The 50 Best Selling Music Artists of All Time

by **jimmypages59** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 3:50 pm

Why not just completely ignore lists like these, people end up arguing about them, when they are not really even worth commenting on, they should be locked straight away for being completely false.

Lists like these and Wiki are the majority of the problem with artists sales figures, they are too "taken in" by people who believe them as true, so should just be disregarded and ignored from the outset, not argued about or even discussed, certainly on here.

by **Wayne** » Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:18 am

VoReason wrote:122-128 Million Claimed Sales

27. Garth Brooks, 165.4 million Total Certified Units

------
O'rly?

You have to dissect that though - a massive portion of Garth's total is from double albums or more. RIAA double count these.

by **CelinetoBarbra** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 12:15 pm

What a interesting list? :wink:

It will teach many “new” one the difference between
claimed and certified sales 8-)

and which is the fact of fake~~

by **Freedom** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 11:57 am

R. Kelly is missing

by **phoenix83** » Thu Mar 01, 2012 11:48 pm

denise wrote:The order of the top 4 still reflect the truth!

Yup biggest 4 artists ever and probably always will be: Beatles, Elvis, MJ, Madonna.

by **rocker99** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 11:18 am

Where is Led Zeppelin... 8-)

.. maybe in Top-10 but I can't see Top-10..

by **jimmypages59** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 2:44 pm

Led Zeppelin are in 6th place for what it is worth, with the usual bullshite 200m-300m claimed worldwide sales.

by **wbarenno** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 9:05 pm

phoenix83 wrote:
denise wrote:The order of the top 4 still reflect the truth!
Yup biggest 4 artists ever and probably always will be: Beatles, Elvis, MJ, Madonna.

I wouldnt put madonna in the with the beatles elvis and mj! The beatles and elvis are on there own , then nobody come close to mj,madonna comes in the same list as quite a few others

by **jrh06** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 10:05 pm

rocker99 wrote:Where is Led Zeppelin... .. maybe in Top-10 but I can't see Top-10..

+1.Probably around 170-180 million worldwide. 8-)

by **phoenix83** » Fri Mar 02, 2012 10:31 pm

wbarenno wrote:
phoenix83 wrote:
denise wrote:The order of the top 4 still reflect the truth!
Yup biggest 4 artists ever and probably always will be: Beatles, Elvis, MJ, Madonna.
I wouldnt put madonna in the with the beatles elvis and mj! The beatles and elvis are on there own , then nobody come close to mj,madonna comes in the same list as quite a few others

It doesn't matter who you would put there, what matters is record sales and iconic status.

by **RollingBob** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 2:49 pm

Englebert Humperdinck : 150m total record sales according to various recent media reports.

He apparantly has 78 Platinum albums &/or 63 Gold & 24 Platinum singles not that this proves anything of course, but food for thought & all that...

Daily Telegraph actually saying 150m albums right here :

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvan ... -spin.html

by **Wayne** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 10:48 pm

Yeah, its rubbish.

by **jochen** » Sat May 19, 2012 3:38 pm

It will be so hard ever to see a final list.
yet the world seems to be okay with the top 4

beatles, elvis, MJ and madonna.
thats were they belong to. end of.

Silly to even mention mariahs sales. madonna is and will always lead her. mariah is so much nothing. she sold so well in USa but world? she still can not make a worldtour like a superstar should.

by **phoenix83** » Sat May 19, 2012 4:23 pm

jochen wrote:It will be so hard ever to see a final list.
yet the world seems to be okay with the top 4

beatles, elvis, MJ and madonna.
thats were they belong to. end of.

Silly to even mention mariahs sales. madonna is and will always lead her. mariah is so much nothing. she sold so well in USa but world? she still can not make a worldtour like a superstar should.

I agree. Mariah's success in the US actually annoys me a bit because otherwise their chart would reflect the all-time legends in the right order;

Most US No 1 singles

20 - Beatles
18 - Mariah
17 - Elvis
13 - MJ
12 - Madonna
12 - Supremes (but Madonna beats them due to more hits overall)

Mariah sticks out like a sore thumb in this company. I know she's very good but she doesn't deserve to have had *that* much success. Fortunately worldwide she isn't quite as elevated.

by **WolfSpear** » Sat May 19, 2012 4:48 pm

Gah, can Elvis have the 18th #1

If Billboard would just use Joel Whitburn's tactic, then this problem wouldn't be appearing.

by **jochen** » Sat May 19, 2012 4:52 pm

phonex you said it.

I like her..really. Mariah made some nice songs and albums but musically or international or a legend ect ect she is not.

Even Celine has more 'legend' appeal than her.
MC sold well in USA but in POPWORLD she leaded nothing. Neither tour, videos, image, sexiness...

by **alek** » Sat May 19, 2012 7:08 pm

jochen wrote:phonex you said it.

I like her..really. Mariah made some nice songs and albums but musically or international or a legend ect ect she is not.

Even Celine has more 'legend' appeal than her.
MC sold well in USA but in POPWORLD she leaded nothing. Neither tour, videos, image, sexiness...

ouchhhhhhhhhh

by **alek** » Sat May 19, 2012 7:13 pm

phoenix83 wrote:
jochen wrote:It will be so hard ever to see a final list.
yet the world seems to be okay with the top 4

beatles, elvis, MJ and madonna.
thats were they belong to. end of.

Silly to even mention mariahs sales. madonna is and will always lead her. mariah is so much nothing. she sold so well in USa but world? she still can not make a worldtour like a superstar should.
I agree. Mariah's success in the US actually annoys me a bit because otherwise their chart would reflect the all-time legends in the right order;

Most US No 1 singles

20 - Beatles
18 - Mariah
17 - Elvis
13 - MJ
12 - Madonna
12 - Supremes (but Madonna beats them due to more hits overall)

Mariah sticks out like a sore thumb in this company. I know she's very good but she doesn't deserve to have had *that* much success. Fortunately worldwide she isn't quite as elevated.

yes but magde has 38 top tens , more than twice of mariah s n1s

also madonna is consider by billboard the most succesful solo artist in the hot 100 of all time, also madonna has sold more records than mariah in us , and her succes on tours are huge , madonna is more succesful than mimi in us

All-time top artists-hot 100

1.Beatles
2.Madonna
3.Elton John
4.Elvis Presley
5.Stevie Wonder

by **Maninthistown** » Sat May 19, 2012 7:26 pm

No Shakira = Flop List.
Lock this thread. :wink:

by **phoenix83** » Sun May 20, 2012 1:54 am

alek wrote:
phoenix83 wrote:
jochen wrote:It will be so hard ever to see a final list.
yet the world seems to be okay with the top 4

beatles, elvis, MJ and madonna.
thats were they belong to. end of.

Silly to even mention mariahs sales. madonna is and will always lead her. mariah is so much nothing. she sold so well in USa but world? she still can not make a worldtour like a superstar should.
I agree. Mariah's success in the US actually annoys me a bit because otherwise their chart would reflect the all-time legends in the right order;

Most US No 1 singles

20 - Beatles
18 - Mariah
17 - Elvis
13 - MJ
12 - Madonna
12 - Supremes (but Madonna beats them due to more hits overall)

Mariah sticks out like a sore thumb in this company. I know she's very good but she doesn't deserve to have had *that* much success. Fortunately worldwide she isn't quite as elevated.
yes but magde has 38 top tens , more than twice of mariah s n1s

also madonna is consider by billboard the most succesful solo artist in the hot 100 of all time, also madonna has sold more records than mariah in us , and her succes on tours are huge , madonna is more succesful than mimi in us

All-time top artists-hot 100

1.Beatles
2.Madonna
3.Elton John
4.Elvis Presley
5.Stevie Wonder

huh?

I think you're missing my point - I said Mariah doesn't deserve to be in this company.

Why are you telling me stats that prove how successful Madonna is? I already know and agree on that. :-?

by **Wayne** » Sun May 20, 2012 8:13 am

This Mariah bashing is SO 1999.

This woman has proven herself for over 20 year now. She belongs in the same company as music's biggest stars. Her US success is amazing - but so is her international success, particularly in Asia and Australia, and select parts of Europe.

Mariah is every bit a bonafide legend as Madonna.

by **stevyy** » Sun May 20, 2012 3:35 pm

Mariah has sold more albums in Asia than any other female artist.. she probably also is the top selling international artist (female, male, bands considered) of the 90's there.

Mariah also cleary was one of the top 5 international female sellers in Europe of the 90's with close to or slightly above 20 million albums sold.

Mariah might have shipped close to 70 million albums in the US (all missing certifications included).. so if we consider she's sold 145 or 150 million albums in total.. then that means that she sold another 70 million albums outside of the US.

Mariah also sold almost 25 million albums in the past decade.. so it's not like she faded into obscurity in that timespan either.

Mariah also sold pretty well in Austrlia and Canada.. so her success is really not limited to one area only.

Considering that she is the third biggest selling artist in the US (among females) and that she only might be 5 million or so copies short of Madonna's alltime shipment total (also above 70m if we include all overdue data) then that explains why she had such an appeal there, concerning her Hot 100 performance and all.

Mariah's last world tour or at least european tour was 9 years ago (2003). And she sold out bigger venues than in the US.

by **alek** » Sun May 20, 2012 5:14 pm

04wayne wrote:This Mariah bashing is SO 1999.

This woman has proven herself for over 20 year now. She belongs in the same company as music's biggest stars. Her US success is amazing - but so is her international success, particularly in Asia and Australia, and select parts of Europe.

Mariah is every bit a bonafide legend as Madonna.

in your dreams , the most amazing music -social sources claimed madonna the most important and legendary woman in music , not mariah , most of them ignore her , i respect mariah so much , but she is lower than madonna , not only in us, europe - worldwide, madonna is a real legend , mariah i don t think so, and 4 sure madonna is more succesful than mariah not only in us , europe , latin america , canada -worldwide

madonna has the global succes in almost all markets

record sales-hits -concert sales , and a legendary status like heaven

by **jimmypages59** » Sun May 20, 2012 6:14 pm

Madonna is on a completely different planet compared to Mariah Carey.

Mariah Carey is just a very successful musical artist, Madonna is probably the single biggest female cultural icon of the last 25 years, as well as a hugely successful musical artist.

Madonnas catalogue is the far more recognizable to the average person in the street, you don't have to have been or be a Madonna fan to know or be able to name many Madonna songs, while (certainly in the UK) Mariah is relatively unknown beyond a few songs, to the general public.

I've never understood why people feel the need to bracket music into groups such as "female", "bands", "male", what difference does it make or mean, it is all music at the end of the day, so why do females need to be judged against females etc. What is the great thing about being the "biggest selling female", why not just say something like "the 5th best selling musical artist".

by **biscuits** » Sun May 20, 2012 6:23 pm

Janet is so under-certified (especially in the US).