And the biggest-selling U.S. album of last 20 years is

[jobeterob]

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And the biggest-selling U.S. album of last 20 years is...Kim Hughes Jan 5, 2012 0 Comments


Clearly, it will take more than a spectacularly awful collaboration with rock codger Lou Reed to topple the towering behemoth that is Metallica. It’s now been officially confirmed that the Bay Area band's so-called Black Album [[actually self-titled) from 1991 is the biggest seller in America over the past 20 years.

Since its release, according to sales monitoring system Soundscan, the disc has shifted a staggering 15,735,000 copies in the U.S. alone. Indeed, as Classic Rock notes, in total, the band has sold 53,170,000 copies of all their albums since 91, making them the fourth biggest artist of the Soundscan era, behind Garth Brooks, The Beatles and Mariah Carey [[while demonstrating the at-once curiously eclectic and yet wholly mainstream tastes of the broader American record-buying public).
Metallica will, of course, be playing the whole of The Black Album when they headline England’s Download Festival next June and who knows… maybe another full-scale world tour of the disc might be in the offing. Presumably, the four members of the band and their handlers are big fans of the mountains of cash the Metallica machine generates at full-tilt.

As we reported yesterday, the group will release a four-song EP, Beyond Magnetic, later this month, featuring live versions of four songs written for 2008’s Death Magnetic disc but left off the finished album.

[jobeterob]

Total US Album Shipments to Apr 2011

1 - Elvis Presley - 172,000,000
2 - The Beatles - 170,000,000
3 - Led Zeppelin - 102,000,000
4 - Garth Brooks - 99,000,000
5 - The Eagles - 93,000,000
6 - Barbra Streisand - 85,000,000
7 - Elton John - 84,000,000
8 - The Rolling Stones - 80,000,000
8 - Pink Floyd - 80,000,000
10 - Frank Sinatra - 78,000,000

11 - AC/DC - 75,000,000
12 - Billy Joel - 74,000,000
12 - Aerosmith - 74,000,000
14 - Madonna - 71,000,000
15 - George Strait - 70,000,000
15 - Michael Jackson - 70,000,000
17 - Kenny Rogers - 69,000,000
18 - Mariah Carey - 66,000,000
19 - Neil Diamond - 63,000,000
20 - Bruce Springsteen - 63,000,000

20 - Metallica - 63,000,000
22 - U2 - 62,000,000
23 - Van Halen - 61,000,000
24 - Fleetwood Mac - 59,000,000
25 - Celine Dion - 57,000,000
25 - Santana - 57,000,000
27 - Whitney Houston - 56,000,000
28 - Eric Clapton - 55,000,000
29 - Kenny G - 52,000,000

To obtain these figures I've used :-

- riaa shipments with particular regard to dates and patterns of certification.

- soundscan figures to indicate catalogue sales.

- billboard album charts and runs.

- other figures from internet research and from this forum.

NOTE - The Top 10 is neatly divided with 5 UK acts and 5 USA acts.

Total Audited US Album Shipments April 2011

1 - The Beatles - 135.4m
2 - Elvis Presley - 106.2m
3 - Garth Brooks - 99m
4 - The Eagles - 89.75m
5 - Led Zeppelin - 89.46m
6 - AC/DC - 69.2m
7 - Elton John - 69.25m
8 - Barbra Streisand - 68.25m
9 - Billy Joel - 67m
10 - Michael Jackson - 66m

11 - Aerosmith - 63.628m
12 - Mariah Carey - 63m
13 - Madonna - 61.5m
14 - George Strait - 59m
15 - Pink Floyd - 57.111m
16 - The Rolling Stones - 57m
17 - Van Halen - 55m
17 - Metallica - 55m
19 - Bruce Springsteen - 53.584m
20 - Whitney Houston - 53.5m

21 - Kenny Rogers - 51.75m
22 - U2 - 50.5m
23 - Celine Dion - 50m
24 - Fleetwood Mac - 48m
25 - Kenny G - 47.5m
26 - Neil Diamond - 45.667m
27 - Santana - 44.883m
28 - Eric Clapton - 39.5m
29 - Frank Sinatra - 26.792m

Few of these artists currently have all their albums fully certified - but these are the definitive audited shipments to date.

Soundscan totals Mar 1991 to Dec 2007

1 - Garth Brooks - 67.4m
2 - The Beatles - 55.7m
3 - Mariah Carey - 49.9m
4 - Celine Dion - 49.7m
5 - Metallica - 48.7m
6 - George Strait - 39.2m
7 - Pink Floyd - 34.5m
8 - Kenny G - 33.1m
9 - Eric Clapton - 32.2m***
10 - U2 - 32.1m

11 - Elvis Presley - 29.5m
12 - Aerosmith - 28.7m
13 - The Eagles - 28.3m
14 - Frank Sinatra - 27.4m***
15 - Madonna - 27.4m***
16 - Elton John - 25.8m
17 - AC/DC - 25.7m
18 - Santana - 24.9m
19 - Whitney Houston - 23.6m***
20 - The Rolling Stones - 23.6m

21 - Led Zeppelin - 22.1m
22 - Barbra Streisand - 20.3m***
23 - Michael Jackson - 19m
24 - Bruce Springsteen - 18.2m
25 - Van Halen - 17.9m
26 - Billy Joel - 17.5m
27 - Fleetwood Mac - 16.2m
28 - Neil Diamond - 15.5m estimate
29 - Kenny Rogers - 13m estimate

***These 5 artist's totals include various soundtracks and collaborations that are included in their riaa totals.

The soundscan totals represent over the counter sales for the past 17 years.

The riaa total shipment list

This is the list on the riaa website and is the least useful list of all in that it counts "units" - so a double album counts twice, a 6CD box set six times! and so on.

The riaa one is out of date - so this is the updated list Jan 2008.

1 - The Beatles - 170m
2 - Garth Brooks - 128m
3 - Elvis Presley - 119.5m
4 - Led Zeppelin - 111.5m
5 - The Eagles - 100m
6 - Billy Joel - 79.5m
7 - Pink Floyd - 74.5m
8 - Barbra Streisand - 71m
8 - AC/DC - 71m
10 - Elton John - 69.5m

11 - George Strait - 67.5m
12 - Aerosmith - 66.5m
13 - The Rolling Stones - 66m
14 - Bruce Springsteen - 63.5m
15 - Mariah Carey - 64m
16 - Madonna - 63.5m
17 - Michael Jackson - 60.5m
18 - Metallica - 57m
19 - Van Halen - 56.5m
20 - Whitney Houston - 54m

21 - Kenny Rogers - 52m
22 - U2 - 51m
23 - Celine Dion - 50m
24 - Fleetwood Mac - 48.5m
25 - Neil Diamond - 48.5m
26 - Kenny G - 47.5m
27 - Santana - 44.5m
28 - Eric Clapton - 42.5m
29 - Frank Sinatra - 25.5m

what's the difference beetween "shipments" and "audited"?thanx.

thank you Basil,have a nice day.
priestmaniac



thebigham
Superstar


Joined: 16 Aug 2005
Posts: 9072
Location: New York City
Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 3:15 pm
New 5xp album:

New RIAA certs on the 4/16 Billboard 200:

Guns N' Roses Greatest Hits 5xp



thebigham
Superstar


Joined: 16 Aug 2005
Posts: 9072
Location: New York City
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 9:00 pm
New 10xp album:

2Pac, GH 10xp



thebigham
Superstar


Joined: 16 Aug 2005
Posts: 9072
Location: New York City
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 4:05 pm
New:

Elvis Presley, Elvis' Christmas Album 10xp
Peter Frampton, Frampton Comes Alive 8xp



thebigham
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Joined: 16 Aug 2005
Posts: 9072
Location: New York City
Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:37 pm
New:

Bily Joel, Greatest Hits Vol 1 & 2, 23xp



lambforever
Manager


Joined: 08 Mar 2010
Posts: 1550

Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2011 12:45 am
nice updates
Mariah,whitney,Janet ,Celine ,Diana =legends [[ultimate divas



rubcale
Groupie


Joined: 10 Jun 2011
Posts: 19
Location: northern ireland
Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 6:21 pm
If a record company didn't claim certifications does this mean any albums they released would not be included here?

I'm thinking of Diana Ross - Lady Sings The Blues which I believe was a double album and sold 1m+.

I may be wrong but I have an idea the first Diana Ross & The Supremes' Greatest Hits album in the US was a double?



blackbird
Manager


Joined: 19 Jan 2010
Posts: 1880
Location: Berlin, Germany
Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 7:10 pm
rubcale wrote:
If a record company didn't claim certifications does this mean any albums they released would not be included here?

Yes, the RIAA certifies an album only upon request of the releasing record company and checks the validity of the provided data about the shipment of the album in an audit.

See RIAA Certification.



thebigham
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Posts: 9072
Location: New York City
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 4:23 pm
New:

Bob Seger, GH 9xp

Adele 6xp



journey2010
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Joined: 20 Jan 2010
Posts: 108
Location: USA
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 6:36 pm
Here is the list of Top 30 best selling Artists according to RIAA as of 2011. Not sure if this was posted before.

1.BEATLES, THE 177m
2.PRESLEY, ELVIS 134.5m
3 BROOKS, GARTH 128m
4.LED ZEPPELIN 111.5m
5.EAGLES 100m
6.JOEL, BILLY 81.5m
7.PINK FLOYD 74.5m
8.JOHN, ELTON 72m
9.STREISAND, BARBRA 71.5m
10.AC/DC 71m
11.JACKSON, MICHAEL 70.5m
12.STRAIT, GEORGE 68.5m
13.AEROSMITH 66.5m
14.ROLLING STONES, THE 66m
15.SPRINGSTEEN, BRUCE 64.5m
16.MADONNA 64m
17.CAREY, MARIAH 63.5m
18.METALLICA 60m
19.VAN HALEN 56.5m
20.HOUSTON, WHITNEY 55m
21.U2 51.5m
22.ROGERS, KENNY 51m
23.DION, CELINE 50m
24.FLEETWOOD MAC 48.5m
25.DIAMOND, NEIL 48.5m
26.TWAIN, SHANIA 48m
27.KENNY G 48m
28.JOURNEY 47m
29.ALABAMA 46m
30.GUNS 'N ROSES 44.5m



imbuemyblue
Groupie


Joined: 29 Feb 2012
Posts: 2

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:45 am
What a fantastic thread! I particularly enjoy the Soundscan/RIAA/BMG record club sales breakdown on the first page. I saw a couple pages back that Basil apparently no longer posts, but would someone with the means and the time care to update the information on the first page? Pretty please?

Pretty interesting to see that an album like 'Cracked Rear View' could clear 16x platinum, but 'only' have 11.6 million through SS and the BMG club. Surely it didn't sell 4.4 million at the Columbia House record club. I wrote Ask Billboard for more information about record clubs and what albums at Columbia House have potentially sold, but if we haven't seen the information before, I doubt they have.

It was also mentioned somewhere on the first page that albums can literally be over-certified, i.e. retailers return the albums to the record companies if they don't sell. This would mean that someone like Hootie might not actually have 16 million albums out there. Is this really true? It seems pretty cheap that certain artists will always have their sales achievements listed higher than they really are.

Loving all the posters on here and excited to be a part of the community.



fearlesswift13
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Joined: 25 Feb 2011