Adele 30 Was The Only Real Million Seller In The USA In 2021

Adele’s ‘30’ was the only album in the USA to sell more than one million physical copies in 2021 but after the music biz gets to inflate the figures, the manufactured acts also look good with their manufactured sales.

Adele ‘30’ clocked up 1,058,000 in real sales. That is someone paid real money to buy a real album they could hold in their hand. The next biggest was Taylor Swift’s ‘Evermore’ with 494,000 real sales then Taylor Swift ‘Fearless’ with 480,000 sales followed by Olivia Rodrigo ‘Sour’ on 476,000 sales then Billie Eilish ‘Happier Than Ever’ with 371,000.

However, take out streaming and the reality is hardly anything sold in 2021. Streaming is continuing to inflate figures with the industry algorithm inflating “sales” figures by counting listens as purchases. For example when you add in the number of people who streamed Morgan Wallen’s ‘Dangerous: The Double Album’, the album goes from a 280,000 seller to the biggest seller of the year with the inflated 3,091,000 “sales”.

The perception of a best seller is rampant in the industry today. In reality Drake ‘Certified Lover Boy’ sold 67,000 copies but weigh in streams and that jumps to 1,850,000. Same with Pop Smoke. 41,000 becomes 1,473,000 and ends the year at number four. The Kid Laroi’s ‘Fuck Love’ really only sold 13,000 copies in 2021 but add in streams and the sales that were never really sold brings the figure to 1,440,000 and makes it the fifth biggest “seller” of 2021.

When downloads first started to affect sales and then streaming came along and wiped out manufacturing the music industry was desperate for a new way to “sell” the brands they were creating.

That magic figure of saying every 150 streams equals a sale has fast become ‘The Big Lie’ of the music industry. Not that Doja Cat (with 24,000 real sales, 1,403,000 inflated sales) or Lil Baby (with 22,000 real sales and 1,170,000 inflated sales) are complaining.

Rigging music charts has been a thing in the music business since time began. It is just a whole lot more blatant now.

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