Talk:Garth Brooks discography
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I removed this from the Box Sets section:
The Recording Industry Association of America, which certifies album sales, has come under fire from Garth Brooks fans for "undercounting" the sales of the second Limited Series box set. Fans have painted several conspiracy theories, the most commonly heard is that the RIAA is in cahoots with the Elvis Presley Estate to purposely undercount Garth's sales so he won't surpass the sales of America's all-time champion, Elvis Presley. This theory is thought to be very improbable. What zealous fans have not understood is that the RIAA counts only albums that are available at all retail stores in America and on-line retailers like Amazon and CD Universe. Because the Garth Brooks Limited Series box set was only offered for sale in an exclusive deal with mass retailer Wal-Mart, sales at the store did not count in the total units sold.
Brooks and Capitol Records knew this rule going in and still made the exclusive deal. If they were so concerned about total album sales and beating Elvis, the last thing they would have done was release the box set in a manner which they knew would not be counted toward total album sales. By comparison, the first box set was available at all retailers and as such, sales of 2 million units were added to EACH of the CDs included. Brooks' could have had those same counts added to the CDs in the second box set had he not made the deal with Wal-Mart.
The RIAA also has a funny rule about what constitutes a "single" release. In the old days it was easy. A vinyl 45 RPM record had one song on each side. But with the advent of CD singles in the 1980's, more tracks could be added to a release. Soon, the RIAA proclaimed that a CD single could only count as a "single" if it had no more than four songs on it. Weird. But not weird enough. If Garth's fans were so concerned about his passing Presley, they never should have driven him into retirement.
It clearly violates NPOV, and really isn't neccessary for this article. -DiegoTehMexican 18:15, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
