We use a wide range of methods to estimate sales. The most common of which involves utilizing pure sales estimates from sources like Discogs & Nielson, and estimating the % of both Spotify streams and YouTube views that each song gets from every market. From there, Spotify plays are multiplied by a multiplier to estimate total audio streams, including consumption from platforms like Apple Music, Amazon Music, Joox, etc. These plays are then divided by ratios, which are different depending on the country. The most standard ratios we use are audio /150 & video /500, but these vary by market. Generally we try to follow ratio guidence from either official certification bodies or using UMG consumption methodology. No non-public information has been used in these estimates.

Importants Notes: 

*Chinese units are estimated with a revolutionary method, utilizing 热力值 (all-time poplarity score) from QQ music to estimate consumption in the Chinese market. Previous methods like using QQ video views to estimate sales left extremely erroneous gaps between reported and actual consumption. While these Chinese estimates are imperfect, they much better represent Taylor’s extreme demand in China.

*Consumption is inclusive of standard versions, Taylor’s versions, as well as inclusive of all consumption from remixes

*UK units will likely not match certifications. The UK is the only country globally that consistently certifies automatically, but embedded in this system is a series of hyper-complicated rules that make estimating album sales that match certifications extremely complicated. UK certifications only measures free streams /100, where as our consumption methodology calculates as audio /100 & video /600 (In accordance with UMG consumption guidelines). Additionally, UK certificaitons only include the streaming average of the top 12 tracks + pure sales in consumption, massively understating consumption of longer albums like Red TV & TTPD. For these reasons, UK units will not exactly track certifications because our measuring methodology is different.

*In general, most countries with ‘automatic’ certificaitons have specifications for elgibility (like Australia only counting a certain number of streams per day, or unclear ratio methodologies) that make matching to certifications in general impossible, which is why we have opted to use standardized consumption ratios

*Our sales methodologies utilizie stream counts from a number of local platforms, inclduing Melon, AWA, & Anghami

*These figures are estimates, and while they largely represent relevant consumption in each market, they are just estimates, built upon many underlying assumptions 

* Tracks are added to album consumption at the discretion of the team. Examples include ‘All Of The Girls You Loved Before’ being included on Lover and ‘Sweeter Than Fiction’ being included on 1989