This feels like grasping to the past just because. In 15 years physical sales will be in the gutter even more than now, and our kids aint gonna give a fukk about us old heads going on about Sam Goody Tape and CD sales for Platinum certs my dude.
Its different, but something has to change. You got nikkas out here eating on selling music fresh from soundcloud/youtube to deals and shyt. A new metric has to come along and replace the old to account for this new shyt.
I think you need to account for the fact that back then half of people would buy singles on iTunes and store shelves, and the other half would buy the whole damn album even though all they really wanted was "In da club".
But these days its more well known that you dont need to break bread for the whole album when you just want tracks #2 #7 and #13. nikkas these days will spend .99 cents a piece on 3 tracks and let the rest of the album rot. So I'm sure these new dudes sell more SINGLES but the overall total album sales are probably way down.
Its different, but something has to change. You got nikkas out here eating on selling music fresh from soundcloud/youtube to deals and shyt. A new metric has to come along and replace the old to account for this new shyt.

I got no dog in this fight. However, I'd just like to point something out.
Big Sean sold 7.5 million singles under these new rules.
That's more than the entirety of 50 Cent's singles in his prime. Not just "In Da Club", literally his entire run of singles when he sold 12 mill.
This seems accurate?
Fred.
I think you need to account for the fact that back then half of people would buy singles on iTunes and store shelves, and the other half would buy the whole damn album even though all they really wanted was "In da club".
But these days its more well known that you dont need to break bread for the whole album when you just want tracks #2 #7 and #13. nikkas these days will spend .99 cents a piece on 3 tracks and let the rest of the album rot. So I'm sure these new dudes sell more SINGLES but the overall total album sales are probably way down.