Is there anything that exists that lists bands, their albums, and their sales?

I am curious because I was looking for this last night as the NekoCase is a satanist thread inspired this question. I wanted to see how many sales she has for her albums combined with The New Pornographers just to see what "success" and "fame" means to that critic. I have this feeling that all their albums combined probably don't equal the sales of one Rolling Stones album.

I asked this same question ages ago over at the Matador boards. Here's the answer Gerard offered:

The company that owns SoundScan is Nielsen (the ratings company) - SoundScan has a monopoly on tabulating over-the-counter CD sales. They treat their reports as copyrighted material. The RIAA tabulates shipments to stores, but only report them when records reach "award" levels -- gold (500K), platinum (1M) and multiples thereof. Very few privately held record companies will give out sales figures. It's competitive information, and it benefits hardly no one.

that is probably true. i want to say that mass romantic's sold around 50-60k units, but i don't remember where i heard that. if you think that each album has sold about that, you'd be correct. then again, "success" to a band on matador is much different than to a band on, say, warner.

that's pretty much on the spot. most of the information found on soundscan is for internal use only within major labels... unless it hits the award levels. if the record doesn't hit award levels, then it don't mean shit (at least in the majors' p.o.v.) once the album hits the award levels, the labels will utilize that info to push an artist.

another reason why it sucks for the indies. you could be on the charts for weeks.. but it's only pushed 3,000 units so far which means shit to the higher ups.

[quote="Z"][ i want to say that mass romantic's sold around 50-60k units, but i don't remember where i heard that. quote]


If that is true then I am completely clueless as to the popularity of most of the bands I listen too.

I figured that was a cornerstone power pop album that most people know about or have. I would've guessed it had done at least 400K by this point.

But wasn't it a big deal when Modest Mouse hit 500k? I think there are a LOT more people that listen to Modest Mouse than Neko Case. I bet I could walk down the street and ask 100 random people if they knew who Neko Case was and they would all say no.

it sold about 39k. i just looked it up on soundscan.