Not a bad showing considering all the things that have happen in his carreer.

BEATLES, THE
168.5

PRESLEY, ELVIS
116.5

LED ZEPPELIN
107.5

BROOKS, GARTH
105.0

EAGLES
89.0

JOEL, BILLY
78.5

PINK FLOYD
73.5

STREISAND, BARBRA
70.5

JOHN, ELTON
69.0

AC/DC
66.0

AEROSMITH
65.5

ROLLING STONES, THE
64.5

SPRINGSTEEN, BRUCE
61.5

MADONNA
60.0

STRAIT, GEORGE
60.0

JACKSON, MICHAEL
59.5

CAREY, MARIAH
57.5

METALLICA
57.0

VAN HALEN
56.5

HOUSTON, WHITNEY
54.0

U2
50.5

ROGERS, KENNY
50.0

FLEETWOOD MAC
48.5

KENNY G
48.0

DIAMOND, NEIL
47.5

DION, CELINE
47.0

TWAIN, SHANIA
47.0

ALABAMA
46.0

SANTANA
42.0

JOURNEY
41.0

JACKSON, ALAN
39.5

CLAPTON, ERIC
39.0

PRINCE
39.0

SIMON & GARFUNKEL
38.5

SEGER, BOB AND THE SILVER BULLET BAND
38.0

CHICAGO
38.0

MC ENTIRE, REBA
36.5

GUNS 'N ROSES
36.5

2 PAC
36.5

FOREIGNER
36.5

BACKSTREET BOYS
36.0

DYLAN, BOB
35.0

STEWART, ROD
34.5

NELSON, WILLIE
34.0

DEF LEPPARD
33.0

COLLINS, PHIL
33.0

DENVER, JOHN
32.5

TAYLOR, JAMES
32.0

BON JOVI
32.0

QUEEN
31.5

SPEARS, BRITNEY
31.0

KELLY, R.
31.0

BOSTON
31.0

RONSTADT, LINDA
30.0

DOORS, THE
30.0

MATTHEWS, DAVE BAND
29.5

PEARL JAM
29.0

DIXIE CHICKS
28.5

OSBOURNE, OZZY
28.3

'N SYNC
28.0

PETTY, TOM & THE HEARTBREAKERS
28.0

BOLTON, MICHAEL
28.0

MELLENCAMP, JOHN
27.5

MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER
27.0

BOYZ II MEN
27.0

MC GRAW, TIM
26.0

LYNYRD SKYNYRD
26.0

BEE GEES
26.0

SINATRA, FRANK
25.5

JACKSON, JANET
25.0

EMINEM
25.0

NIRVANA
25.0

ZZ TOP
25.0

RUSH
24.5

MANILOW, BARRY
24.5

CARPENTERS, THE
24.5

MILLER, STEVE BAND
24.0

CREED
24.0

BROOKS & DUNN
24.0

VANDROSS, LUTHER
23.5

CARS, THE
23.5

EARTH, WIND & FIRE
23.5

HILL, FAITH
23.0

MOTLEY CRUE
22.5

GILL, VINCE
22.5

SADE
22.5

ENYA
22.0

CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL
22.0

TLC
22.0

DOOBIE BROTHERS
22.0

BEASTIE BOYS
22.0

POLICE, THE
22.0

R.E.O. SPEEDWAGON
21.5

BUFFETT, JIMMY
21.5

GENESIS
21.5

JAY-Z
21.0

RICHIE, LIONEL
21.0

BEACH BOYS, THE
20.5

MEAT LOAF
20.5

MORISSETTE, ALANIS
20.5

HEART
20.5

HENDRIX, JIMI
20.5

WHO, THE
20.0

OUTKAST
20.0

HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH
20.0

GREEN DAY
19.5

USHER
19.5

R.E.M.
19.5

KISS
19.0

BRAXTON, TONI
19.0

WILLIAMS, HANK, JR.
19.0

NELLY
19.0

KEITH, TOBY
19.0

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
18.5

WONDER, STEVIE
18.5

SMASHING PUMPKINS
18.3

CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG
18.0

KID ROCK
18.0

MATCHBOX TWENTY
18.0

MC LACHLAN, SARAH
17.5

STING
17.5

TRAVIS, RANDY
17.5

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS
17.5

JEWEL
17.5

MONKEES, THE
17.5

GRATEFUL DEAD
17.5

CASH, JOHNNY
17.0

ADAMS, BRYAN
17.0

BROWNE, JACKSON
17.0

MATHIS, JOHNNY
17.0

RAITT, BONNIE
17.0

MARLEY, BOB & THE WAILERS
16.5

STYX
16.5

GRANT, AMY
16.5

CHESNEY, KENNY
16.5

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
16.5

DESTINY'S CHILD
16.5

YOUNG, NEIL
16.5

HAMMER
16.0

LIMP BIZKIT
16.0

NOTORIOUS B.I.G.
16.0

BAD COMPANY
15.5

STEVENS, CAT
15.5

ESTEFAN, GLORIA
15.5

DIRE STRAITS
15.5

JOPLIN, JANIS
15.5

RIMES, LEANN
15.5

KANSAS
15.5

LINKIN PARK
15.5

ISLEY BROTHERS
15.5

CONNICK, HARRY, JR.
15.0

BLACK SABBATH
15.0

NO DOUBT
15.0

FOGELBERG, DAN
15.0

MICHAEL, GEORGE
15.0

BLIGE, MARY J.
15.0

CROW, SHERYL
15.0

KORN
14.5

CRANBERRIES, THE
14.5

INXS
14.5

KING, CAROLE
14.5

NUGENT, TED
14.0

DMX
14.0

NEWTON-JOHN, OLIVIA
14.0

MURRAY, ANNE
14.0

MONTGOMERY, JOHN MICHAEL
14.0

JONES, NORAH
14.0

MC CARTNEY, PAUL
14.0

SIMON, PAUL
13.5

COLE, NATALIE
13.5

AGUILERA, CHRISTINA
13.5

DANIELS, CHARLIE BAND
13.5

YES
13.5

JEFFERSON AIRPLANE/STARSHIP
13.5

LENNON, JOHN
13.5

SWEAT, KEITH
13.0

CHAPMAN, TRACY
13.0

CLINE, PATSY
13.0

HALL & OATES
13.0

OFFSPRING
13.0

POISON
13.0

CHER
12.5

TEMPTATIONS, THE
12.5

BLACK, CLINT
12.5

ETHERIDGE, MELISSA
12.5

ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA
12.0

SNOOP DOGG
12.0

YEARWOOD, TRISHA
12.0

DURAN DURAN
12.0

WEBBER, ANDREW LLOYD
12.0

L.L. COOL J
12.0

TRITT, TRAVIS
12.0

LEWIS, HUEY & THE NEWS
12.0

LIVE
12.0

BAKER, ANITA
12.0

BENATAR, PAT
12.0

WHITESNAKE
12.0

MIDLER, BETTE
12.0

VAUGHAN, S.R. & DOUBLE TROUBLE
11.5

HENLEY, DON
11.5

JENNINGS, WAYLON
11.5

MC BRIDE, MARTINA
11.5

SMITH, WILL
11.5

COUNTING CROWS
11.5

ABDUL, PAULA
11.5

YANNI
11.0

JETHRO TULL
11.0

GRAND FUNK RAILROAD
11.0

BONE THUGS 'N HARMONY
11.0

STEELY DAN
11.0

LOPEZ, JENNIFER
11.0

LOVERBOY
11.0

SPICE GIRLS
11.0

MARTIN, RICKY
10.5

WILLIAMS, ANDY
10.5

HARRISON, GEORGE
10.5

BUSH
10.5

BRANDY
10.5

SCORPIONS
10.5

NICKS, STEVIE
10.5

YOAKAM, DWIGHT
10.5

KRAVITZ, LENNY
10.5

JUDDS, THE
10.5

CYRUS, BILLY RAY
10.5

ABBA
10.5

3 DOORS DOWN
10.5


This chart was generated on 6/20/2005


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· diamond awards
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laurarichardson said:[quote]Not a bad showing considering all the things that have happen in his carreer.


SPEARS, BRITNEY
31.0

KELLY, R.
31.0

BEE GEES
26.0

SINATRA, FRANK
25.5

JACKSON, JANET
25.0


VANDROSS, LUTHER
23.5

CARS, THE
23.5

EARTH, WIND & FIRE
23.5


SADE
22.5
HENDRIX, JIMI
20.5

WHO, THE
20.0

WONDER, STEVIE
18.5


CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG
18.0


CASH, JOHNNY
17.0

MATHIS, JOHNNY
17.0

RAITT, BONNIE
17.0



ISLEY BROTHERS
15.5

MC CARTNEY, PAUL
14.0

SIMON, PAUL
13.5

COLE, NATALIE
13.5

LENNON, JOHN
13.5

SWEAT, KEITH
13.0

HALL & OATES
13.0


TEMPTATIONS, THE
12.5


BAKER, ANITA
12.0


HOW IN WORLD DOES R KELLY AND BRITNEY OUTSELL ALL THESE OTHER ACTS IN LIKE 1/3 OF THE TIME? THIS SUCKS!
[Edited 6/29/05 9:17am]

meltwithu said:[quote]

laurarichardson said:

-----
They ride off of hype. I doubt Britney will be around in 5 years. You can only count on 5 years olds to buy your Cd's for so long.

even if she doesn't sell another record, she has almost 3X the records sold as the Temptations...that sucks

Hey, that is pretty good considering the fact that PR is responsible for half of the sales and some people don't give him the respect some of the artist below him have. Cool.

I am actually quite pleased that Tupac charted so high ( even though he is not my favorite rapper ), those who bitch and moan about the importance of hip hop can't easily dismiss their " hero " or say that the genre is not fairly represented.

It would be interesting to know prince's worldwide sales

Ultimately, substance will win out over style. It is shocking looking at some of the figures, but with the prevalence of MTV and other media conglomerates, it is no surprise with the appearance of Britney Spears and R. Kelly sales figures.

Remember, sales do not always equal quality (even that is subjective).

I personally find their "music" pathetic, but their is an audience for it.

Wow, Babs is #8, but then again she's put out like 60 albums so I guess it adds up. Madonna has just squeaked by Jacko (#15 and #16, respectively). Genesis and Phil Collins are there, but Peter Gabriel is nowhere to be seen. Of course he only had one album that sold much, but interesting how he parlayed that commercial success into building his own studio, and ultimately founding the Real World label, etc.

Very intersting list, lots of other surprises there, thanks for posting it!

Alot of the older acts like say, from Motown are not measured accurately. Motown suppresed sales figures or rather massaged the figures to get out of paying the artists more.

i find it ridiculous in a country with so much black culture, hip-hop, motown, soul and rnb that Michael Jackson is the only black artist in the top 20 and indeed along with Whitney the only black artist in the top 40

Where are the J5/jacksons? They supposedly sold 100m records in the 70's. I'd guess the majority would have been in The U.S. I just don't believe the bloody Spice Girls sold more. Crock.

Marrk said:

-----
I am sure a lot of artist sold more records but, the record companies use to underreport the sales to shortchange the artist. So we may never get an accurate report.

Marrk said:

The RIAA certifications are not automatic, meaning the record label has to submit the artist information to get certification for records shipped. Motown is notorious for not doing this. That is likely why the Jacksons aren't in there.

Britneys last albunm only sold 1.3 million copies
she is almost over

meltwithu said:[quote]

laurarichardson said:

Wow, great post...

FunkyBrotha said:

what about Mariah

jayaredee said:

...
...
prince's album sales outside america will be around the same again, making it 78 million album sales worldwide with single sales pushing his total sales to over 100 million...not bad when he has only had one mega sales year.

lilgish said:

...
...
what about that bitch

blackbob said:

she's black?

Alan Jackson & george Strait outsell Usher, 2pac, eminemem and Jay -z

ALL IS WELL WITH THE WORLD !!!!

FunkyBrotha said:

-----
Hip-Hop may not have the mass appeal that we think it has or record companies may not be reporting accurate sales figures for those artist. Not sure what is going on because everyone is always hyping up hip-hop.

FunkyBrotha said:

I was thinking the same thing...surely James Brown, Stevie Wonder or Marvin gaye should have numbers in these cathegories. Anyone know what their sales are at?

Haven't read the board in a while, just catching up.

As was mentioned, the RIAA only certifies where the label has requested and paid for a certification audit to be done. In order to determine if a particular artist's label has been diligent about this you'd have to have a complete USA discography along with ship or sales data and then compare it to the RIAA certification database. You still wouldn't know which figures are accurate (if any), but you'd get a good picture of how reliable the RIAA certs are for that artist.

Prolific artists like Prince are the most likely to be shortchanged using RIAA stats as a measurement tool. Units that don't hit a certification level don't exist. For instance, if Prince released 5 albums that each shipped 400,000 copies, official RIAA stats on those albums are nonexistent. The database would have no entries for Prince, no units sold/shipped. At the same time, if Titney released 1 album that shipped a million copies certified, she would be 'ahead' of Prince even though his sales were twice hers.

Also I don't think they include units that are in between two certification measurements.... such as Prince selling 750,000 copies is certified as having 1 gold (500,000), and the extra 250,000 units possibly ignored until it sells an ADDITIONAL 250,000 (to hit a million) and goes platinum. Plus the platinum cert audit might also need another request.

There are other details involved but bottom line - the more pieces released (singles, albums, eps, pic discs, etc.), the more units will be missing from RIAA stats even if the label is completely honest in accounting (heh) and requests and pays for every single piece to be audited. Some Elvis fans have done a ton of research on this topic trying to figure out the odd RIAA stats for his catalog. The greater variety of releases, the sloppier the accounting, the spottier the cert requests = more-to-mega missing sales.

Eileen

BACKSTREET BOYS
36.0

DYLAN, BOB
35.0



This needs to be discussed by the UN. There have to be sanctions apllied against the USA.






..no, NOT kidding!

blackbob said:

Last I heard he'd sold about 65m albums and 20m singles worldwide.

Cloudbuster said:

what will young did?

Christopher said:

Yeah, you bought them all.

Cloudbuster said:

yeah you still havent paid me back.

Shut your stupid mouth.

Cloudbuster said:

you the one wearing lipstick...