Top 100 Best Selling Music Artists of All Time

Takes_Two_To_Tango

Takes_Two_To_Tango

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Thought this was pretty interesting.

chartmasters.org

Top artists (daily update) - ChartMasters

The CSPC list is quite simply the most accurate, up to date list of best selling artists of all time available online. Click and enjoy!
chartmasters.org

***This list is based upon a system called Equivalent Album Sales (EAS). This takes into account multiple facets of an artist’s success beyond simple album sales, and helps to show a more complete look at the best performing music acts of all time.

Conversion ratio between formats:Studio album: sales of the original album (ratio 1/1)Other LPs: sales of compilations generated thanks to the album (ratio 1/1)Physical singles: sales of physical singles from the album (added to CSPC total with a ratio 3/10 for 2-tracks, 5/10 for EPs and Maxis)

Digital singles: sales of digital singles from the album (ratio 1.5/10 for CSPC total)Streaming: EAS of all the album tracks (ratio 1/1500 for Audio stream and 1/6750 for Video stream)***

Best Selling Artists.png

 
Just some observations looking over the list.
  • Surprised Usher is so low on the list considering he's been relevant for about 25 or so years now.
  • Happy to see Sade on the list in the top 100. Her music still holds up today.
  • Shakira being in the top 100 is terrible. I've listened to like 2 of her albums and they were terrible.
  • Britney Spears in the top 50....I get it but no. Personally never understood what people liked about her music.
  • Stevie Wonder at #42 is way too low.
  • Don't really understand the love for Aerosmith. Not a bad band by any means but just not my thing.
  • Whitney Houston is way too low for what I consider to be the best major industry artist to ever sing.
  • Shame Oasis did not crack the top 100. Their first 2 albums are really good along with The Masterplan album.
 
Darkavius said:
Just some observations looking over the list.
  • Surprised Usher is so low on the list considering he's been relevant for about 25 or so years now.
  • Happy to see Sade on the list in the top 100. Her music still holds up today.
  • Shakira being in the top 100 is terrible. I've listened to like 2 of her albums and they were terrible.
  • Britney Spears in the top 50....I get it but no. Personally never understood what people liked about her music.
  • Stevie Wonder at #42 is way too low.
  • Don't really understand the love for Aerosmith. Not a bad band by any means but just not my thing.
  • Whitney Houston is way too low for what I consider to be the best major industry artist to ever sing.
  • Shame Oasis did not crack the top 100. Their first 2 albums are really good along with The Masterplan album.
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Nice breakdown.

Britney Spears was a massive hit when she arrived. And still is. Probably the biggest pop star in the past 30 years, besides Taylor Swift.
 
Takes_Two_To_Tango said:
Nice breakdown.

Britney Spears was a massive hit when she arrived. And still is. Probably the biggest pop star in the past 30 years, besides Taylor Swift.
Click to expand...

Which is odd to me considering of her counterparts she was a worse singer than Christina Aguilera. Christina's songs were just not as catchy or even as good for that matter. In the past 30 years I would say the biggest female pop stars in no order are: Britney, Rihanna, Beyonce, Taylor and Gaga.
 
Darkavius said:
Which is odd to me considering of her counterparts she was a worse singer than Christina Aguilera. Christina's songs were just not as catchy or even as good for that matter. In the past 30 years I would say the biggest female pop stars in no order are: Britney, Rihanna, Beyonce, Taylor and Gaga.
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Well said, it's all about making the best catchy songs that captivate the audience. Britney Spears was brilliant in those regards. Madonna is legendary for that as well. She's the queen of making catchy songs.
 
Darkavius said:
The biggest surprise in the top 20 imo is Rod Stewart. Did not see that one coming.
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Surprised me too but makes sense. Rod was huge back in the 80's with MTV and he stretched back into the '70's and even the 60's with Jeff Beck and with Faces.
 
Artists that I am surprised are not in the top 120.

  • James Brown
  • Hall & Oates
  • Dave Matthews Band
  • Dr. Dre
Another artist I am surprised did not make the list at all was Kim Gun Mo. For those that do not know he is an artist based in South Korea that had the best selling album in South Korea for 24 years starting in 1995. He was also known in Japan. The record was surpassed by BTS.
 
Overall, I wasn't too surprised with the top 20. Looking at the top 100, there were a few that raised my right eyebrow. Wham in the top 50, but no KISS anywhere on the list? As a white boy in the late 70s and early 80s, they were very popular. The year I got Alive II and Rock and Roll over for Christmas almost made me a cool kid.
A search of the Chart master's site didn't show them at all, but a wider internet search tells me they had over 100,000,000 in album and single sales which would place them in the top 60 without any digital stuff. https://bestsellingalbums.org/artist/7083
There are many artists on the list that I personally don't like/follow, but I'm aware enough to know they are popular. I could argue over their relative merits, but just based on raw sales metrics they earned their spots. Unless there are other bands like KISS who's sales were ignored by this site for some reason. Any other ommissions that you guys noticed?
 
Nothing too surprising. It would also be interesting to see an attempt at numbers adjusted for era/population.
 
T-Swizzle at #12 seems suspicious, she shoulda been #1 a long time ago
 
I would have guessed The Eagles were top 5, definitely higher than Queen
 
Fedorgasm said:
It hurts my heart to see Rod Stewart at 17.

I don't think that guy's ever had a good song. That Maggie May song is his biggest hit and it's garbage.
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Wait a minute....*tries to think of a good Rod Stewart song*.........*crickets*

Sweater of AV said:
Nothing too surprising. It would also be interesting to see an attempt at numbers adjusted for era/population.
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This is a decent point imo. Other people on this board have disagreed with me about something similar but Swift, Drake, BTS, Justin Bieber, The Weeknd and Beyonce for example I wonder how they would have done sells wise against other eras? I think Swift would have done okay in another era but I think if you put any of those other artists in any other era they don't sell as much, and I don't think they have long term success.
 
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