TOP SELLING MUSIC ARTISTS

ROD STEWART – 76 MILLION

With six consecutive number one albums, six number one singles

on the UK charts and sixteen top ten singles in the US (four reaching

number one on the Billboard Hot 100), Rod Stewart is one of the most

successful chart-topping British solo artists ever.

BRITNEY SPEARS – 80 MILLION

Britney Spears is one of the greatest teen music stars the world

has ever seen and her commercial success during the late 1990s

and early 2000s can be compared only to the likes of Madonna and

Michael Jackson. However, the claim of 200 million in total sales by her

record company is highly exaggerated. There’s no doubt about this

total when including her more recent digital sales, but the official

physical sales of her albums and singles don’t exceed 80 million worldwide.

PHIL COLLINS – 85+ MILLION

Phil Collins had a decorated music career during the course of

which he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was inducted

into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, and into the Rock and Roll

Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010. Even though Collins’s

worldwide sales as a solo artist are estimated to be over 150 million,

his official certified units are just a little over 85 million.

METALLICA – 90 MILLION

Metallica’s eponymous 1991 album has sold over 16 million copies

in the United States over the past twenty-three years, making it the

best-selling album of the SoundScan era. Metallica is without a doubt

one of the most commercially successful bands of all time, with

estimated sales of over 120 million worldwide, a number that seems to

be realistic, especially if one takes into account that their official

certified album sales in the United States are about 55 million.

AEROSMITH – 90+ MILLION

Aerosmith is one of the longest-living bands in history

(almost forty-five years) and claim to be the biggest-selling

American rock band in history with more than 150 million sales

worldwide, a claim that the Eagles can easily challenge. Even

though nobody can be sure about the accumulative sales of any

artist globally, from what we know from the available markets worldwide,

Aerosmith hasn’t sold more than 95 million albums, which is less than

the official sales of the Eagles in the US alone.

BARBRA STREISAND – 97 MILLION

With fifty-one gold, thirty platinum, and thirteen multi-platinum albums

and 71.5 million albums sold in the United States alone, Barbra Streisand

is the biggest-selling female artist in US history and one of the very few

artists who have won an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony. However,

her claims of a worldwide total of over 250 million is wildly exaggerated,

especially when taking into account that her commercial success has

never been as strong abroad as it has been domestically.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – 100 MILLION

“The Boss” has always been a hard-working man who has earned many

accolades for his music, including an incredible twenty Grammy Awards,

two Golden Globes, and an Academy Award, among others. Additionally,

he was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock

and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. With his latest album, High Hopes, he

reached the magic number of 100 million certified unit sales globally.

BILLY JOEL – 100+ MILLION

Billy Joel, even though widely unknown among millennials, he is the

third biggest-selling artist in the US behind Elvis and Garth Brooks and

his Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2 has gone platinum twenty-three times, which

makes it the third best-selling album of all time in the United States.

A member of both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll

Hall of Fame, Billy Joel is also one of the biggest-selling artists ever

with official certified sales of over 100 million.

THE ROLLING STONES – 100+ MILLION

This might surprise many readers but the Rolling Stones, the

longest-living band in history, hasn’t sold as many albums as one

might think. Their estimated sales are thought to be over 200 million,

but their certified units sold say otherwise, with no more than half this

figure. The legacy of the timeless band, however, can be traced to

the fact that six of the top twenty highest-grossing concert tours were

theirs. The Voodoo Lounge Tour and A Bigger Bang Tour were the top

tours of the 1990s and 2000s, respectively.