The way it was told to me is that the label ships 750,000 and retailers can return 15% of CD's shipped. That apparently gives someone 500,000 CD's shipped. But that doesn't mean that all those CD's were sold. And what I am reading is that Alter Bridge hasn't sold 500,000 copies. Those statistics are coming from SoundScan. They actually track the number of units SOLD and not shipped. And their numbers aren't accurate. Some retailers over report...as much as three or four CD's for every one that they sell in order to make up for the retailers that don't report sales to SoundScan.
I've come to the conclusion that the awarding of a Gold Record is pretty much a joke if all you have to do is ship enough copies to qualify for it.
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