METALLICA - Black Album Top Selling Of US SoundScan Era
December 23, 2009, 15 years ago
METALLICA's self-titled album from 1991 (known as the black album) has surpassed SHANIA TWAIN's 1997 CD Come On Over to become the best-selling album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales for Billboard on March 1, 1991. Metallica has sold 15,490,000 copies whereas Come On Over has sold 15,487,000.
According to Wikipedia, Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada. Data is collected weekly and made available every Wednesday to subscribers, which include executives from all facets of record companies, publishing firms, music retailers, independent promoters, film and TV, and artist management. SoundScan is the sales source for the Billboard music charts, making it the official source of sales records in the music industry.
