In the decade leading up to “Thriller,” there were an average of two 10x platinum* albums per year. The ‘80s and ‘90s were golden decades for the multi-track format, as the CD made albums cheaper to make and more accessible to the masses. That’s not to say that the “Thriller” legacy was guaranteed from the moment the album came out. Consider that “Thriller’s” production budget was roughly $750,000 - nearly $2 million in 2015 dollars. With the industry’s economics looking worse every year, big record labels are less likely to bet millions on a single album.
Even the mighty single seems headed for trouble. With Spotify, TIDAL, Pandora and Apple Music all offering monthly subscriptions for a near-unlimited catalog, the album has gone from marginal to practically irrelevant. Single sales may still be at historic heights, but it’s cold comfort for record labels, which earn almost all profit from pricey albums.Īnd then there’s the streaming revolution. Ever since Apple offered tunes for 99¢ a pop, album sales have fallen precipitously. As the Internet went mainstream, consumers figured out how to get their favorite hits for free, rather than buying a steady stream of $16 CDs.īut if file-swapping opened the coffin, iTunes nailed it shut.
If you want to point fingers, you might start by blaming file-sharing sites like Napster. The most obvious issue, however, is the skyrocketing growth of the single, which has been the format of choice since the early 2000s. How is the King of Pop’s lead so safe? New albums face a slew of economic and distribution problems - challenges “Thriller” didn’t have to overcome. The numbers say “Thriller” will never be beat. But over 30 years later, “Thriller” remains unbeaten in the biggest category of all it’s the undisputed top-selling album of all time. “Thriller” has since ceded its Grammy crown (Santana’s “Supernatural” and U2’s “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” each won nine awards), while Adele’s “21” matched Jackson’s two-year run at the top of the charts in 20. Along with the famous title track, the record featured a parade of hit singles, from “Billie Jean” to “Beat It.” The album went on to win a record eight Grammys, top the Billboard 200 for two straight years and sell over 50 million copies worldwide - a Guinness-verified world record.
30, 1982, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” hit music stores across America.
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