AC/DC, the Thunder from Down Under, were formed in Sydney, Australia, in 1973 by Malcolm Young and his schoolboy uniform wearing little brother Angus. After finding international success in 1979 with the seminal Highway to Hell album, they were suddenly struck by mortality. However, when lead singer Bon Scott died aged 33 in February 1980 they replaced one legendary front man with another. With Brian Johnson at the microphone they soon released their landmark Back in Black album, which transformed them into superstars of the Hard Rock genre.
Today, the future of the band is uncertain. Brian Johnson almost lost his hearing, forcing AC/DC to finish their latest tour in 2016 with singer Axl Rose of Guns ‘N Roses stepping in. Add to this, sadly, in November 2017 Malcolm Young died following years of dementia, leaving Angus Young as the only member left from the classic line-up.
Many claims have been made about AC/DC‘s record sales. Supposedly they’re over 200 million. Back in Black has been heralded by some as the 2nd biggest album of all time behind Michael Jackson‘s Thriller. While this may not be the case, we do know AC/DC are one of the strongest catalog sellers in the business. But how do they stack up against other Hard Rock behemoths like Metallica and Led Zeppelin? It’s time to find out.
As usual, I’ll be using the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept in order to relevantly gauge their results. This concept will not only bring you sales information for all AC/DC‘s albums, physical and download singles, as well as audio and video streaming, but it will also determine their true popularity. If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC method, the next page explains it with a short video. I fully recommend watching the video before getting into the sales figures. Of course, if you are a regular visitor feel free to skip the video and get into the figures.
Today “Hells Bells” passed 200M plays on Spotify. It is the 7th AC/DC track to do so, and the 4th track from the classic “Back in Black” album. BIB is the 4th pre-2000 album to have 4 tracks top 200M plays. Biggest 4th track race: 1. Michael Jackson “P.Y.T.” (“Thriller” – 1982) – 224.7M 2. Pearl Jam “Jeremy” (“Ten” – 1992) – 202.4M 3. Dr. Dre “What’s the Difference” (“2001” – 1999) – 202.3M 4. AC/DC “Hells Bells” (“Back in Black” – 1980) – 200.1M 5. Bob Marley “Waitin’ in Vain” (“Exodus” – 1977) – 178.7M 6. Michael Jackson “Bad”… Read more »
Buzz around the new album also boosts their catalog of course. “Let There Be Rock” recently passed 50M plays on Spotify. AC/DC’s 14th track to do so. And “Back in Black” is closing in on 700M! 1 Back in Black – 688.7M 2 Highway to Hell – 679.9M 3 Thunderstruck – 642.4M 4 You Shook Me All Night Long – 482.6M 5 T.N.T. – 323.1M 6 Shoot To Thrill – 184.4M 7 Hells Bells – 181.5M 8 Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – 171.4M 9 It’s a Long Way to the Top – 118.2M 10 Rock n Roll Train –… Read more »
PWR/UP released 13/11-2020 has entered the charts at #1 in many parts of the world, including the US, the UK, Australia, Germany, France and Italy. It’s tracks has over 37 mio plays on Spotify so far, ranked like this: 1 Shot in the Dark – 14,894,488 (released 7/10-2020) 2 Realize – 4,350,815 (released 11/11-20) 3 Rejection – 2,258,787 4 Demon Fire – 2,231,278 5 Through the Mists of Time – 2,041,399 6 Witch’s Spell – 2,038,847 7 Kick You When You’re Down – 1,941,032 8 Wild Reputation – 1,653,567 9 No Man’s Land – 1,542,946 10 Systems Down – 1,461,380… Read more »
New single “Shot in the Dark” out now, New album “Power Up” out Nov. 13th.
First day streaming on Spotify for “Shot in the Dark” was 688K plays. That day’s biggest by AC/DC, topping their classics “Back in Black” (669K), “Highway to Hell” (573K) and “Thunderstruck” (546K).
But when they talk about Back in black as the second best-selling album ever with 52 million copies sold, did they also include the copies left in the warehouses and the download/streaming ?
Today You Shook Me All Night Long passed 400M plays on Spotify (400.2M).
2nd song from BIB, and 4th from AC/DC to pass that threshold. Only Queen have more pre-2000 songs with over 400M plays (7 songs, soon to be 8 as We are the Champions is at 398.8M).
I have compiled Back in Black sales in the barcode era in Brazil, it’s safe to say that it sold 200K in the last 15 years, I’d estimate sales to be around 350 K overall. AC/DC is extremely under certified in Brazil.
Back In Black is now certified 25 times platinum in the US.
That seems to fit pretty well with the US sales estimate since the certification likely also include streams and downloads.
Don’ t you think that since the death of Malcolm Young the sales of physical copies have increased to 25 million ?
Friday is my birthday 🙂 So what are my birthday wishes? Well, a new car would be nice… but I guess less will do. Like my favourite band getting their first 500M+ track on Spotify. Lo and behold the top ten AC/DC tracks on Spotify: 1 BACK IN BLACK – 499,574,000 2 HIGHWAY TO HELL – 495,263,000 3 THUNDERSTRUCK – 471,457,000 4 YOU SHOOK ME ALL NIGHT LONG – 346,640,000 5 T.N.T. – 234,653,000 6 SHOOT TO THRILL – 132,645,000 7 HELLS BELLS – 130,395,000 8 DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP – 123,221,000 9 IT’S A LONG WAY TO THE… Read more »
Jep. Back in Black:
485,591,580 + 9,932,151 + 3,999,408 + 329,020 + 218,578 = 500,070,737 🙂
And today Highway to Hell:
487,071,561 + 8,377,254 + 3,115,141 + 1,094,026 + 758,835 = 500,416,717 🙂
Thunderstruck becomes the 3rd. AC/DC track to pass the 500M mark:
482,255,015 + 12,089,864 + 6,197,401 = 500,542,280 🙂
The only other legacy artist with more than two songs above that threshold is Queen, with five!
Well done!
Back in Black was promoted on social medias last month in celebration of it’s 40th anniversary.
This has pushed “Shake a Leg” above 10M spins on Spotify. Here are the BIB tracks (with increases since primo dec 2019)
BIB 628.5M (128.9M)
YSMANL 441.6M (95.0M)
STT 168.7M (36.1M)
HB 163.6M (33.2M)
HADOM 35.4M (7.4M)
RNRANP 34.4M (7.6M)
WDYDFMH 15.2M (3.5M)
LMPMLIY 12.6M (2.5M)
GTDAB 12.5M (3.0M)
SAL 10.0M (2.3M)
About a year ago I speculated that all BIB tracks would have passed the 10M mark by now. Well, that happened in August (as posted earlier). Anyway here’s an update (with increase since early dec 2019) BIB tracks as of today: BIB 707.8M (208.2M) YSMANL 494.9M (148.3M) STT 189.0M (56.4M) HB 186.4M (56.0M) RNRANP 39.4M (12.6M) HADOM 39.0M (11.0M) WDYDFMH 19.7M (8.0M) GTDAB 15.2M (5.7M) LMPMLIY 14.3M (4.2M) SAL 11.9M (4.2M) BIB is the first AC/DC track to join the 700M club (HTH is next with 696.4M) and YSMANL will soon become their 4th track (2nd from BIB) to pass… Read more »