Top 20 Artists of 2008 by Combined Sales of All Releases (in Millions of Units):

1. AC/DC 3.4
2. Lil Wayne 3.3
3. Taylor Swift 3.2
4. Coldplay 2.5
5. Metallica 2.3
6. Kid Rock 2.2
7. Jonas Brothers 2.1
8. Sugarland 1.9
9. Jack Johnson 1.8
10. Mariah Carey 1.7
11. T.I. 1.6
12. Nickelback 1.5
13. Beyonce 1.4
14. Kenny Chesney 1.4
15. Michael Jackson 1.4
16. Elvis Presley 1.4
17. Beatles 1.4
18. Josh Groban 1.3
19. Journey 1.3
20. Leona Lewis 1.3

http://www.hitsdailydoubl...ws07387m01

Poor numbers there. presumably this list is United States only and not Worldwide. Even so. poor.

Marrk said:

this is def only the USA because you would see alot of names that dont release here on this list if it was worldwide.

Props to JOURNEY though, half of their sales are on their new record, which considering, doesnt have a video, no airlplay for the most part, its all been generated by touring and their own work, plus in this age of AGE-ISM, its nice to see them and Ac/dc as top sellers, while others that spend millions and millions lose money.

Marrk said:

man u can see why kayne wants to be the next Elvis...

OMG these numbers are so embarrassing.

rushing07 said:

the late 90's and very early 00's are over, the days of million sellers are long gone. Now everyone just have to accept it and move on, as Prince said "Units sold and Soundscan and Cspan are for the accountants to play around with"

lastdecember said:

I've got absolutely no problem with that.

Still. Beyonce 1.4

rushing07 said:

I told someone how bad this was at an MJ forum, he's gonna sit there and tell me that the artists are still making money, I told him it was off tours, he said "you and your semantics" or something like that...

rushing07 said:

Her album just came out last month.

These r worldwide numbers lil wayne didnt sell that many albums in the us.

and ACDC did way less numbers
us sales
08 11 Black Ice - AC/DC 110,098 84,320 31% 1,675,568
[Edited 12/22/08 6:03am]

Or maybe they combined all the catalog albums from the same artists.Seems like they r us sales but include all the albums from the artist

asg said:

That's what he said.

Marrk said:

asg said:

Catalogue sales.

If these were worldwide, Madonna would be ahead of most.

Lil Wayne sold a million in his first week, I can't see why it would be so weird that he has sold that much since his album was released in the first half of the year.

Cinnie said:

His album is at 2,778,785 as of last week.

The news story doesn't say whether or not they are using official SoundScan or HitsDailyDoubles estimates for this chart, but I would assume the latter.
[Edited 12/22/08 10:19am]

VoicesCarry said:

It's HDD sales.

In truth, Michael only did 700K of "Thriller 25" and Wayne's album as you said is around 2.7 so yeah they're using HDD figures.

Nothing won't be official until we get the final tally from Billboard/Soundscan.

Kid Rock is such white trash and appeals to such.