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Madonna's certifications are completely outdated in the USA. But by how much?


Tiago Lisboa Rodrigues
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I was checking how great Mariah's team has been recently with her career and how they have worked their asses off to actually go back and re-certify old singles, some albums etc. To the point she's actually now ahead of Madonna even though we know who has sold the most. 

So, i've been trying to figure out what albums could get more certifications but it's kind of hard to do it specially for material pre-soundscan era (1992) but still, i'll try. 

Give me a hand with it and i'll update the OP with your infos in case mine are wrong:

ALBUMS:

You Can Dance - over 1.8M copies sold, possibly more. a 2 x Platinum certification has been talked about for years. (Now certified: Platinum)
Like a Prayer - over 4.5M sold. I'm almost sure under the new metrics and with streaming numbers for this album material, it could be certified 5 x Platinum right? (Now certified: 4 x Platinum)
The Immaculate Collection - This is the most obvious case. Certified Diamond (10 x Platinum) but it could be at leasr 12 x Platinum. It's missing 2 Platinum certifications for sure by now (Now certified: Diamind)
Ray of Light - Certified 4 x Platinum. Last confirmed sales were 4.9M if i remember it right. a 5 x Platinum certification is long overdue. (Now certified: 4 x Platinum)
Confessions On A Dancefloor - Last confirmed sales were over 1.8M. Shipments included + streaming points it could push it to 2 x Platinum (Now certified: Platinum)
Hard Candy - Over 800k sold. Streaming points + shipments for the album, plus 4 Minutes success, i think it's safe to say a Platinum certification is possible for it by now. (Now certified: Gold)

Possible certifications to be added: 6.5M in album certifications missing from her. 

 

SINGLES:

Borderline - Confirmed sales of around 950k. Could be Platinum by now (Now certified: Gold)
Like a Virgin - Confirmed sales of around 2.4M. Could be 2 x Platinum (Now certified: Gold)
Material Girl - Sales are over 1M. It has no certification when it should be at least Platinum.
Crazy For You - Sales of over 1.6M Should be Platinum. (Now certified: Gold)
Angel - Sold over 1M. (Now certified: Gold)
Dress You Up - Sold over 600k. Should be Gold. (Not Certified)
Live To Tell - Sold over 800k. Should be Gold. (Not Certified)
Papa Don't Preach - Sold around 1M copies. Should be Platinum (Now certified: Gold)
Open Your Heart - Sold over 670k. Should be Gold. (No Certification so far)
La Isla Bonita - Sold over 780k. Should be Gold or honestly...even Platinum at this point considering its streaming points. (No certification so far)
Who's That Girl - Sold over 550k. Should be Gold. (No certification so far)
Causing A Commotion - Sold over 480k. Some streaming points, and an update on these sales could possibly allow it to be Gold by now. (No certification so far)
Like a Prayer - Sold over 2.4M. It should be at least 2 x Platinum. Possibly even a 3 x Platinum considering its one of Madonna's biggest streaming hits. (Now Certified: Platinum)
Cherish - Sold over 600k. Should be Gold. (No Certification so far)
Vogue - Sold over 2.9M. Madonna's best selling physical single ever in the USA. With streaming points, it could be 3 x Platinum by now. (Certification: 2 x Platinum)
This Used to Be My Playground - Over 1M units sold. Should be Platinum. (Certification: Gold)
Frozen - Around 950k sold. With streaming points it could be Platinum. (Certified: Gold)
Ray of Light - Sold over 1.1M. Should be Platinum (Certified: Gold)
The Power of Goodbye - 490k confirmed sale. Not sure how updated they are. With a few sales and streaing points, a Platinum certification is possible by now. (No certification)
Die Another Day - sales of over 500k. Should be Gold. (No Certification so far)
4 Minutes - Sales of over 3.1M. Should be certified 3 x Platinum. (Certified: 2 x Platinum)

Possible certifications to be added: Up to 15M in single certifications missing from her. (the most optimistic bet)
It's incredible how her 80's hits were completely forgotten by Warner Bros, even while Madonna was with them. 

VIDEO:

???

Is any info missing from my list?

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We have some Billboard official  updates sales + stream 

5/26/18 Billboard charts:

Confessions on a Dance Floor
ALBUM SALES: 1,738,923
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 2,016,961 


MDNA

ALBUM SALES: 547,636
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 667,546
 

Hard Candy

ALBUM SALES: 751,496
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 1,174,955
 

AMERICAN LIFE

ALBUM SALES: 685,638
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 735,156
 

Bedtime Stories

ALBUM SALES: 2,339,495
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 2,407,276
 

REBEL HEART 

ALBUM SALES: 244,538
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 375,930

Rebel Heart Tour   2  CD

ALBUM SALES: 6,289
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 14,265
 

GHV2 (Listed as Vol. 2- Greatest Hits)

ALBUM SALES: 1,397,910
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 1,689,370

 

Ray of Light

ALBUM SALES: 3.896,998
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 4,013,816
 

MUSIC

ALBUM SALES: 2,936,779
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 3,020,447
 

 

SOMETHING TO REMEMBER

ALBUM SALES: 2,104,241
ALBUMS W/TEA W/SEA ON-DEMAND 2,303,417
 

 

So her recent albums  should be certified like this with new streaming numbers

but i guess Warner will never do that..


3xP Music
2xP Confessions On a Dance Floor
2xP Celebration 
1xP GHV2 
1xP American Life
1xP Hard Candy 
G MDNA

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Ah Hah !
It isn't an exact science...

" But the RIAA does not automatically certify music sales. Record labels that want the data for marketing purposes must request it from the association.  "
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/platinum-album-certification-explained-2460607

If someone was leaving a label why might they not :thinker:
 

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2 hours ago, professormouse said:

Ah Hah !
It isn't an exact science...

" But the RIAA does not automatically certify music sales. Record labels that want the data for marketing purposes must request it from the association.  "
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/platinum-album-certification-explained-2460607

If someone was leaving a label why might they not :thinker:
 

I believe they actually have to pay for it. Oddly even when she was with them they never bothered to re-certify her pre-1989 gold singles (which were worth 1M in shipments/sales) It is stupid that the RIAA changed the rules in 1989 but didn't automatically move all Gold singles to Platinum status but instead left them as Gold and expected the record companies to pay to have them certified again.

So yeah I doubt they will bother spending the coin on an artist that isn't even with them anymore and seems uninterested in cashing in on her back catalogue.

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Unless Madonna reunites with WB, I doubt it will bother to update her certs. Her albums have sold 75m+ in the USA, per a late-2009 Billboard article, so some albums indeed would be eligible for higher certs. Like a Prayer and Ray of Light, I can see both at 5 million. TIC, of course, could be upped.

Singles sales/shipments had dropped to 94 million in 1986, down considerably from 1980. Though I have no doubt that "Live to Tell," a new Madonna single that hit No. 1 without availability on any album at that time, didn't ship 500,000-plus. "Material Girl" would also be a gold contender (note that this just pertains to physical, not digital or adding digital, streaming info, to physical, etc.).

WB was not the best at certifying product, so we can't go by a title's last cert and what sales it saw thereafter.

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4 minutes ago, Brendanlovesu1 said:

Ray of Light (single) is now certified GOLD in the UK for 400,000 units sold. — Madonna has now 29,995,000 total certified units in the UK. are they finally starting to update her certifications?

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Interesting that they reference the date the song was digitally released as the release date 

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Do we think it's true that Madonna has sold over 400 Million records as she claimed to Jimmy Fallon the other night on his show?  Or she was just joking?  Her U.S. sales surely have to be more than what's been reported previously. Any sales or certification experts know? 

Edited by Ch3rish (see edit history)
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On 8/20/2022 at 7:20 PM, wtg1987 said:

How would warner go back and re-certify her albums and singles now anyway ??

What do you mean? If they're willing to pay, they just contact the RIAA and request certification updates and they will have them all updated. Beyonce just did it with her discography. MDNA, Rebel Heart and Madame X might have to wait until they're officially under Warner. 

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9 hours ago, Husam Elzien said:

What do you mean? If they're willing to pay, they just contact the RIAA and request certification updates and they will have them all updated. Beyonce just did it with her discography. MDNA, Rebel Heart and Madame X might have to wait until they're officially under Warner. 

Cuz she doesn't have as much money as Beyonce Mtv Madonna GIF

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9 hours ago, Husam Elzien said:

What do you mean? If they're willing to pay, they just contact the RIAA and request certification updates and they will have them all updated. Beyonce just did it with her discography. MDNA, Rebel Heart and Madame X might have to wait until they're officially under Warner. 

i dont get why they have to pay though ?  where do we get each albums global sales from now then - are they all estimated then or just based on units shipped ?

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