarter Jugoton pressed about 300k vinyls of new EMI records, which included releases by Bowie, McCartney, U2, Culture Club, Bob Marley, Mike Oldfield, etc. Powerslave was 10% of that batch which is quite remarkable considering these artists generally sell more than Maiden. Bowie, McCartney and Culture Club 1984 releases got 50k runs each, everything else is lower than Powerslave.
And there it says, under those circumstances, Jugoton (company from Zagreb, nowadays Croatia Records) got the EMI licence, and pressed 30.000 copies of Powerslave in the Q4 1984 and they "had no plans" to continue in 1985. In that quarter Jugoton pressed about 300k vinyls of new EMI records, which included releases by Bowie, McCartney, U2, Culture Club, Bob Marley, Mike Oldfield, etc. Powerslave was 10% of that batch which is quite remarkable considering these artists generally sell more than Maiden. Bowie, McCartney and Culture Club 1984 releases got 50k runs each, everything else is lower than Powerslave.
Last edited by a moderator:
WildRanger
Nomad
https://chartmasters.org/2021/11/iron-maiden-albums-and-songs-sales/
RIAA is not right.
The Number of the Beast has sold over 2 million copies in the US. Piece of Mind too.
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
I did not delve into the method of all these figures, but I find it mighty interesting to compare these album sales, per country / part of the world. And worldwide of course.
Who would have thought that the so much criticized albums No Prayer for the Dying and Fear of the Dark sold more, worldwide, than all the later albums. Yes they were released 8 to 10 years before Brave New World was released, but still! We're 21 years after Brave New World now.
It's also weird to see that Killers sold more than Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, worldwide.
Last edited:
harrisdevot
Priest of the Holy Wristband
Killers was extremely popular back in the 80s, a kind of cornerstone in the history of Metal. And, with all the different formats, I can't even remember how many copies I bought. 5 at least, I guess.
srfc
Ancient Mariner
Declining sales in general would be the main reason why an earlier album sold more than a later album. Even BNW, which was around in the early days of file sharing and CD burning, which NPFTD and FOTD didn't have to face. Yes you could tape albums in those days, or buy bootleg copies, but there was still an incentive to get an original copy. Not so much anymore for a lot of people.
The_7th_one
Ancient Mariner
I don't believe this numbers.