Sell Your Album Even If Nobody Listens to It: The Hidden Guide to Boasting Sales with Historical Streams

Imagine this: an album that, without generating a single new physical or digital sale, amasses astronomical figures in metrics thanks to historical streams. And, get this—it doesn’t even register a single new stream! Welcome to the streaming era, where a compilation can seem like the best-selling album in history, even though nobody has bought it recently.

The Formula of Equivalent Album Units: Genius or Nonsense?

Organizations such as the RIAA, IFPI, and Billboard have adopted the metric of Equivalent Album Units (EAU) to compare commercial performance in the digital age. In this system, 1,500 audio streams (or 6,750 video streams) count as one “sale” of an album, regardless of whether the album has 10 or 22 songs—the total is divided by the same number. For singles, the threshold is even lower; for example, 150 streams equate to one sale. In the UK, this equivalence is dynamic and is adjusted after several weeks, lowering the required stream count. A bit absurd, isn’t it? Yet, this has become the norm.

This formula is useful for capturing global consumption, as music today is enjoyed in many ways—from physical copies to downloads and, above all, streaming. However, it has its pitfalls. If an album includes songs released years ago, those accumulated streams add to the total, which can artificially inflate the "sales" figure without any real new purchases taking place. (Tell me the rules, and I’ll find the backdoors.)

The Shakira Case: "Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran"

Let’s take the controversial album by Shakira, "Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran," as an example. On the very day of its release (March 22, 2024), the album reached a 7× Platinum certification in the U.S. (420,000 units). However, it debuted at number 13 on the Billboard 200 with only 34,000 copies sold. Confusing? Absolutely.

The reality is that these numbers largely come from streams accumulated from songs that were already available for years. The album includes tracks that were being streamed in 2022… and in 2023… In other words, while on paper the album appears to be dominating the market, many of the figures are inherited from past hits that are now being "recycled."

Recently, some fans boasted on social media that this album was the fourth best-selling album of 2024 by a female artist, with over 5 million "copies sold." The truth is that if we separate real sales from historical streams, the pure sales of this album are estimated to be around 1.4 million copies.

What Does This Mean for the Music Industry?

This methodology, although not "unreal"—since it reflects global consumption in the digital era—can lead to misleading interpretations. We’re not talking about sales in the traditional sense, but rather an indicator that combines different types of consumption. Hence, a report based solely on EAUs might suggest that an album has had a spectacular market impact, when in reality it’s a mix of historical and new streams.

For the young and analytically minded, it’s essential to understand that these figures are only part of the picture. "Sales" in the streaming era become an abstract concept: accumulated digital data can eclipse real sales. In other words, it’s not that the system is wrong, but that we interpret it incorrectly. We’re used to attributing prestige to an album based on its sales, certifications, and impact, but today, in an era where physical formats are almost relics, what matters is the magnitude of the numbers… or at least, that’s what they want us to believe.

But, Can We Build the Best-Selling Album of All Time?

Let’s try to hypothetically create the best-selling album in history. Imagine a compilation album that, without generating any new sales, accumulates all the historical streams of an artist.

Step 1: How Many Copies Would We Need?

There’s general consensus that Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” (1982) is the best-selling album in history with around 70 million copies sold.

Step 2: Which Artist Has Massive Streaming Activity?

I’d choose Taylor Swift, who has numerous songs with over 1 billion streams on Spotify. It's an ambicious challenge.

Step 3: Let’s Create a Greatest Hits Album

Taylor Swift’s latest album even featured over 30 songs (oh wait, of course ...). Let’s select 20 of her biggest hits and their streams (Spotify-only data):

Song	Current Spotify Streams
Blank Space	2,021,910,963
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together	714,866,978
Love Story	970,106,241
Cruel Summer	2,769,736,871
Style	1,347,762,882
You Need to Calm Down	1,029,811,983
Teardrops On My Guitar	235,642,266
Look What You Made Me Do	1,277,622,736
You Belong With Me	700,068,249
Shake It Off	1,574,304,359
Anti-Hero	1,776,290,185
I Knew You Were Trouble	928,003,052
Enchanted	890,722,677
Red	267,410,936
Gorgeous	659,697,082
ME!	912,541,964
Cardigan	1,567,423,584
Fortnight	845,975,670
Willow	955,651,935
22	417,722,118

Step 4: Calculate Its "Sales" Equivalents

The total streams of these 20 songs amount to approximately 21.86 billion. Dividing that number by 1,500 (the conversion factor for albums) gives us around 14.6 million equivalent "copies sold."

But here’s the twist: this does not mean the album would automatically become the best-selling of all time. In fact, it shows that without new sales or streams, this greatest hits album wouldn’t get it. It’s not enough to simply add up past numbers; a continuous influx of new plays is necessary to claim the title of the biggest album in history. That said, if your goal is merely to break the record for the highest number of album-equivalent sales in a single day, then leveraging those historical streams might just do the trick.

Conclusion

This method of calculating equivalent sales is not equivalent to the classic way we value albums solely by their physical or digital sales. Instead, it is used indiscriminately as a marketing strategy to exaggerate the importance or success of certain albums as a promotional tool. Since the premise is based on a kernel of truth, the conclusions are open to interpretation—it’s simply the world we live in. However, even with these strategies, the great albums in history are not in danger of being overshadowed. We are still living in an era where the traditional album format is at risk of extinction, yet its legacy remains secure.