Talk:List of best-selling Latin albums in the United States

Possibly inaccurate list?

I found this article on ChartMasters that claims that the top 25 published by Billboard may be inaccurate and deflate sales in Latino communities. --Mαuri ’96 (talk · cont) 01:36, 2 June 2018 (UTC)

What makes chartmasters.org a reliable source? Erick (talk) 02:33, 2 June 2018 (UTC)

The author seems to be ignorant about Nielsen SoundScan and the Recording Industry Association of America and can't seem to understand the difference between the two. In his rant, he couldn't understand why Selena's 17 Super Exitos received a 6x Platinum certification if it never entered the Billboard 200 chart. Well, if he educated himself just a bit, he would know that the album was ineligible to chart because it was considered a catalog title and was atop the Pop Catalog Albums chart during the media frenzy the singer's death had. The same can be said about his frustrations on Shakira and Alejandro Fernandez. Shakira's early records were not selling well during their initial run (the same with Selena's 17 Super Exitos) before receiving certifications during their lifetime on retail shelves. Fernandez has been in the game for a much longer duration, his earlier albums were released and predated the Top Latin Albums era. His evaluation on Los Tigres del Norte topping the Latin albums chart for 7 weeks, failing to enter the Billboard 200, but was able to receive a platinum certification, shows how ignorant the author is on the methodology Billboard uses. I am pretty sure any Latin music fan can name an album of their favorite artists whose album had topped the Latin albums (Latin Pop/Tropical Albums/Regional Mexican/etc) chart (or even the top 5) and failed to enter the Billboard 200, even Erick can attest to that as well, I am sure. Selling at least 1,000-2,000 units a week for any Spanish album after so many years will eventually garner a certification even if the album did not impact any music chart. The author fails to understand that the RIAA certifies albums since 1991, not only during the first year an album was released, as evident when he ranted about Enrique Iglesias' album "selling over a million" (which he failed to provide a source for that statement he made) versus an old (a then up-to-date) report on his first two Spanish albums from 1999. The author also fails to understand that Dreaming of You's current RIAA certification is not on sales, but on album-equivalent units "representing 3,54 million sales" uhm no, it sold 2.9 million copies. Although I have had many questions on Billboard's methodology and questioned how Shakira's mostly English song could even rank on the Latin Digital Song Sales chart (which after emailing Billboard staff about it, it was eventually removed) but not the mega hit "Harlem Shake" in 2013, but at least I can differentiate between RIAA and Nielsen and their certifications/sales reports. Also, Erick made it clear that SoundScan does not count every US outlet that sells CDs on this article's lead, which is true and what the author of the website ranted about. – jona ✉ 13:43, 2 June 2018 (UTC)

I just saw this from the same author, did he just named EMI an official sales report agency? Haha, this is comedic gold, EMI is a record label of course a record company is going to inflate sales, heck that's what they are known for; ever heard of a marketing strategy? Anywho, the RIAA/Nielsen/and Billboard does not represent sales claims from a record company, though the record label has to submit a form for a certification from the RIAA to prove a worthy certification based on their merits. But that was funny when I saw it lolz. – jona ✉ 13:57, 2 June 2018 (UTC)

On top of what Jona said, one major advantage SoundScan has over the RIAA is that SoundScan counts digital sales whereas the RIAA only counted physical shipments (until February 2016 where they included streaming). This is probably why Historia de un Idolo by Vicente Fernandez is over the one million mark despite only having been certified Gold by the RIAA. Also worth pointing out is that the reliability of Chartmasters.org has been questioned on the talk page for best-selling albums in the UK as well. Erick (talk) 14:59, 2 June 2018 (UTC)

Another thing to note is that in the article, the author cites Jefe de Jefes by Los Tigres del Norte and the first two albums by Enrique Iglesias as examples of SoundScan being ineffective. While its true that a lot of Latin retail stores lacked electronic cash registers (especially back then) to be counted by SoundScan, the albums by those artists were released by Fonovisa, a company that was found guilty of performing payolas to radio stations. Whose to say that they didn't do something similar to their albums by bribing retailers to buy the albums so that they can be certified by the RIAA?

This list is definitely inaccurate. It's a copy and paste of the Billboard article it references without actually using RIAA's numbers. The author of that article just read Wikipedia articles. For an example, Vuelve has been certified as selling 1 million copies in the US. Where did 888,000 come from? AyanP (talk) 14:44, 21 September 2018 (UTC)AyanP

@AyanP: Read the article. RIAA's certifications are only based on shipments (until February 2016). From February 2016 forwards, it includes streaming. The RIAA doesn't deal with actual sales, that's Nielsen SoundScan and SoundScan is the one reporting those sales numbers, which is where Billboard is getting numbers from. Erick (talk)

Enrique's 1st "ENRIQUE IGLESIAS" nd 2nd album "VIVIR" both were certifed Platinum by Riaa for sales over 1 million copies!!!!! Why none of them been added to this list!?!? Ash Salvatore (talk) 20:01, 4 March 2020 (UTC)

List totally inaccurate

Enrique Iglesias first 2 albums, the 1995 self-titled and 1997's Vivir both have been certified platinum denoting more than 1 million copies sold in the USA, and they are not listed here. Alberto279 (talk) 00:22, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

@Alberto279: This is already explained in the article and the discussion above. The RIAA certifications are/were for shipments, not actual sales. Erick (talk) 00:53, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

Enrique's 1st "ENRIQUE IGLESIAS" nd 2nd album "VIVIR" both were certifed Platinum by Riaa for sales over 1 million copies!!!!! Why none of them been added to this list!?!? Ash Salvatore (talk) 20:00, 4 March 2020 (UTC)

@Ash Salvatore: Read the reply I made to the other user a year ago... PS shouting doesn't make your comment true. Erick (talk) 10:46, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

Are u high!? Ash Salvatore (talk) 14:03, 5 March 2020 (UTC)

@Ash Salvatore: Since you didn't seem to read the reply I made to the other user, I'll repeat it here: RIAA certifications before 2016 are based on shipments, not sales. Nielsen SoundScan is the one that deals with actual album sales. Read the article before you feel the need to use childish insults. And read WP:NPA while you're at it. Erick (talk) 22:44, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

Hmmm... u probably are!! Duhh Ash Salvatore (talk) 05:06, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

Nielsen Soundscan started to track sales in mid-1991 only. At first they were only covering 40% of the market sales (big chains sales and no independent shops). Even in 1999 as various article states Soundscan was only covering 85% of the market as many independent shops and ALL CATALOG CLUB SALES were not covered - some artists have had albums that sold millions on those clubs that only reported its sales every few years (but all those clubs sales are included on RIAA sales). So all albums released before 1991 and most of the albums having most sales during the 90's the nielsen soundscan IS NOT A RELIABLE SOURCE.

Julio Iglesias album “1100 BEL AIR PLACE” from 1984 sold over 4 million copies in US as 1994 as info by RIAA being considered the best selling latin album in US alone. Julio Iglesias is also the best selling Latin Artist in US based on RIAA certification. As the album was released in 1984 as Latin Platinum still didn't exist he have 4xPlatinum meaning 4 million records shipped as 1994 (sold from record label to the shops - probably after almost 30 years of catalog sales it's even at 5 million since Julio Iglesias is one of the artists that played most concerts ever to promote his records but the record label needs to pay to re-certify the album and will surely do it later).

His 1983 album "Julio" also shipped over 2 million copies in US as 1994 (both albums certified on same day). This album was first certified Platinum in 1984 (1 year after its release) and 10 years later 2xPlatinum. Whatever criteria you use you can't just IGNORE these 2 albums as stores in US don't have millions of copies of these albums floating around - they did sell that and one of them is considered the best selling latin album in US of all Time (and the other one if not #03 clearly belongs in the TOP 5 of all Time).

He also have other 6 albums certified Gold for sales over 500.000 units each in US. Being already certified almost 3 decades ago means that whatever records shipped to shops have already been sold since some of the albums already even had remasters as well.

From those 9 albums listed here he sold over 9 million albums alone. He also have a few Latin Multi Platinum Records from albums released after 1993 on his carreer including "Tango" from 1996 that is 6xLatin Platinum.

He released 60 Studio albums (his first album was released in 1969), 19 compilations and 2 live albums (many were before 1993 so they needed to sell at least 500k to be cerfitied anything in US). His US album sales are estimated to be well over 20 million as this was the last number to appear on Billboard about his album sales. He is said to have also sold around 20 million singles in US alone too.

His latest album was "Mexico" from 2015 that peaked #02 on Billboard Latin Albums and #01 on Pop Latin Albums. Later re-released in a Special edition in Europe in 2017 as "Mexico & Friends" with collaborations with the same songs but ALL with other artists collaborating with him. He said this was his last album but we never know (Julio Iglesias is now 78yo). Julio Inglesias is considered the best selling Latin Artist in the World and in many countries including US (but also Spain, Italy, UK, Germany, France, Netherland, Portugal, Brazil, Japan and many others).

He also released over 150 singles but he only have 1 certified platinum for sales over 1 million from 1992, a collaboration with Willie Nelson. I'm sure many sold enough for what later would become the Latin Platinum Singles that didn't exist before but none sold at least 500k to be certified Gold.

It really looks like you are Selena fan and you're doing everything to put her as the biggest of all time miles ahead everyone else when clearly she is not (how could she if she only released 5 studio albums?).

Just check it here: https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&se=Julio+Iglesias&col=certification_date&ord=asc#search_section — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.94.47.43 (talk) 21:10, 26 January 2022 (UTC)