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This is one of the greatest websites on album sales I've ever found. Your research is impeccable, and very easy to follow. Your analysis is very believable. This is a wonderful way to compare all these different artists. I'm a huge Pink Floyd fan and I've been looking for years to try to find some accurate data on Pink Floyd's world wide album sales, and with the exception of Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, there is very little good information out there. And seeing claims that bands like Queen and ABBA sold 350 million albums each just never made sense to me, based on what charts I have found for them. I even like a lot of the music from these two groups but when you can't substantiate over 50 percent of your claimed sales, it's a bit hard to believe anything.
You should really update the Wikipedia for biggest selling artists and best selling albums, though I don't know how that works. The numbers that are on those pages are complete fabrications and broad estimates. Anyway, thanks for your wonderful research and insight into this industry. It's about time someone takes on this subject, which until you came along, had no basis in reality.
Also, if you look at your US totals, double count Ummagumma, The Wall, the three live albums and the Echos, best of Album, like RIAA does, that puts Pink Floyd well over a 100 million US sales. I think RIAA has certified only around 70 million. Is EMI this far behind on certification? I've known for some time Dark Side of the moon at 15 million was way off. Didn't know it was this way off. Are there any other bands that are this far off from their RIAA Certs? Seems Pink Floyd might be the most off.
Thanks again.
Hi Lance!
Yes, Pink Floyd's albums sales are largely deflated by their RIAA certifications. Their label hasn't been caring about certifications for 20 years, just like for the Beatles. At least the latter band sold well with new releases in the meantime like One or Love, so a good chunk of their sales since 20 years are awarded. For that reason Floyd are indeed likely the group with the RIAA total the most outdated of all.
Hi dear MJD!
Could you pleasee post the album sales per country for Pink Floyd and The Beatles( wich i already asked you for)
Thanks in advance!
Hi MJD
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think you forgot this rare physical single by Pink Floyd: PINK FLOYD Tonite Let's All Make Love In London, http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=1450
PINK FLOYD Tonite Let's All Make Love In London
1. Interstellar Overdrive (16:46) Instrumental
2. Nick's Boogie (11:50) Instrumental
Hi Daydreamer!
This is a promo single meaning no copy was commercially sold!
Thank you for clearing that up MJD. I thought it was an official PF single.
Hi MJD
Your article about Pink Floyd is so majestic, wonderful, pyrotechnic like their albums and rheir discography as Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall.
I noticed from yesterday that the image or cover of the album Meddle is not visible, it is written "afficher l'image d'origine".
Can you solve it please ?
Hi MJD !!!
I do not see the image or cover of the album Ummagumma is not visible, it is written “afficher l’image d’origine”.
MJD, What's your take on the album "Zabriskie Point" ? It's a soundtrack album originally released in the 1970. Pink Floyd contributied to the album with the four songs (+ 3 more PF songs on the bonus disc released 1997). This album maybe belongs to the Pink Floyd CSPC discography as well.
Hi Daydreamer!
The more it goes the least I'm tented to include Soundtracks into artists' discographies. Unless the Soundtrack is promoted as a new album of the artist, with her name in the cover as big as the movie title, it doesn't belong to the discography of an artist.
When I say it evolves that way for me is that the most I study different artists, the most I notice how their soundtracks do not fit at all inside their discography. We have been talking about Elton John lately - except GYBR, which is by far his top catalog seller since that's his signature album, none of his studio LPs reaches 6m sales Worldwide. The Lion King sold more than 10m in the US alone, it also has a Karaoke version and a Cast version that sold over 1m each. All album tracks, including instrumentals, have plenty of streams on Spotify, way more than album tracks from Elton's albums. Nobdoy boughts the Lion King soundtrack thinking they were going after an Elton John album. All elements suggest it is indeed a Soundtrack rather than an album from Elton.
An other argument for that is the artist already benefiting from that success. He got singles sales for his songs from it, plus added value to subsequent compilations, plus streams / downloads. This makes more sense - people interested into Elton's input go after his records. Parents aiming to buy the Soundtrack of their child's favorite movie buy the Lion King Soundtrack. It's the same case as Frozen really. The only difference is that the lead singer (Idina Menzel) of the main song isn't a popular singer so everyone sees it as a pure Soundtrack. If it was Mariah or Aguilera, their fans would be fighting with insistance to include it inside their personal discographies. This would distort the accurate perception of a singer more than anything.
At the end of the day, the songs people listen to when they give the Lion King soundtrack a listen are Elton John's songs anyway, aren't they ? I mean, whether they intend to listen to an artist or not shouldn't matter as long they listen to their songs ...
I understand you, and I'm inclined to agree with you on this MJD.
p.s: as side note, when you wrote this ...."with her name in the cover as big as the movie title..." I just remember an interesting story about the Pink Floyd album sales, I read some years ago. The Pink Floyd albums Atom Herat Mother, Meddle and Obscured By The Clouds were all originaly released without a band name, or the album titles on the front cover. It contributed to much less album sales. Meny people att that time simply just didn't notice it was a new Pink Floyd albums out. So the Pink Floyd had a same intension for the Dark Side Of The Moon as well. In the first two-three months DSOTM was sold without a band name, or the album title on the front cover. Then, the EMI lebel recognised a huge potential of the album, and ordered the Pink Floyd management to at least paste a round stickers with a band name and album title, on the all of Pink Floyd album front covers in the future. Well, from then on Dark Side Of The Moon become one of the best-selling albums of all time. 🙂
Hi Rell!
People was definitely not listening to Elton John while playing the Soundtrack! Actually, the version from English-speaking countries is the only one which includes his version of Circle of Life and I Just Can't Wait To Be King, local versions from France, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy, etc, all had locally translated versions of these songs, excluding the ones of Elton. Incredibly enough, even in English-speaking countries his versions aren't the most popular ones. His rendering of Circle of Life has 19 million streams while the one of Carmen Twellie has 56 million! His version of I Just Can't Wait To Be King has 3 million streams, the one of Laura Williams has 55 million.
Can You Feel the Love Tonight was the only song by Elton present inside the Worldwide tracklist. Believe it or not, even that song isn't dominant at 66 million, especially with the version of Joseph Williams at 46 million.
Then this doesn't take into consideration that Hakuna Matata by Ernie Sabella has 63 million streams or that even instrumentals by Hans Zimmer are up to 16 million. You also need to factor in all local versions of these songs which have individually multi-million streams.
As you can see, Elton John is barely a small piece of it, people claim the Soundtrack for him barely because he is the household name on it, but the public went after the record for something else. You say that it doesn't matter if people intend to buy an album by him or not: it does. The aim of the CSPC is to establish the real popularity of an artist. Sales of the single Can't You Feel the Love Tonight do represent his popularity. Sales of the Lion King Soundtrack do not represent his popularity, but instead the one of the Lion King.
