This list documents the world's best-selling music artists categorically and alphabetically. This information cannot be listed officially, as there is no organization that has recorded global music sales. This page lists those artists who have had claims made to be among the top sellers. Within their sales brackets, artists are listed in alphabetical order, rather than by number of records sold. Equal weight is given to album and single sales, as well as paid downloads. Even though, the sales-figures within articles published by reliable sources may not be 100 percent accurate, it is highly recommended to submit articles released by only prominent news services as well as major record companies to avoid inflated and poorly studied worldwide sales-figures.
Constraints
Although the criteria for the following list are intended to be expansive (including comparisons for total-sales for all recording artists) there are certain limitations and constraints that may limit the conclusions that can be derived from these data.
Such constraints include:
- Bias towards acts who have had success in a specific country or region.
- Bias towards older artists. There is a broader genre spectrum of music to listen to now which limits the number of listeners.
- Bias towards modern artists. Comparatively fewer successful modern artists will have sold more records, as both global spending power and population have increased. In 1950, the world's population was 2.5 billion; by 2000 it had risen to 6 billion. Also, older artists suffer from bias as their record sales are less likely to have been accurately tracked, and estimates of their early sales are likely to be more vague.
- Fan sites, press articles and record labels have been known to inflate record sales claims.
- Inflated claims for artists who performed in different acts during their careers. Sometimes all of the sales data is attributed to an individual artist. For the purposes of this list, an effort is made to separate the individual acts (e.g., the sales figures for The Beatles and Paul McCartney & Wings are mutually exclusive).
- Inconsistencies between the sources of the various statistics. For example in some cases world sales are compared to US (RIAA certifies US sales only).
Artists by reputed sales
-
1 Billion records or more
500 million to 999 million records
200 million to 499 million records
100 million to 199 million records
75 million to 99 million records
50 million to 74 million records
See also
References
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- ^ Billboard.com - Biography - Bing Crosby
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- ^ Former ABBA drummer found dead in garden Amol Rajan; msnbc; accessed 18 July 2008; claims 370 million
- ^ ABBA, The Book Potiez, Jean-Marie; 15 August 2005; accessed December 2006; claims 410 million records sold as of 2000
- ^ It's ABBA on the phone making a lot more money, money, money Sherwin, Adam; The Times; April 19, 2006; accessed December 2006; claims over 750 million
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- ^ "Deep Purple". EMI Music Publishing.
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- ^ Interview: Mik Kaminski of The Orchestra (From Chorley Citizen)
- ^ The Times on Engelbert Humperdinck
- ^ BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Domino 'shaken' by storm ordeal
- ^ Fleetwood Mac: Biography : Rolling Stone
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- ^ "Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons". Rolling Stone.
- ^ "Frank Sinatra's Best Classic Recordings for Films Collected for 'Sinatra at the Movies'". Reuters (2008-03-03).
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- ^ "Final chapter in the book of Genesis?". Telegraph.co.uk (2008-05-30).
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- ^ "Guns N' Roses releases new single". chron.com (2008-10-22).
- ^ "Guns N' Roses releases first 'Chinese Democracy' single: Was it worth the wait?". Chicago Tribune (2008-10-22).
- ^ "Guns N' Roses releases first 'Chinese Democracy' single: Was it worth the wait?". Fox59 Indianapolis (2008-10-23).
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- ^ Kühnemund, Jan (2007-05-10). "Bunker zu Partykellern" (in German), Die Zeit. Retrieved on 27 October 2008.
- ^ UOMO Producer Helps Propel Janet Jackson to #1 in the US, Business Wire, 2008-03-10, http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080310005488&newsLang=en
- ^ Janet Jackson Announces Rock Witchu Tour; The iconic performer will pull from her celebrated collection of music which has sold over 100 million albums worldwide, PR Newswire, 2008-05-21, http://sev.prnewswire.com/entertainment/20080521/LAW04521052008-1.html
- ^ BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Profile: Johnny Hallyday
- ^ CNN - Kenny Rogers, gambling again - October 7, 1999
- ^ The Times on Lionel Richie
- ^ BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Music | Pavarotti recovers from surgery
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- ^ "Michiya Mihashi Profile" (in Japanese). Oricon Style.
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- ^ Billboard.com - Biography - Neil Diamond
- ^ The New York Times on Olivia Newton-John
- ^ "Patti Page, Proving That Simple Songs Endure". The New York Times (2003-08-12).
- ^ "Crooner Perry Como dies". BBC News (2001-05-13).
- ^ "Pet Shop Boys: Biografie" (in German). Warner Music Germany. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
- ^ "Phil Collins casually serves notice of his retirement". Times Online (2008-04-25).
- ^ Sony/BMG Germany on Prince
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- ^ CNN.com - Transcripts
- ^ The New Tork Times on Roberto Carlos
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- ^ The Times on Status Quo
- ^ The LA Times on Stevie Wonder
- ^ SOHU.com May 6, 2003
- ^ Tina Turner on boston.com
- ^ "Tom Jones goes retro for new album". CNN (2008-09-17).
- ^ "Episcopal church taps U2 for liturgy". The Boston Globe (2007-03-20).
- ^ "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb". Encyclopedia Britannica.
- ^ "U2 Manager: Cut Off Illegal Downloaders From Internet". Fox News (2008-01-29).
- ^ Nyet! The Madonna of Moscow says our pop stars are rubbish - Europe, News - Independent.co.uk
- ^ Seattle Times on The Ventures
- ^ Whitney Houston on Austria's Sony/BMG
- ^ The New York Times on The Who
- ^ The Scotsman on Annie Lennox
- ^ "B'z got their 22nd #1 album, ranked No.1 in history and dominates all the 6 main ranking sections" (in Japanese). Oricon (2008-06-24).
- ^ "Britney Spears launches her comeback on X Factor". Times Online (2008-11-29).
- ^ BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Latin honours for Carlos Santana
- ^ "DALIDA". The New York Times (1987-05-06).
- ^ allmusic ((( Larry Dunn > Overview )))
- ^ "Artist Biography - Eddy Arnold". Billboard (magazine).
- ^ The Independent on Eurythmics
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- ^ "Estefan Honored By Latin Recording Academy". Grammy Awards (2008-08-19).
- ^ "詳細情報 (図書)" (in Japanese). 菊川市立図書館.
- ^ "Frontiers - A Tribute to Journey". AmericanTowns (2008-10-29).
- ^ "Journey". About.com.
- ^ Mina la camaleontica, Mina la solitaria Arcobaleno
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- ^ "Eddie Van Halen and Valerie Bertinelli divorce". CNN.com (2007-12-21). Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
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