United World Charts: The Chart For The 21st Century
Contributed anonymously:
The United World Charts is an organization founded in 1998 in order to track Worldwide Sales & Figures. I can explain the analogy between the United World Charts (organized by Mediatraffic.de) and the Billboard Charts like this: It’s like comparing the Ms. Universe Pageant to the Ms. America Pageant or the U.S. National Games to the Olympics. In Music it’s like comparing Madonna’s/Celine’s “Worldwide Appeal” to Mariah’s “American Only Appeal”. In our time the World Charts do “Matter The Most”.
Here are the reasons why the United World Charts is the most relevant source nowadays:
1. It has the “Biggest Coverage”. The United World Charts (Global Charts) tracks the albums sales, singles sales, & downloads from 32 countries with the biggest music markets.
2. It has “Global Ties”. It has ties with the IFPI, Nielsen Soundscan (U.S., Canada), Oricon (Japan), Official U.K. Charts Co. (U.K.), SNEP / IFOP (France), Media Control (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), ARIA (Australia), Hot100 BR@SIL (Brazil), RIANZ (New Zealand), RIM (Malaysia), CAPIF (Argentina), among others.
3. It has the most credible system of tracking “World Records”. Since it has been organized in 1998, the United World Charts has recognized World Records for the first time. Albums eligible are the ones released after the year 2001. The Biggest 1st Week Album Debut comes from “Feels Like Home” by Norah Jones with sales of over 1.92 million. The Biggest Single Debut since 1998 is Madonna’s Hung Up with 548,000 index points (sales, airplay, & downloads).
4. World Charts show the “Whole Picture”. It is always better to get the whole picture rather than a partial one (note: I will provide another analogy to prove this).
The Biggest Selling Male & Female Artists are the ones with “Global Iconic Status”. The Beatles is the Biggest Selling Group in History because of their “Global Appeal”. ABBA hasn’t surpassed them because they only have “European Appeal”. The same analogy can be applied with Elvis vs. Garth Brooks.
According to Warner Brothers & Wikipedia, Madonna is the Biggest Selling Female Artist (albums & singles combined) with sales of over 250 million records (175m albums & 75m singles). Madonna beats Barbra Streisand’s total because Barbra only has “Domestic Appeal”. The Guinness Book Of Records also proves this Madonna record. According to the IFPI, Celine Dion is the Biggest Selling Female in terms of Albums sales only. With her “International Appeal” she has amassed a total of 180 million sales beating Mariah’s total of 160 million. Mariah’s failure to overtake Celine or Madonna is because lacking popularity/credibility outside the United States.
