This was Jonathan Larry’s RIAA’s media contact’s response to the question why their sales and stream number for Eagles Greatest Hits do not jive with SoundScan’s Billboard, Spotify an YouTube data all of which show Thriller outsold and outstreamed Eagles GH.

For those who know nothing about the problem, what looks like a massive fraud is the problem:

Basically he said

1. It’s standard practice that we don’t reveal what we counted or why

2. Believe what we counted because our accounting firm reviewed it and we are confident they don’t cheat

3. SoundScan and Billboard do not count like us. So their numbers mean nothing because we count differently

4. We don’t just count, we recount too. And we won’t tell what we recount and why.

SOURCE