So many people seem to misunderstand what global really is and think if an artist has big % of sales outside the US they're global and vice versa. This is fundamentally wrong. Led Zeppelin is a good example as I've seen many calling them local due to a huge chunk of their sales coming from the US. This statement is quite ridiculous considering they have solid sales pretty much everywhere including multiple UK million sellers.

In my opinion a very global artist is simply someone which sells well all over the world regardless of their US or overall total.

In the case of Eminem he's pretty near this criteria with the exception of Latin markets possibly, but taking the genre into account his sales there are also outstanding really.

I don't think Robbie is even close to Eminem in this regard really has his sales in places like North America, Japan and Brazil are terrible to modest at best.

Well spoken! However, how do we quantify 'selling well' if we want to call an artist truly global? Isn't that also depending on how big the artist is?

can I ask you something? Have you ever seen an unsuccessful singer in the United States making great sales around the world? and cmq I find that in Japan RW has made little success because the market in Japan is quite similar to the US one. and I hate people who say that without success in the US, even if you make great sales around the world, you are not a global singer. Robbie Williams has achieved unmatched records in the world, such as the highest sales in Europe in history for a singer at the age of 45, 2 diamond discs in Mexico, entered the top 30 best-selling albums in Australia in history, the largest concert in history in the United Arab Emirates with 25,000 tickets purchased in less than two hours, it set the Guinness world record in 2006, for having sold 1.6 million tickets in just 24 hours, but the records of that tour are not over , I advise you to read them, obviously not to forget the records in the UK that I wrote in previous messages, and I wanted to remember that RW has made double or triple sales in almost all of Europe and Argentina

Quite simply, we don't, we analyse artists and their sales and leave it at that, we let the figures speak for themselves. It's fans who try to manipulate these findings into these kind of categories or reasoning, with the sole intention of making their favourite look better or to downplay or degrade another.

The whole thing is pathetic. I'm here to work out and find out, how much artists have sold. I am not here to support my favourite artists or castigate artists I am not so keen on or turn the whole thing into some kind of competition.

The problem is that too many come to all this from a fan perspective, rather than a sales perspective. For them it's not about learning about sales etc, it's about seeing their favourites doing well and engaging in stupid battles with fans of other artists, in a sad attempt to prove the worth of their favourite or that they are better or more successful than someone else.

In theory it should be very possible to do well in most places without doing well in the US. In practice though I think it's rarer, especially when we get into truly massive sellers. Hitting it big there is very good publicity for an artist globally, especially now in with the internet and all. Plus if someone does well elsewhere it's natural to try breaking the US market next.

Robbie Williams and Anastacia I think are the best examples of exceptions in recent years but you had a lot of fairly Global European stars that didn't sell much there. In the past like James Last, Nana Mouskouri etc. Not to mention the countless of Italian and French acts who made it big in many places outside the US.

About Japan specifically there are lots non-Japanese artists who hit it quite big there that never touched US charts like Santa Esmeralda, Arabesque, The Nolans, Hedva & David, Betsy & Chris and Michel Polnareff among many more most likely. Even Björn and Benny from ABBA were successful there before they blew up internationally.

I would not say the Japanese market is similar to the US or any other, it's really something of it's own.

That's not entirely true, in the blog about Oasis the question is raised if they're just local. Part of the analysis is to check how the sales are spread worldwide. But I agree you want to stay away from fan claims.

Yeah it's borderline trolling actually, someone commenting on an Eminem article "yeah he's pretty big... Robbie Williams is more global though!"... They're not even in the same genre ffs.

And yes, Eminem is way more "global" than RW (if "global" means anything).

I can't recall what is written in the Oasis article but I'd presume it is mentioned exactly because of fans making these global/local judgements in the first place.

My problem is, these discussions are not strictly based on whether or not acts are globally or locally popular but based on trying to put artists down or to assume some kind of superiority.

All of the analysis is to check worldwide sales, unless it is specific to a certain territory, its not for ammunition in these petty arguments and why does it even matter, what matters is total sales, not really where they come from. I mean would you not rather have Led Zeppelins total sales, which predominately come from North America or Stevie Wonders which are far more widespread?

No, I'm not. I was just trying to help you out, with your English. Guess I'll not bother next time, as it seems to be taken as some kind of attack, rather than helping someone out lol

you are definitely right, but I just wanted to say that RW is among those who have made a high global success. Regarding the Japanese discourse, I was saying that they have musical tastes that are very similar, for example R&B, which is a musical style that both countries like, this is demonstrated by many R&B artists such as Boyz II men, who have many sales in Japan and in the United States while in the rest of the world they are really discreet, so I said that the two markets are similar as in the cases of some R&B or Soul artists

I already agreed with you about fan claims and I think the data on this website can stand the test of those claims. But this website probably also benefits from fans of any artist visiting here. And of course the number of LedZep is better than Stevie, but aren't geographical differences, just like chronological ones, part of a total analysis? Not that one is per se better than the other, but to understand, compare and contrast? Probably more so regarding artists with similar numbers, like LedZep and U2 or AC/DC.

I'm sure the extra traffic does benefit the site, just not in a music sales analysis sense.

Totally, it's interesting to see artists total sales on a global scale, so parallels can be drawn, differences seen etc and I'm sure if we were to have discussion about LZ, DC & U2, it would actually be a rational discussion about it, not a slanging match, with the sole intention of making our favourite act look better, while trying to degrade the other 2!

My problem is not with looking at things globally, it's how some people use and manipulate the numbers and terminology, to imply a kind of global=superior, local=inferior. Also, quite often the determining factor in them judging if a borderline artist is global or local, is seemingly their like or dislike of an artist and not logic and rational.

Eminem is way more global than and remembered than rw. Who might have got good numbers outside usa. But eminem beat him with streams and downloads outside usa too and eminem sold well over 50 million albums outside north america too. And has better distribution in every continent.

EMINEM Is way more global than forgotten has been Robbie and typical of white people to ignore asia. WHEN eminem destroys that guy there. Eminem is way more global bcoz his success is in every inhabitable continent . Whereas Rw has advantage of being european but failed in america. Eminem succeeded in europe. If rw is little ahead is south america, eminem destroys that guy in asia.

We can go on and we know whose catalog is valued worldwide. And that is Eminem

Eminem outsold rw in 3 of the continents tracked here. North america, australia, asia. Rw outsold him in europe and in latin america difference isn't much. Hence Eminem stays way more global.

Wow, seriously? Eminem has sold 190 million to Robbie Williams 75 million, it's a huge difference. Eminem is pretty even in sales in the UK to Robbie Williams and is the most successful act in the last 40 years