Best selling musicians of all time by US album sales

George Kaplan said:
So in order to be a ‘musician’ you have to write your own songs? That’s the only factor?

Playing an instrument, playing many instruments, singing, interpreting, being in a band, playing in an orchestra, playing and singing traditional folk, singing in a choir, opera, symphony orchestra, violinist in a string quartet, pianist in musical theatre, brass band trombonist etc etc etc. All those people... all of them... they are only musicians ‘in a way’? Really?
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Thanks, you saved me the time. I found it a very strange thing to say as well.
 


fyl2u said:
"Has sold" more, not "sells" more. It's been around for longer, so it's had longer in the shops for people to buy it, but it's not necessarily anywhere near the top sellers of the week/year.
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yeah, thats what i meant. old bands also have more time to release more albums. the stones have released almost 80 albums, oasis 13 for example.
 
Squat said:
yeah, thats what i meant. old bands also have more time to release more albums. the stones have released almost 80 albums, oasis 13 for example.
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Oasis have 13 albums? Are 9 of them compilation albums and live albums?

Not that it's relevant for this list. This is US album sales and oasis sell fuck all albums over there.
 
Squat said:
yeah, thats what i meant. old bands also have more time to release more albums. the stones have released almost 80 albums, oasis 13 for example.
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...that being said, in the mid 90's I remember hearing a factoid that Dark Side Of The Moon had never dropped out of the top 200 albums chart in the 25 or so years it was since its release at the time of hearing the "fact".

No idea if it was true then let alone still true now.
 
fyl2u said:
...that being said, in the mid 90's I remember hearing a factoid that Dark Side Of The Moon had never dropped out of the top 200 albums chart in the 25 or so years it was since its release at the time of hearing the "fact".

No idea if it was true then let alone still true now.
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i just looked on wiki, and guessed that live and compilation album sales would count towards total sales for something like this. i just used oasis as an example of a 90's massive band. 80 album sales over 50 years vs 13 over 25 years. oasis had 7 studio albums
what would be a similar us band for that list to compare? pearl jam? where are they in the list?
 
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Squat said:
i just looked on wiki, and guessed that live and compilation album sales would count towards total sales for something like this. i just used oasis as an example of a 90's massive band. 80 album sales over 50 years vs 13 over 25 years. oasis had 7 studio albums
what would be a similar us band for that list to compare? pearl jam? where are they in the list?
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PJ have US album sales of 32m & worldwide of 60m
 
Kid Galahad said:
He's still a musician though, there are others on that list who as far as I know were never known to pick up an instrument. Not sure of the validity of the way the list is compiled or the unit sales they go by mind, and Sinatra for instance, he sold less than The Dave Matthews band or the Backstreet Boys?
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DMB are huge over here, almost a cult following.

They are fantastic live. I must have seen them more than a dozen times.
 
AB22 Easy Tiger said:
DMB are huge over here, almost a cult following.

They are fantastic live. I must have seen them more than a dozen times.
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But bigger sales than Sinatra? Didn't see Stevie Wonder on there either, considering he's been going for 50yrs at least he would be bigger sales wise than quite a few on that list surely?
 
Kid Galahad said:
But bigger sales than Sinatra? Didn't see Stevie Wonder on there either, considering he's been going for 50yrs at least he would be bigger sales wise than quite a few on that list surely?
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Most of Sinatra's stuff was pre-1960's so music sales probably weren't a big as they have been since. Many people didn't have record players and used radio to listen to music.
 
AB22 Easy Tiger said:
Most of Sinatra's stuff was pre-1960's so music sales probably weren't a big as they have been since. Many people didn't have record players and used radio to listen to music.
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According to Wiki (I know!) World wide sales of over 150m, would imagine most of those would be in the U.S, half at least?? I think all of these listings need taking with a pinch of salt tbh, i would to see a definitive list mind, would imagine Elvis and the Beatles would be at the top of most lists.
 

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