data as of 2009, representing at least twenty-nine million albums. 1 and typically have their highest sales that first week.ДЇor вЂњThriller,вЂќ we have R.I.A.A. To this day, anticipated releases by major stars open at No. After we had the real figures, we saw that it was, in fact, routine. Before SoundScan, it was extremely rare for an album to dГ©but at No. We also learned that we didnвЂ™t have an accurate picture of buying patterns. We saw that overlooked genres like country and gospel were ringing up massive sales. SoundScan showed that the traditional charts had been based on many misconceptions. have been counted by a company called SoundScan, which records the actual purchases of CDs in sales in actual stores. In the nineteen-seventies and eighties, the famous Billboard charts were compiled by phone surveys of record-store employees, who were just asked вЂњwhat was selling.вЂќ (I was one of them!) Since 1991, album sales in the U.S. But in the pre-digital era, it was pretty common for an album that had sold, say, eight hundred thousand to get certified platinum-and then have the extra two hundred thousand returned unsold to the label and end up in the cutout bins.) (At the numbers Jackson has sold over the past nearly thirty years, the difference between units sold and shipped wouldnвЂ™t be that large. вЂњThrillerвЂќ has been certified platinum in the United States twenty-nine times as of 2009. Again, thatвЂ™s shipped, not actually sold. Gold represents five hundred thousand units shipped, and platinum a million. The group audits shipments of CDs (and, in the past, albums and cassettes), and gives those awards based on whatвЂ™s boxed up and trucked out of the pressing plants. LetвЂ™s look at facts, starting with вЂњThriller.вЂќ When you hear the words вЂњplatinumвЂќ and вЂњgoldвЂќ in relation to record sales, they are based on certifications from the Record Industry Association of America, known as the R.I.A.A. As for that billion figure, that came from a press release for JacksonвЂ™s estate a couple of years ago, which asserted, in passing and with no documentation, that the singer had sold an вЂњestimatedвЂќ billion records. I was sure by the end up of the book it would have risen to a hundred and fifty million. I was amused, for example, while reading a memoir by JacksonвЂ™s record producer, Quincy Jones, вЂњQ on Producing,вЂќ to see that вЂњThrillerвЂќ had sold a hundred million copies-and then, a few pages later, that it had sold a hundred and twenty million. The numbers surrounding Jackson have always been particularly outlandish. Music-industry sales figures are a complex subject, but this doesnвЂ™t excuse the fact that they are often exaggerated for public consumption. In a new book on Jackson, вЂњUntouchable,вЂќ the writer Randall Sullivan repeats the hundred-million figure for вЂњThriller.вЂќ And earlier this year, fan sites were a buzzing with the news that the Michael Jackson estate had вЂњconfirmedвЂќ that Jackson had sold a total of a billion records. In Michael JacksonвЂ™s New York Times obituary, the singer is credited with selling a hundred million copies of his most popular album, вЂњThrillerвЂќ-and with selling an вЂњestimatedвЂќ seven hundred and fifty million records worldwide over his career.

Michael jackson's discography