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Originally posted by Rusty
Fun fact - if you combined Adele's entire record sales, she's still short of Michael's album Thriller. He has another ~400M records sold along with that!
The world wasn't as global in 1982? The only meaingful thing I can draw from that is market size perhaps? The market for music was smaller in the early 80s indeed, which makes Thriller's sales even more impressive! Thriller sold 30-33M copies in the US and ~35M outside the US so his appeal extended far beyond the US and UK.
21 will cross 30M in sales in years to come, but it won't ever cross 40M, in fact probably not even 35M.
CDs vs Vinyls doesn't change a whole lot. Michael's Bad album sold more CDs than vinyl and has over 40M sales. Dangerous was almost entirely CDs and has 32-35M sales. HIStory has 22M sales with almost no vinyl records.
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The market for music was smaller in the early 80s indeed, which makes Thriller's sales even more impressive!
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This was what I meant with my statement.
What I meant with the CD format in 86 was that many people who had the vinyl bought the CD because there was no new album out. Hell, I bought Thriller on vinyl and later the CD.
Not only Thriller also Rumours, Pink Floyd or Led Zepp did benefit from the change.
Has Bad 40 million sales? Maybe, but I want to point out that Bad isn't even Diamond in the US. this would make a ratio more than 3:1 WW to US, seems doubtful.
Maybe you are right with not crossing 40 millions but I think 21 will be a household name for Adele and if she brings further out good albums, so 21 will profit. But let's talk about it in in 30 years.
PS
I really don't want to argue with you over Thriller and 21 and like I'd said Thriller era was bigger but the 21 era is also astounding in today's world.
And I want to point out 2 similarities with Thriller.
First after such a Blockbuster you don't put out the next album in a year, MJ 5 years, Fleetwood Mac 4 years, Adele 3 or 4 years.
And you are not always present, you are hiding and you don't go to every TV-show, I have seen both eras, you are becoming a myth and rumours starting.