Discussion: Your fave's album sales if the digital era never happened...

Humoresque

What do YOU think your fave's albums would have sold if online piracy, iTunes, and streaming never happened?

Nothing else about their career changes. Same singles, same chart positions, same critical reception, same peaks and valleys in popularity. The only difference is that they're in a market dominated by physical album sales.

ManDown

Rihanna's sales would be much better, I think.

Look at Mariah, who had the most #1s of any artist of the 90s (14 of them). Rihanna has had 9 so far in the 10s. Not saying they are similar (musically or critically) other than that, but I do think her sales would have been more on par with where Mariah's were back then.

wehan6

One of the Boys- 15 million WW
Teenage Dream- 50 million WW
Prism- 20 million WW

Humoresque

Lemme guess some U.S. numbahs

MADONNA
Music - 3.5 million
American Life - 1 million
Confessions On A Dance Floor - 2.3 to 2.5 million
Hard Candy - 1.4 million
MDNA - 800k
Rebel Heart - 500k

BRITNEY SPEARS
Britney - 5 million
In The Zone - 4 million
Blackout - 1.5 to 1.8 million
Circus - 4 - 5 million
Femme Fatale - 3 million
Britney Jean - 750,000 to 1 million
Glory - we'll just have to wait and see

Bellerophon

I strongly believe that Tori would be a 200k first week seller.

Smilers

Literally all of Taylor's album would be diamond, she had the best selling album of 2006. 2008, 2012 and 2014, with a huge lead in the latter three. Under a good sales climate, she would've easily moved 10 million albums.

Stitches.

Glory - 5 million worldwide
The Spirit Indestructible - 2.5 million worldwide

Brinny Baby

Circus would be 2x Diamond

Humoresque

I'd also predict for Gaga:

The Fame - 11 to 12 million
The Fame Monster - 6 million
Born This Way - 6 to 7 million
ARTPOP - 2 million

RoyalT

No online piracy? Hard to say... Let me add 20% to each of Taylor's albums SPS numbers:
Debut: 10.32M
Holiday Collection 1.8M
Fearless: 15.2M
Speak Now: 10.M
Red: 11.2M
1989: 15.2M

Nice.

Brinny Baby

No but seriously with Britney, Circus would be 2x Platinum. Blackout and Femme Fatale Platinum. BJ Gold.

MJDangerous implied that the album sales climate are the way they are because of success translated to digital and streaming, but Britney wasn't that big on those formats so I don't think her numbers would change much unlike say Drake, Rihanna, Katy Perry etc.

I think Ariana would have Platinum eras too with My Everything even being 2x Platinum.

Taylor's Fearless and 1989 would surely be Diamond. I think the Debut and Speak Now weren't traded off / translated to other formats that much. I'd say like 7x Platinum. Red would be 8x Platinum.

slaveney

Katy's adjusted album sales:

OOTB= 7M -----------> 15M
Teenage Dream= 15M ---------> 30M
PRISM= 10M ------------> 20M