The Beatles Sold Over 1.2 Million CDs in the US Last Week

On September 9th, The Beatles long awaited remastered CDs came out in both stereo & mono. The stereo mixes (the same stereo mixes previously available on the CDs first released in 1987) were made available both for individual purchase and as a part of The Beatles In Stereo Box. The mono mixes (the original mono mixes never before released on CD) were made available only as a part of The Beatles In Mono Box.

Huge Sales #s

These remastered CDs were flying off the shelf in countries all around the world. In the UK the Beatles had 11 albums among the top 40 and in the US they had five albums among the top ten on the comprehensive album charts. I don't have chart details for other countries at my fingertips just yet but I have read many reports of huge sales in countries such as Japan, Germany, & Australia as well.

Box Sets Lead To Under-Counting Sales #s

But these charts (and the total sales numbers being reported) are actually somewhat deceiving because of the box set sales. People who buy the box sets are buying the box sets instead of buying the individual CDs so obviously that hurts the sales numbers (and the chart positions) of the individual albums significantly (as a lot of these box sets are selling, in fact they are sold out most places.)

Each box set sale is counted as just one sale even though the stereo box contains 14 Beatles albums (and 16 total CDs) and the mono box contains 11 Beatles albums (and 13 total CDs.)

Billboard Is Reporting That The Beatles Sold 626K "Units"

You may have read that The Beatles sold "just" 626,000 "units" for the week in the US (that's what Billboard is reporting.) Well, like I mentioned, they are only counting each box set sale as a single sale which is obviously unfair because each sale of the stereo box set is really a sale of 14 albums (and 16 total CDs) and each sale of the mono box set is a sale of 11 albums (and 13 total CDs.)

Calculating How Many CDs The Beatles Sold

By adding up the sales numbers for each Beatles album and the box sets it's pretty easy to calculate how many CDs The Beatles sold last week (although the number will still be a little bit low because of no info on how many copies of other multiple disc sets like the Anthologies & Live at the BBC sold.)

Over 1.2 Million CDs Sold For The Week In The US

When all of the album sales and box sets are added up it equals out to over 1.2 million CDs sold by The Beatles last week. As amazing as that number is, it would actually be even higher if it weren't for the fact that the box sets have been sold out in local stores and on the internet! I think it's reasonable to guess that the total sales numbers would have been close to two million CDs if the box sets had not been so difficult for people to find them in stock.

26,000 Stereo Box Sets & 12,000 Mono Box Sets

For the week 26,000 stereo box sets and 12,000 mono box sets were sold in the US. That adds up to a total of 496K albums and 572K total CDs sold as a part of the box sets.