Nice list! Great achievement also, although 2Pac has less streams (1.2m) with his 21st century music than Elton (1.7m), and also less than Metallica (1.4m) and MJ (1.3m). And as Mariah Carey has only slightly more (1.9m), I think it would be fair to let them both be part of the comparison.

Well, first off you can't have both Mariah and 2Pac in the top 10 since the #10 would be Nirvana (8.6m). And what I meant is that they both have a bigger share of their success from the 21st century, if you remove that share they would be behind the others when it comes to pre-2000 songs.

Speaking of which, I hadn't realized Elton had 1.7m streaming EAS from his recent stuff, I assume it's mostly The Lockdown Sessions from last year ? I've no search credit left 🙁

Fair enough! It's mostly The Lockdown Sessions indeed, you can also visit the artist pages and look at the auto update totals per album ;-).

I think it's far more difficult to decide what counts as pre/post 2000. Take say the RHCP, is it fair to exclude them just because they have been very successful in the 00s. Metallica debuted in 83, the RHCPs in 84 and both released 7 studio albums in the 00s, but they're penalised because they've managed to stay more relevant, for longer. Again, is it fair to exclude say Shakira, who released her first album in 91, just because her international success is prominently in the 2000s.

On the other hand, should all be excluded because they are all still current and active and have been releasing albums and touring all though the 21st century.

Should acts that have released new material in the 21st century, be excluded full stop. So acts like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Elvis, Bob Marley, Nirvana etc are fine but Jackson, AC/DC, Metallica etc are not, but then what about Floyd should they be excluded for Endless River, Guns for Chinese Democracy, Queen for Cosmos Rocks.

I think it is very difficult too find a one size fits all, when trying to look at Pre 2000 acts and even harder trying to determine how it is actually constituted.

would it not just be easier to look at all acts that debut beofre 2000 and minus anything they released after 2000?

You can do, you can do what ever you want but there will always be caveats needed, context needed.

Take say AC/DC, I'd say their 00s return Black Ice and subsequent World Tour, were responsible for a great upturn in their popularity, as was the Iron Man soundtrack. So, even though Black Ice, Rock or Bust and Power Up are excluded, the studio albums, World Tours and soundtracks, all significantly benefited the popularity of their pre 2000 work.

Take Queen, you can exclude The Cosmos Rocks, but you can't subtract the impact We Will Rock You, Bohemian Rhapsody or the Adam Lambert Tours have had on their Pre 2000 work.

I'm not saying the reason Guns, Queens, AC/DCs, Metallicas or the RHCPs pre 2000 works are still so popular, is the fact they are still going, in some form or other, but it undoubtedly helps cement and expand their popularity. .

Yeah but a lot of his songs would be in the "orphan" category (Ghetto Gospel...etc). His albums alone total 1.8m actually (1.6m for TLS), and with the orphan stuff it'd be well over 2m, maybe 2.4m ? A lot of features so it's complicated...

Sorry but I'm really not sure what you're getting at... Shakira ? 😕 She has like 2m streaming EAS from the 90s, why would she be included in a pre-2000s list ?

There's nothing "difficult" about this, it's just a list of acts who had most of their success before 2000, that's all.

Good idea 😉 Approximately :

Queen – 21.5m
The Beatles – 16m
Michael Jackson – 12.7m
Metallica – 10.6m
AC/DC – 9.1m
Bob Marley – 8.7m
Guns N’ Roses – 8.6m
Nirvana – 8.6m
Pink Floyd – 8.1m
Elton John – 7.6m

The list is about acts that debuted pre 2000, Shakira debuted in 1991. The list was never how successful their pre 2000 work was. Strange you have problems understanding that, seems quite simple to me.

How can you seriously say an act that debuted in 1991 or even worse 1984, is from the streaming era. You're just making up your own selective rules about this as you go along.

You realize I'm the one who made the list, right ? As I said it's about acts who had most of their success before 2000, that's why I didn't include Eminem or Shakira or whatever...

And I never said acts who debuted in 1984 are from the streaming era, I specifically mentioned Drake and BTS, so you're the one making things up (for some reason).

I had previously assumed the jump in EAS for Elton John from 206 million to 222 million was a glitch but the increase has seemingly been confirmed in the new/updated ASR list. Is this the case?

His physical singles total went from 65m to 81m... Seems like a glitch of some kind.

Oh it's been fixed, actually it's pretty close around the 10th place :

9. Elton John - 207m (last update : 02/18, before the 2019 biopic)
10. Led Zeppelin - 207m (08/16)
11. Eminem - 203m (06/21)
12. AC/DC - 201m (02/18, their 2020 album sold 2m pure)
13. U2 - 201m (08/16)
14. Céline Dion - 199m (09/16)

I'm not the biggest fan of his music but Eminem is an absolute powerhouse on the streaming front, especially for an artist that has been around for nearly 25 years.

Surely won't be all that long (five to seven years!?!) before he is challenging for fifth spot?