Beyonce is the only one is see not reaching 100 million anytime soon. She isnt a huge force like any of them commercially and isnt as close as Coldplay

Hi MJD! I hope you enjoyed your vacation!

I think it's interesting that none of the top 2000s acts were able to reach 100 million EAS within 10 years of their debut - the closest are Adele and Drake who might manage it within 11 years, but for the rest it will be closer to 15 or even 20. I remember you saying there were a few acts from the physical era who probably reached it in around 8 years though I don't recall which.

That's not a knock against these artists, it just proves your point about how downloads cut into their sales. It will be very interesting in the future to see which streaming-era acts hit 100 million first and how quickly they do it.

Maybe Cliff Richard MJD? I'm not sure about his total worldwide sales but he must be close (ish)? A huge amount of physical singles sales, quite a bit of success overseas but very limited in the US of course. Also a large amount of albums, EPs, video sales (yes I know none were huge on their own but a 60 year career must be getting up there?)

Also Santana should be around that ballpark?

Then not forgetting the sales and charts behemoth that is Nana Mouskouri! 🙂

Also forgot a few other acts that I'm not too sure of :

Electric Light Orchestra, Supertramp, Journey and Duran Duran

Hi MJD. I was just wondering. Recently the Backstreet Boys made it to the top of the Billboard charts. Do you think that they will have a big turn around for this album or is it just a big debut hype that will soon loss its steam pretty quickly. And do you think they too have a chance to go to the 100 milestone?

Hi Orange!

Basically divas who started big did it very fast, Madonna, Mariah, Whitney. Also Eminem more recently!

Hi plan9fan!

Definitely not Cliff, his album sales aren't that good and single sales without several key markets is way too limited! Santana are definitely up there in 9 digits.

Hi Michael!

In Spotify their top 2 songs are old hits, hotter right now than their new songs. They got to the top thanks to a ticket bundle and dropped 93% in sales in week 2. Honestly I don't think that will be a turnaround at all! To go to 100m yes, it all depends how much we look into the future!

Oh wow. I thought it was genuinely a career turnaround. Btw, do you think they can reach the 100 million mark within the next 5 years?

Eh, that's getting into the subjective realm. The only member people knew in DC was Beyonce, besides Kelly everyone was switching out. She also had several songs where she was the only singer, see Jumpin Jumpin.

Objectively, DC and The Carters are different acts from Beyonce the solo artists. It will be listed as such on Billboard and everywhere else. We can't just pick and choose what counts for an artist based on subjective ideas.

I hope you agree, @MJD.

She sold them, now she isn't selling. They stopped selling within a year.

Look at how BEYONCE was handled. It sold physical and digital copies well, then a year later it dropped out of the BB200, then was released to streaming and is now approaching 2B streams on Spotify, like 180 weeks on the BB200 , and it even managed to chart in the Apple Music Global top 100 in the 2018 YE chart.

Hi Timber!

I must say I agree with Kris here! About the DCs: the only member people knew doesn't mean much honestly, until her solo breakthrough 95% of the population could hardly tell her name. The fact she was the only singer in some songs is almost worst as it highlights she wasn't the only one in most. If because she was alone in some songs we must assign these sales to her, then Freddy Mercury can claim 100% of Queen's sales, Mick Jagger the ones of the Stones, Macca of the Beatles, etc. So adding DCs to Beyoncé really is out of question.

Then the Carters. The only argument to not include it among her sales is because they gave a specific name to this music act, "The Carters", rather than "Beyoncé & Jay-Z". If you look at Best Of Both Words (Jay-Z / R. Kelly), Collision Course (Jay-Z / Linkin Park), Watch the Throne (Jay-Z / Kanye West), Lulu (Metallica / Lou Reed), Raising Sand (Robert Plant / Alison Krauss), they are all assigned to both artists, logically, and nobody sees an issue there. These examples include as many as 3 paired albums by Jay-Z with a different artist. Why wouldn't his fourth, Everything Is Love, be counted like the remaining 3? Of course they used "The Carters" as the act name, but simply because they are married. It doesn't change the nature of the album - one collaboration album among many others!

My argument isn't to include DC to her act sales, as stated in paragraph 2 of what I wrote. They should be separated just like they are for Billboard, just like they are on Spotify, just like they are on Apple Music, just like they or on iTunes.

I only wrote the 1st paragraph to speak on the subjective argument and show how useless it is for this discussion. Arguing through subjective terms is just gonna end up being a long and useless waste of time.

"Of course they used “The Carters” as the act name, but simply because they are married"
-It doesn't matter, by having it under that name they ARE different acts, everyone else can see that.

What is your explanation about not having ROSE AVE by the act "You + Me" under P!nk's page? It's the same situation, the only difference is that "simply because they are married"....that is excruciatingly inconsistent, MJD.

Everything Is Love = Rose Ave
The Carters = You + Me
Beyonce and Jay Z = P!nk and Dallas Green

Hi again Timber!

The act naming isn't the be all and end all of it, elseway the Jackson 5 and the Jacksons would be 2 distinct groups for example, and the likes Puff Daddy and Jennifer Lopez would have several counts ^^

Actually I remember estimating You & Me, it's more of an error to miss it than to include The Carters. There is other examples, D12 is included into Eminem, The Little Willies into Norah Jones, etc. There is really many many acts who released side projects at some point and these side projects were sold exclusively on the name of the main artist. If we include featuring on which a singer only participate in singing, it's hard to argue a complete side project he manages must be excluded!

Hell MJD another quick question, from your Measurement is seems as if Adele’s 21 is The best selling album in the UK of all time with 5,225,000 Sold. I checked Wikipedia and it said Queen and ABBA’s Greatest hits album’s are. But I don’t trust Wikipedia as a reliable source. And from your records it show Wikipedia is false. So Is 21 by Adele the best selling album in the UK or did you count another album and I missed it? Cause I only searched those 3 albums based on Wiki
Thanks for your time.