1. The Beatles 1 Billion +
2. Elvis Presley 1 Billion +
3. ABBA ~260,000,000
4. Cliff Richard ~260,000,000
5. Michael Jackson ~250,000,000
6. Nana Mouskouri ~250,000,000
7. Madonna 250,000,000
8. Mariah Carey 230,000,000
9. Celine Dion 220,000,000
10. Elton John ~220,000,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_selling_music_artists

To further the list, click on the link.

Yay, Madonna is 7th. :) Well, they say she is tied with Michael Jackson, and Nana Mourskouri...so she could actually be 5th! But anyway, if you click on the link you can read a rather large list. Very interesting.

Boston is tied for 211th, but is in good company, sharing that spot with BTO, the Steve Miller Band, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

On another note, that Wikipedia article is on a VFD and doesn't look like it'll be sticking around for too much longer...

Rush at 132!

It's amazing how many albums some of these flash in the pan groups have sold compared to the very popular groups that have been around for a long time.

Wow...the Stones didnt make the cut of the top 10....or the top 11...wow.

The Beatles and Elvis Presley in the top spots is a happy site, as for the others in that top ten...bah!

Originally posted by jerejerebinks
Wow...the Stones didnt make the cut of the top 10....or the top 11...wow.

Keep in mind that the stones are getting older but still touring and coming out with new albums. There is time to get into the top ten spot if their fans buy the new stuff ravenously.

I wouldn't use this article as an actual guide as to who the top sellers are:

" * Delete. This 'article' is, by far, the worst one on Wikipedia. Frankly, its getting out of hand. The figures are exaggerated and unreliable (there is no worldwide tracking system for sales) the page is vandalised incessantly. Many users take the page as a 'fansite' or forum, and they come here everyday and make false numbers and change the list to suit their artists. Really, what kind of article is this if its so unrealiable, people have to do their own research so that they can check if this article is accurate? At times, I want to revert the vandalism, but the page is so destroyed, I dont know the correct version to revert it to. Journalist (talk • contribs)"

"Delete --AVainio 12:19, 20 August 2005 (UTC) Many of the accounts are false. Annie Lennox has sold 50 million? Maybe, but her own webpage states that her two albums have sold 12 million copies. Ok, maybe the 50 million (mentioned in some Live8 materials) could take into account the sales from Eurythmics. If so, why does Eurythmics have 80 million albums sold. That is just one example. These figures will never make sense. Just too little accuracy and too many wild, opinionated guesses thrown around."

"Delete* Whoever said the RIAA usually isn't challenged is missing a point. So what if it's not usually challenged The fact remains their data is not solid fact. The RIAA flaws are easy to see in their sales fro Led Zeppelin. Since 1980, if we go by RIAA information this band, who havent had much chart action since then have somehow managed to have kept up in the sales leagues over the years with Madonna, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Britney Spears, the top selling acts of their time, to keep moving back ahead of them on the all-time sellers list. I also find it funny how after Garth Brooks leaped ahead of Led Zeppelin with a after huge #1 album in 1997, Led Zeppelin suddenly sold enough records to go back up the list ahead of him. What is being suggested is we just take a "say so" figure from the "offical sources" like the RIAA just because they said so. How is that doing what this list is MEANT to do? It's not! Is that what Wikipedia is about? Not listing facts? Unless their is some magical place in America where Led Zeppelin records are selling non stop and billboard are unaware of it, then this proves that the RIAAs figures are just as much fiction as Harry Potter."



Not to mention the "disclaimer" at the begining of the article:
In general there is no official organization that certifies worldwide record sales (such as the RIAA does for U.S. record sales). Thus, there are few if any reliable figures to go into this list. Fans, biographers, and record lables may overestimate sales figures for publicity purposes. Many of bestselling artists from Asia, Africa and Latin America are still not included because of the lack of data. Thus, the list cannot be considered definitive, and should be taken with a large grain of salt.


It's been tagged for deletion for a reason.

Lets get serious about everything shall we. I'm sure the numbers aren't very much off...is the list really that hard to believe? Is a band like My Chemical Romance up at the top? No. It's artists that people can see being at the top.

That top ten is completely believable, plus i've heard those stats elsewhere.

And of course, the almight Beatles reign at the top.

PS- My Chemical Romance suxorz monkey teets and likes it

The disclaimer itself says that ~(approximate) could be tens of thousands off. That's just downright pathetic. If you don't have data good enough to be only a few thousand off, then you don't have enough data to declare anything. The vast majority of the listed sales say "approximate", meaning any one of them could be something crazy like 10 spots off of where it says they are. It's absolutely moronic. There is no indication of why one got placed higher than another when their values are not statistically different. The entire list is bunk.

Originally posted by Evakian
That top ten is completely believable, plus i've heard those stats elsewhere.
Thank you.

ABBA #3..hells yeah!