FZ Sales And Gold Album Status
Zootorific
Recently, "De Badchild" asked about the sales figures of FZ recordings and if
there was a website where they were listed or could otherwise be accessed. And
this led to a brief discussion about how many, if any, FZ Gold Albums there
were.
For about the past fifteen years, retail sales of recorded music in the United
States have been tracked by a company named SoundScan. SoundScan uses data
acquired from thousands of retailers. These sales figures are compiled, in
aggregate and in details of dozens of demographics and markets, and then are
made available to SoundScan subscribers. Virtually all US sales figures quoted
by record companies, Artists, or as reported in the media are from SoundScan.
In the United States, Gold, Platinum and Diamond Albums are awarded by The
Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA has been compiling its own
sales figures, usually as reported by the member record companies, for about 40
years. While SoundScan sales figures may trigger a request to the RIAA for a
Gold, Platinum or Diamond Album Certification, the RIAA utilizes its own
resources and sales data figures to determine whether or not an album has
reached a particular sales certification level.
The RIAA Gold And Platinum Certification Search webpage is located at:
http://www.riaa.org/Gold-Intro-2.cfm
On it, anyone may enter Artist or Album information and see what sales
certifications, if any, have been awarded by the RIAA.
A search on this page details that FZ has only one Gold Album Certification in
the United States. It is for the DiscReet release of the "Apostrophe" album and
was certified on 7 April 1976.
A Gold Album Certification is given when, according to the RIAA website, there
are sales of "500,000 units Manufacturer's dollar volume at least $1 million
based on 33 1/3% of suggested list price".
So, as of 7 April 1976, "Apostrophe" had certified sales of at least 500,000
copies.
A RIAA Gold Album Certification is not automatically bestowed. This
certification decision occurs as the result of an application made, and a fee
paid, to the RIAA. So if "Sheik Yerbouti" has, in fact, sold over a million
copies, it may have not been awarded a RIAA Gold or Platinum Album
Certification simply because no application for it was ever made.
The RIAA, unlike SoundScan, does not make exact and ongoing sales figures
available. Ongoing and exact sales figures for the years prior to SoundScan's
creation would have been kept by the record company that released the title and
would have been reported to the Artist at the time of Artist royalty statements
or at the time of separate payment of mechanical royalties. Mechanical
royalties are those payments made directly to songwriters for the use of their
composition. All mechanical royalties for FZ compositions are paid to the Zappa
Family Trust.
There have been four separate releases of "Apostrophe" since SoundScan began
tracking sales.
These are listed as:
(1) 11 November 1987 release of "Apostrophe/Overnight Sensation" CD
(2) 11 October 1989 release of the stand-alone "Apostrophe" CD
(3) 18 April 1995 release of the FZ approved master "Apostrophe" CD
(4) 2 July 1996 release of Au20 mastered "Apostrophe" CD
Though SoundScan lists exact sales figures for each of these different
"Apostrophe" titles, as well as every other FZ release in the United States,
they will not be posted here. These exact sales figures are for Rykodisc or The
Zappa Family Trust to decide to disclose.
Or they could be viewed, along with sales figures for every release by any
Artist available in the United States, by subscription to SoundScan.
However, for the purpose of better understanding FZ career sales figures,
SoundScan reports that all versions of "Apostrophe" tracked by SoundScan since
11 November 1987 have sold more than 200,000 copies.
So how many total copies has "Apostrophe" sold since it was first released?
Probably only the Zappa Family Trust knows for sure.
Based upon the combined 1976 RIAA Certification and the current SoundScan data,
it has sold at least 700,000 copies in the United States.
And if sales figures for the "missing" years of data between 1976 and 1987 are
extrapolated from the known sales figures, it is quite likely that "Apostrophe"
has a lifetime retail sales figure in the United States of about 1,100,000 to
1,250.000 copies.
And is now likely deserving of a RIAA Platinum Album Certification.
If everyone could stop fighting long enough to apply for it.
Cheers,
Zoot
Charles Ulrich
zooto...@aol.comedyland (Zootorific) wrote:
[a very informative post, most of which I have snipped]
> The RIAA Gold And Platinum Certification Search webpage is located
> at: http://www.riaa.org/Gold-Intro-2.cfm On it, anyone may enter
> Artist or Album information and see what sales certifications, if
> any, have been awarded by the RIAA. A search on this page details
> that FZ has only one Gold Album Certification in the United States.
> It is for the DiscReet release of the "Apostrophe" album and was
> certified on 7 April 1976.
Yes and no. Over-Night [sic] Sensation was also certified gold. But it
was credited to "Mothers" rather than "Frank Zappa", and you have to
search accordingly.
Note also that ONS was released before Apostrophe, but Apostrophe went
gold first (4/7/76 vs. 11/9/76).
Michael Gula
Zappa: The Present Day Composer originally appeared in Goldmine
12/9/94, the author incorporated sales statistics for Zappa's
records into the text. These statistics were edited out when it
was republished in The Frank Zappa Companion by Kostelanetz.
I can't remember how comprehensive these statistics were, so
don't hunt the magazine down unless you have nothing better to
do.
Denis Griffin
According to a 1982 interview Overnight Sensation, Apostrophe(') and
Joe's Garage were all gold in the U.S.
Excerpt From:
Record Review
Vol. 6 No.3
June 1982
Page 30
Interview: by Steven Rosen
SR- What is your best selling record? -
FZ- The best selling record is Sheik Yerbouti. It doesn't surprise me,
because it was all through CBS' promotion. It was released through
Phonogram in the U.S. and it was released by CBS outside the U.S. and
the
bulk of the sales was outside of the U.S. Generally speaking we sell
more
records outside the U.S. We're pretty much an unknown group in the U.S.
but in Europe it's a different story. I think the discrepancy is even
more
distressing if you look at the population of the U.S. versus the
population
of Europe. If I sell more records in Europe than I do in the U.S., if
you
average it out it means that I'm selling 10 to 20 times more in Europe
than I am here. And I don't see how that is possible because most of the
places where it's selling they don't even speak English. We don't do
very
well in Japan. We've been there once. In Australia we had gold albums
with
Live at the Fillmore and Just Another Band From L.A. Overnight
Sensation,
Apostrophe(') and Joe's Garage were all gold in the U.S. We have two or
three from Canada and a few from other countries. -
Zootorific
For the purpose of the explanation which was being offered, a search of the
RIAA database using only "FRANK ZAPPA" was done.
Thanks to Mr. Ulrich for his usual thorough resourcefulness and for the
additional RIAA information.
Denis Griffin says
"According to a 1982 interview Overnight Sensation, Apostrophe(') and Joe's
Garage were all gold in the U.S."
This may well be true.
In the sense that the United States retail sales quantity requirements the RIAA
would require for these FZ albums may have been met or exceeded. And based upon
current SoundScan sales figures, it can reasonably be assumed there are likely
several other FZ albums that now have had lifetime sales of over 500,000 units
and would qualify for RIAA Gold Album Certification. Perhaps one of two would
now even quality for RIAA Platinum Album Certification because their sales have
met or exceeded 1,000,000 units.
However, RIAA Gold or Platinum Album Certification is not automatically
bestowed nor the determination process automatically undertaken, and until
someone makes an application, and pays the required fees, to The Recording
Industry Association of America for this certification process to begin, the
total number of RIAA Gold and Platinum Album Awards so far actually earned by
FZ's work will never be known for certain.
The Recording Industry Association of America certification process and fees
are detailed at
http://www.riaa.org/Gold-Cert-1.cfm
Cheers,
Zoot
deathless
he said SY had sold 1.5M copies he then compared it to Micheal Jackson's
Thriller selling 42M saying that FZ's music would not be remembered as there
just wasn't enough of it out there. In an interview several years later I
recollect SY being quoted as having sold 8M, maybe I'm just losing it...
"Zootorific" <zooto...@aol.comedyland> wrote in message
news:20020811000133...@mb-mf.aol.com...