TOP SELLING MUSIC ARTISTS
Added on: 5th Apr 2015
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.
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