Top 250 Selling Artists of All-Time (U.S)

[Deathless]

Digital Music News released the top 250 selling artists of all time here in the states. It's an interesting list to look at if you have some time.

Some notables...

#4: Led Zepplin - 111.5 Million
#18: Metallica - 62 Million
#42: Foreigner - 37.5 Million
#81: Rush - 25 Million
#84: Creed - 25 Million
#147: Korn - 16 Million
#188 : Yes - 13.5 Million

Check out the rest here.

[black_biff_stadler]

Petty, Tom                                           20m

Petty, Tom and the Heartbreakers          19.5m

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers           12.5m


 

[Stadler]

Petty, Tom                                           20m

Petty, Tom and the Heartbreakers          19.5m

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers           12.5m


 

It wouldn't be so bad if the numbers were the same (at least the second two; I can contemplate why the first is a separate entry).

[Stadler]

Three big surprises for me:

One: pleasant surprise that Billy Joel is number 6.   Good news for good people.

Two:  surprised that the Stones are at 13.  They have like 25 studio albums (not to mention the Hits packages) and while I get the impression (that they haven't put out a good record since "Some Girls"), most of their recent albums are platinum, and they have several that are multi-platinum (these are US certifications, so I've already accounted for geography).

Three:  Van Halen at #20, 56.5 million.  They have TWO Diamond (10x platinum, or 10 million) selling records, and the Sammy years sold as strong as the Roth years, generally.  I think this might best be explained that they don't have a plethora of hits packages or live albums.  So maybe this is accurate.

Four: surprised that Kiss is at #112.  I know that they have notoriously resisted re-certifying their albums (they tend to push until they are certified "Gold" then stop, because recerts usually mean they have to pay royalties to others, including producers and ex-band members), but that seems ridiculously low.  EDIT:  I looked it up; color me shocked.  Alive! is only Gold, and I don't think they counted the solo albums, so this might actually be right.   Huh.  Learn something new every day. 

[wolfking]

I thought MJ and Madonna would be a bit higher.

Surprised that Beach Boys are all the way down at 100.  Thought they'd be well higher too.

Also really interesting that Sabbath is 168 but Ozzy is 62.

Surprised Maiden wasn't somewhere on the bottom too. 

[KevShmev]

I am surprised Queen wasn't higher.

Then again, I assume this counts sales in America only.  Queen was always much bigger in Europe.

[bl5150]

Based on what I have read about certifications I would take any official sales figures with a huge grain of salt.  Interesting list nonetheless.   Garth Brooks looks way out of his league to me , but then he was never a huge phenomenon down here.

[sneakyblueberry]

Garth fucking Brooks.

[erwinrafael]

The 1990s must really be a great decade for album sales, boosting Guns N Roses, Metallica, Garth Brooks, and Shania Twain.

[PuffyPat]

i don't know how accurate this list is. it says kanye has only 11 mil. which is only half of his actual US sales (over 21 mil.).

[Big Hath]

Garth Brooks looks way out of his league to me , but then he was never a huge phenomenon down here.

he absolutely ruled the 90's in the US.  Released 8 albums from 1989 to 2001 that went like this:

- Diamond (>10x platinum)
- 17x platinum
- 14x platinum
- 9x platinum
- 8x platinum
- 7x platinum
- Diamond
- 5x platinum

oh yeah, he also released a live album in 1998 that went 21x platinum, plus several hits packages, holiday albums, boxed sets, etc that all went multi-platinum

[SystematicThought]

Garth Brooks is an artist that baffles me. I think I can only name one of his songs. Here he is near the top of the list and his comeback tour is doing residencies in multiple US cities. I think when he was here in Minnesota this year, he did two shows a night for a week. Every single one was sold out. It's amazing

[black_biff_stadler]

The 1990s must really be a great decade for album sales, boosting Guns N Roses, Metallica, Garth Brooks, and Shania Twain.

If you're somehow implying Metallica isn't a deserving band to be where they are on the list then lol.

[BlobVanDam]

Three:  Van Halen at #20, 56.5 million.  They have TWO Diamond (10x platinum, or 10 million) selling records, and the Sammy years sold as strong as the Roth years, generally.  I think this might best be explained that they don't have a plethora of hits packages or live albums.  So maybe this is accurate.

56m albums is certainly nothing to sneeze at!

Four: surprised that Kiss is at #112.  I know that they have notoriously resisted re-certifying their albums (they tend to push until they are certified "Gold" then stop, because recerts usually mean they have to pay royalties to others, including producers and ex-band members), but that seems ridiculously low.  EDIT:  I looked it up; color me shocked.  Alive! is only Gold, and I don't think they counted the solo albums, so this might actually be right.   Huh.  Learn something new every day. 

They really don't have any mega huge selling albums, they've just sold consistently solid, and have done better globally I think. Add on top of that how unreliable data is from that era, plus KISS probably embellishing figures to some degree.

[erwinrafael]

The 1990s must really be a great decade for album sales, boosting Guns N Roses, Metallica, Garth Brooks, and Shania Twain.

If you're somehow implying Metallica isn't a deserving band to be where they are on the list then lol.

What? Where did I imply that? I am just ssaying that the artists who hit it big in the 1990s ranked in these charts even though they only released a few albums, so my guess is that the 1990s really had great album sales. Geez

[wolfking]

I can't name one fucking Garth Brooks song.  I don't even remember what he looks like, only his hat.

[Stadler]

Garth Brooks is a monster.   I've seen him four times live, and every time you had a packed arena (it's kinda almost like seeing Buffett in that way; a ton of 30-something, 40-something moms and dads looking for a little night out, but not wanting to either mosh or come home reeking of beer and weed). 

He has an MBA from Oklahoma State, though, and it shows.   He's not really made too much of a secret of wanting to be up there on the charts, and his packaging and marketing reflect that.   When you sell one CD, single CD, you get "one sale".  If you sell one CD, DOUBLE CD, you get "two sales".   So 5 copies of "Ropin' The Wind" means five units sold.  5 copies of "Double Live!" means 10 units sold.  He repackaged his first six studio albums in a box set, so every 5 copies of that means 30 units sold, and he just released a 6-CD box set of "influences", with four CDs being new studio recordings of covers that influenced him (kinda like the bonus disk for BC&SL) but the other two are just his "Ultimate Hits" package reissued.  So for every 5 copes of that, he gets another 30 units sold.

It's not like the other artists don't have that, too, (his main competition is Elvis and the Beatles, and Elvis has three boxes like that, the Beatles at least two) but he's really making it work for him. 

Having said that, I know "country" is a verboten word around here, but the guy has talent. I saw him in Boston at the Fleet Center (capacity 17.5K), and at one point he came out and sat on the edge of the stage and played "American Band" (BTO) and "Night Moves" (Seger) and the place was as quiet as a church.  The man can really sing, and his songs tell relevant stories ("The Thunder Rolls", "Unanswered Prayers").   It's a tad calculated in the way that Kiss is (no surprise that Brooks is a HUGE Kiss fan) but it's fun in the way Kiss is, and it's backed up with chops.  I've heard his residency was a must-see concert (there were excerpts broadcast on NBC a couple months ago, but I missed it).

Plus, I think Trisha Yearwood is hot.

[hefdaddy42]

^Most of that^ (I'm not a huge fan of Trisha Underwood)

Garth is huge.  I respect him a lot for basically stopping his career when his kids were in their formative years to just be a Dad.  Now that they are older, he has revved back up into full speed.

[black_biff_stadler]

The 1990s must really be a great decade for album sales, boosting Guns N Roses, Metallica, Garth Brooks, and Shania Twain.

If you're somehow implying Metallica isn't a deserving band to be where they are on the list then lol.

What? Where did I imply that? I am just ssaying that the artists who hit it big in the 1990s ranked in these charts even though they only released a few albums, so my guess is that the 1990s really had great album sales. Geez

I misunderstood your angle. Sorry.

[Big Hath]

yeah, all of what Stadler said.  And he connects with his audience as well or better than any other performer you'll ever see.

[KevShmev]

Garth Brooks is an artist that baffles me. I think I can only name one of his songs. Here he is near the top of the list and his comeback tour is doing residencies in multiple US cities. I think when he was here in Minnesota this year, he did two shows a night for a week. Every single one was sold out. It's amazing

He's like the U2 of country.  I rarely run into people in real life who listen to either, but when they tour, the tickets can't sell out fast enough. 

P.S. I love U2.