Lady Gaga Sets Digital Record with 20 Million Downloads Sold

billyworld99

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WASHINGTON) -- Lady Gaga has just set the record for the most digital singles sold ever.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Gaga is the highest certified artist when it comes to digital sales, racking up 20 million downloads sold.

"Just Dance" has been certified six times platinum, for sales of six million copies. "Poker Face" is five times platinum, "Bad Romance" is quadruple platinum, "Paparazzi" is triple platinum and "Love Game" is double platinum.

Hot on Gaga's heels are Taylor Swift and Rihanna. Rihanna has sold 19 million digital singles, while Swift has sold 18.5 million downloads.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio
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Looks like the others will pass her sooner or later, she's not that far ahead.
Congrats to her right now though I guess.

Edit: Now that I'm thinking about it I could have sworn I read something like this about Rihanna not that long a go. How she was the most succesfull digital sales artist or something to that effect. I guess digital single sales move around a lot faster than other sales.
 
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.. and Michael sold...? how many?

Who cares?

Congrats to Gaga :) 20 million is a lot but like xrisx said, the others are getting close. I read somewhere that Rihanna was the ultimate singles artist so I assumed she had this record, but Gaga beat her to it I guess. They both released a new album recently so that number will probably go up even further ;)
 
Are we talking about itunes here? This is total songs(different ones) not albums? I am just trying to make sure I understand and keep it up lol.
 
Are we talking about itunes here? This is total songs(different ones) not albums? I am just trying to make sure I understand and keep it up lol.

yes the digital download from itunes which 70% of music sales come from now i think she soldmore because telephone, born this way, alejandro haven't been ceritfied yet
 
This is why Mike's work with RedOne (her producer) have to be released. They're what people are listening to nowadays and could be huge hits.
 
...and this is why mainstream music sucks now more than ever before. Because the industry knows that it's no longer CDs, but singles, which sell the most in this new market. Thus, effort is no longer put into careful crafting of "perfect" CDs like it was before. Nor is any attention to detail placed into the content and meaning of songs.

Nothing is of any importance, save the centric single, which will carry countless unworthy, autotuned, sexualized sellouts to glory on the charts, supported by none other than their iTunes-savvy teenage minions.

If it plays well at the club, it will be a huge success, despite its complete lack of artistry. That's how you end up with the likes of Lady Gaga and Rihanna as being the top two selling artists "ever", as far as digital sales of 'singles' are concerned.
 
...and this is why mainstream music sucks now more than ever before. Because the industry knows that it's no longer CDs, but singles, which sell the most in this new market. Thus, effort is no longer put into careful crafting of "perfect" CDs like it was before. Nor is any attention to detail placed into the content and meaning of songs.

Nothing is of any importance, save the centric single, which will carry countless unworthy, autotuned, sexualized sellouts to glory on the charts, supported by none other than their iTunes-savvy teenage minions.

If it plays well at the club, it will be a huge success, despite its complete lack of artistry. That's how you end up with the likes of Lady Gaga and Rihanna as being the top two selling artists "ever", as far as digital sales of 'singles' are concerned.

"Perfect CDs" is a myth in the mainstream world. It has always been about singles and always will be. Only few standout acts actually care about their albums as a whole.
 
^The quality in music, even mainstream music, has considerably dropped in the last decade--given a more aggressive focus on singles rather than CDs due to online sales.

There are few actual "perfect CDs", this is true, but the attempt definitely existed (at least to make the rest of the CD halfway decent) as mainstream artists struggled to have their work go platinum. Sure, it's always been about having strong singles, but before it also used to be important to have strong supporting tracks to make the CD worthwhile. Now, it seems of secondary importance to sell the most CDs, with music labels instead targeting their focus on the advertising and selling of singles. It used to be that you saw commercials and ads for CDs on the television. With the rise of the Internet, we've seen the decline of advertising for CDs (it still exists, but not to the large degree it used to), and the increasing of advertising singles through Internet mediums.

The result we get is a bunch of heavily marketed singles with absolutely horrendous tracks to complete the remainder of the CD, and the decline of quality as a whole, even by mainstream standards, which were never really high to begin with.
 
This is why Mike's work with RedOne (her producer) have to be released. They're what people are listening to nowadays and could be huge hits.

No way, I don't ever want his work with RedOne (or Will.I.Am for that matter) to be released, no matter how successful it may be. It would damage his legacy and artistic credibility.
 
Does anyone think cds will be gone someday? I hope not. It seems like everybody downloads things now.
 
I hate digital downloads, i like to have the CD. Lady Gaga isnt really all that great. Music now is about whatever will sell, even if it sucks
 
Does anyone think cds will be gone someday? I hope not. It seems like everybody downloads things now.

If that happens.............then the music industry will truly be dead........

Music sales have constantly been falling ever since downloads were introduced.............surely they can't afford to completely stop CD's............

The music bosses have tried to completely phase out vinyl...........but you can still buy them and selected retailers...........so I don't they would ever succeed in phasing out CD.........



I hate digital downloads, i like to have the CD. Lady Gaga isnt really all that great. Music now is about whatever will sell, even if it sucks

I agree..........I always prefer CD............if only they still sold CD singles.......

I also agree on your second point............modern music just feels too plastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
No way, I don't ever want his work with RedOne (or Will.I.Am for that matter) to be released, no matter how successful it may be. It would damage his legacy and artistic credibility.

I'm glad to see that some fans still have good sense. It seems that many people here want Michael to be a 'Lady Gaga', what really intrigues me.

Michael already has his place, and it's not by the side of "Lady GagaS". The people who still compare MJ to her, and want his "new" songs to sound like her, should seriously stop.
 
No way, I don't ever want his work with RedOne (or Will.I.Am for that matter) to be released, no matter how successful it may be. It would damage his legacy and artistic credibility.

Well said! Thank you! It is indeed refreshing to see consideration and utmost respect for his legacy and artistic credibility.
 
I'm glad to see that some fans still have good sense. It seems that many people here want Michael to be a 'Lady Gaga', what really intrigues me.

Michael already has his place, and it's not by the side of "Lady GagaS". The people who still compare MJ to her, and want his "new" songs to sound like her, should seriously stop.

I agree. Michael's sound is completely unique and should be left as it was in his life. He's not here to supervise the work, and I don't think anyone should touch his work with either RedOne or Will.i.Am.

"Gaga-esque" sound, as it has so incorrectly been dubbed by ignorant Americans who are unaware that dance-style music has existed way longer than the person in question's music career, has no place among anything Michael-related, and is in this day and age, unexceptional, boring, and trite.

We'll have more lady gagas, and perhaps even worse things come along, before this dance music fad is over and done. There is no reason to sacrifice a perfectly stable and artistic legacy over something which appears to be a passing fad.
 
...and this is why mainstream music sucks now more than ever before. Because the industry knows that it's no longer CDs, but singles, which sell the most in this new market. Thus, effort is no longer put into careful crafting of "perfect" CDs like it was before. Nor is any attention to detail placed into the content and meaning of songs.

Nothing is of any importance, save the centric single, which will carry countless unworthy, autotuned, sexualized sellouts to glory on the charts, supported by none other than their iTunes-savvy teenage minions.

If it plays well at the club, it will be a huge success, despite its complete lack of artistry. That's how you end up with the likes of Lady Gaga and Rihanna as being the top two selling artists "ever", as far as digital sales of 'singles' are concerned.

:clapping:

(Don't forget Justin Bieber and Willow Smith. This just shows the level of "artistry" and creativity we have nowadays in popular music....)
 
I'm glad to see that some fans still have good sense. It seems that many people here want Michael to be a 'Lady Gaga', what really intrigues me.

Michael already has his place, and it's not by the side of "Lady GagaS". The people who still compare MJ to her, and want his "new" songs to sound like her, should seriously stop.

Absolutely. That's why I don't like the talk either when regarding MJ's new album people want it to fit the current trend. I'm afraid that's what Sony wanted as well, and that's why we have songs like Breaking News now and that's why we have the message of Hollywood Tonight modified (from the original dark message that Michael intended to this watered up Hollywood happy-end type of story) and so on. They are desperately trying to make his music and lyrics fit into a current trend with lame music and meaningless, happy lyrics you don't have to ponder about much (like with all the songs those are on the charts today, you don't really have deep, dark messages any more in lyrics). It's awful. I don't want Michael to sound anything like what currently "cool" is! Not at all! He doesn't need that.
 
"Gaga-esque" sound, as it has so incorrectly been dubbed by ignorant Americans who are unaware that dance-style music has existed way longer than the person in question's music career, has no place among anything Michael-related, and is in this day and age, unexceptional, boring, and trite.

We'll have more lady gagas, and perhaps even worse things come along, before this dance music fad is over and done. There is no reason to sacrifice a perfectly stable and artistic legacy over something which appears to be a passing fad.

Gaga's music is basically recycled 90s (European) dance music. Alejandro sounded totally something like what Ace of Base would do in the 90s. I'm surprised people think she is something original. She is incredibly overrated IMO. (Her image isn't original either. Madonna, anybody?)
 
:clapping:

(Don't forget Justin Bieber and Willow Smith. This just shows the level of "artistry" and creativity we have nowadays in popular music....)

Very right. The only reason I singled Gaga and Rihanna out was because the former is the current holder of the download record, and the latter was its previous holder.

However, the likes of Justin Bieber and (newly) Willow Smith are certainly contributing to the further wrecking of mainstream music, along with Miley Cyrus.

Mainstream music has never really been good--rarely, you see really talented people be mainstream, such as Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Mariah Carey, in chronological order. However, no one in the last decade can even come close to these titans (of whom Michael is the most talented, in my opinion, simply because he surpassed Elvis in songwriting, the Beatles in that he was solo act while their success came when they were a band, and Mariah in that he's humble and far more talented/successful than her.)

Arguably, Eminem would be the most talented artist from the 2000s era, only because his lyric-writing is geniusly clever (and mean at times, yes), but the talent is quite obviously present. However, he comes nowhere near close to being some sort of titan.

Most of the truly talented people are found outside of the mainstream, and for a reason--that one being, their refusal to conform to whatever the present fad is. They stand by their music, even if that means acquiring less fame and notoriety.

I guess, to make my point short, mainstream music never really had high standards to begin with, but in less than five years, these newcomers have managed to bring those standards to a whole new and unprecedented low.

We're not even granted the privilege of having lyrics that make sense or are halfway relevant anymore.
 
Mainstream music has never really been good--rarely, you see really talented people be mainstream, such as Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Mariah Carey, in chronological order. However, no one in the last decade can even come close to these titans (of whom Michael is the most talented, in my opinion, simply because he surpassed Elvis in songwriting, the Beatles in that he was solo act while their success came when they were a band, and Mariah in that he's humble and far more talented/successful than her.)

In the 80s mainstream was great IMO. Michael, Prince, George Michael, Queen, Police, Whitney Houston etc. etc. I don't even know where to stop...

(Eminem does nothing to me. I'm not so fond of rap music. In fact, I think the fact hip-hop became mainstream contributed to the general erosion of quality in popular music.)
 
^Well, he does nothing for me either, but you've gotta give credit where it is due. Of course, addressing your previous post, Gaga is not original in the least--but people have short attention spans and can easily be deceived by tweaking something old and selling it off as something new. Moreover, teenagers (Gaga's main fanbase) are ignorant of things which did not occur during their generation and of things which occurred elsewhere in the world, so that it is easy to see how they could think of someone like her as "original" despite all evidence to the contrary.

I honestly don't find anything wrong with liking her, there are worse things, but to call her original when she isn't makes absolutely no sense to me, and that's my biggest issue, I guess. It's like a slap on the face to people who are original (or at least more original than she is) and don't get recognized for it. The fact that she goes along with it and claims to be original is a bit irritating--it seems to be disrespectful and pretentious, and I would probably like her a lot better if she paid tribute to the people she got the ideas from instead of just plagiarizing.

Saying Gaga is original is as ridiculous as saying Justin Bieber is original, when he's just a carbon copy of Aaron Carter and Jesse McCartney. Gaga, to me, seems to be a copy of Gwen Stefani and an attempt at copying Madonna, albeit with less charisma and no magnetism whatsoever, and as far as style, and her style is strangely "reminiscent" of model Grace Jones.

Not to mention the fact that her Born This Way sounds almost exactly like this Korean group's song:



When I first heard of that, I didn't really believe she would have the audacity to straight-up copy another artists/group's melody (a la California Girls/Tik Tok.) Having heard it, however, I can say they sound more than eerily similar.

In any case, I agree with you--the hip hop fad of the mid 2000s definitely contributed to the erosion of quality in pop music, and the ushering in of watered down europop-esque music as being somehow "original."
 
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I'm glad to see that some fans still have good sense. It seems that many people here want Michael to be a 'Lady Gaga', what really intrigues me.

Michael already has his place, and it's not by the side of "Lady GagaS". The people who still compare MJ to her, and want his "new" songs to sound like her, should seriously stop.

I agree with both of you, MJ is MJ he doesnt need to compete with today's artist especially since they all have to try to get to his level.

N damn how could she balantly rip off that song.... LAWSUIT!!!
 
^Doubt it. Katy Perry famously ripped off Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" melody in her "California Girls" song and no legal action was taken against her. However, the two are on good terms (Ke$ha appeared in her "I Kissed a Girl" video, and the two did a collaboration demo titled "True Love.") Since Girls Generation/SNSD is practically unknown in the U.S., I doubt many people will notice the straight-up plagiarism. They are huge in Korea, though.

The song in question was released in March 2010, and Gaga's single was released in February 2011, pretty much a year later.
 
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