The most expensive album of all-time
The story of each album is different, and no two records share identical origins. In the past, costs have spiralled and grown so drastically out of control that record labels have no choice but to declare bankruptcy. This factor alone makes the creation of an album always a gamble, and there’s no guarantee the risk will pay off, even if you’re Michael Jackson.
Since the beginning of the modern music industry, there have been plenty of wild tales from recording studios, such as the copious amount of cocaine consumed by Black Sabbath when they made Vol. 4 in Los Angeles or when Guns N’ Roses took almost two decades to make Chinese Democracy for $13 million. Astonishingly, the latter isn’t the most expensive album of all time, and that achievement belongs to the late pop star Jackson.
If anybody in pop music was to hold this title, it’s fitting it belongs to ‘The King Of Pop’. Jackson is one of the highest-selling artists of all time, a singer who has astonishingly shifted over 275 million albums worldwide. His album, Thriller, is the most-bought album of all time and has sold a staggering 50 million copies. For context, AC/DC’s Back In Black is second and has sold 20 million fewer copies.
Due to the star power of Michael Jackson, labels gave him a blank cheque in the studio because they’d still likely make an obscene profit no matter what they gave him. In the 1980s, Jackson hit unprecedented heights in the music industry, but the next decade was tumultuous following accusations of sexual abuse against the singer in 1993.
Although he wasn’t found guilty of wrongdoing, the allegations soured Jackson’s image. However, despite his sunken relationship with the press, MJ could still outsell almost every artist on the planet, and that’s all that mattered to Sony, who were prepared to put their money where their mouth was.
Sony wanted to assert Jackson back at the top of the pile and began work on his tenth solo album, Invincible, in 1997. It took four years of constant work around the best studios in the world with legendary producers, and there was no expense spared. Despite starting the album four years before the release date, the finishing touches weren’t put on Invincible until two months before it hit the shelves.
Jackson had a reputation for squandering money, and in total, it cost $30 million to record Invincible. Additionally, Sony reportedly allotted an additional $25 million for marketing. However, in the end, the album’s promotion was kept to a minimum because of a dispute between Jackson and the record label, an issue which led to him shortly departing from the company. Things turned extremely sour in 2002 following his exit when Jackson publically called Sony’s then-CEO, Tommy Mottola, a “racist” and the “devil”.
Reviews were largely middling for Jackson’s final studio album. However, that didn’t stop Invincible from becoming a worldwide success, even without significant promotion or a hit single. In total, it has sold over eight million copies; therefore, Sony should have made a profit on the album, and their risk paid off. In truth, the label and Jackson would have made even more money if they didn’t let the costs become so vastly bloated.
