CSPC: Led Zeppelin Popularity Analysis
Few bands embody the late sixties and early seventies like Led Zeppelin do. But apart from firmly belonging to their time, this four-piece group not only became one of the biggest of all time but also, most importantly, sustained a huge level of success during the following decades. Part of that can be seen by how they were outsold by other hard rock groups in some key markets back in the day and how they eventually crushed the same bands at some later point.
It may sound doubtful that Led Zeppelin went from Deep Purple-like popularity to Pink Floyd-like status. If you wonder if this is a reality of Medias exaggeration, you will have your answer within’ the next few pages.
Overall, they released 8 studio albums plus a bootleg, Coda, that is often regarded as part of their essential discography, with the most successful and long-lasting appealing one being, of course, being their fourth title with sales largely above the 30 million mark. Their first four albums, all issued from 1969 to 1971, are the biggest ones, while the second part of their catalogue that spanned years 1973 to 1979 got mixed results.
As a reminder for users who are not yet familiar with the CSPC idea you do not need to worry, it is quite simple as it only consists in merging every format sales an artist has been getting and attributing them to respective studio albums. We will start by focusing on raw data, setting how much each album sold. Then, we will check sales of each track from those albums on each format – physical, digital and streaming – and weight them to value those figures on a par with album sales. To complete the study, we will study sales of the all compilations, live albums and music videos they dropped. Once all the raw data is set, we will only need to apply appropriate weighting to get the overall picture of the classic band’s career results.
Best selling hard rock albums : 1. Led Zeppelin – IV : 37m 2. AC/DC – Back In Black : 37m 3. Guns N’ Roses – Appetite For Destruction : 31m 4. Bon Jovi – Slippery When Wet : 24m 5. Bon Jovi – Cross Road : 23m 6. Boston – Boston : 22m 7. Led Zeppelin – II : 22m 8. Def Leppard – Hysteria : 19m 9. Guns N’ Roses – Use Your Illusion II : 19m 10. Guns N’ Roses – Use Your Illusion I : 18m 11. Led Zeppelin – Houses Of The Holy : 18m… Read more »
Led Zeppelin III, also at 14m. Going by figures on here. 13.7m in 2016.
Sure, also Bon Jovi’s New Jersey (13.9m in 2016), but I have GNR’s Greatest Hits at 14.4m and Creed’s Human Clay at 14.2m 😉
In your opinion, what figure would Appetite for destruction reach today without the 14m greatest hits, and Nevermind without the 2002 greatest hits?
I’m guessing close to 34m for Appetite, the Nirvana GH had a much smaller impact I think so I’d add maybe just 1m.
The CSPC method gives AfD millions more because of the GH album. Are you saying that it’s too inflated?
Well, if the idea is that 14m people would’ve bought a GNR album if the GH wasn’t released, then it’s highly simplistic, to say the least. What’s the point of releasing a GH then ? An extreme example is The Beatles’ 1, it sold 20m in its first year (!), does that mean 20m people would’ve bought another Beatles album instead ? Of course not, there was an extra value to have all these songs on one CD. As for AFD, it was selling maybe 700k a year before the GH, with no GH we can guess an average of… Read more »
I did not understand, 700,000-300,000 = 400,000; 400,000 * 18 = 7,200,000 from 2004 to today not 3,000,000
700k a year in 2003, 300k/year since then with no GH = >5m, 3m< with the GH.
Slippery when wet and New Jersey without Cross Road?
I’d say 28.5m for SWW and 16m for New Jersey. Note that Cross Road must’ve sold like 12m in its first year, thanks to the massive hit Always (#1 in Europe).
A massive hit indeed back then! But it only got 2,3 million EAS through Crossroads
Yeah, an opposite case would be Eminem’s Till I Collapse, it wasn’t even released as a single but now it’s credited for a third of The Eminem Show’s sales (23m) because of its high streaming numbers… It’s not a perfect system !
Indeed! A system that favores well streaming hits (largely supported by playlists, more or less like airplay, but better measurable) and is less favorable for short-term hits (especially in large discographies).
I think you’re right, but the whole point of CSPC method regarding compilations is that their sales are redistributed according to the streaming numbers of the included studio albums. Sometimes, that might be justified, but I think compilations have an own appeal as well.
Oh I know about the CSPC method 😆 It’s totally irrelevant to this discussion though, the question was “how much more AFD would’ve sold without the GH”, and my guess is about 2.5m.
The CSPC album ranking is just like the “most streamed albums” list, it measures the popularity of songs, not albums.
Sorry, didn’t mean to suggest you wouldn’t know this website. I’m also checking if I understand correctly and I see albums being compared, partly because of sales from compilations redistributed to them. It flows from the popularity of songs, but impacts the albums a lot. Bu I understand the difference with the question raised, thanks!
Hi Analord! An additional comment to your example of 1, The Beatles were selling 6-8 million albums a year at that point, and for the release of the best of, EMI stopped shipping them months ahead and took months to resend them later on. They froze their sales for 6-12 months to let room for ‘1’, which effectively replaced many million sales, even before we start speaking about lower catalog sales later on. Of course, the group already had best of albums. Red/Blue, Past Masters 1/2 and GH shipped a combined 1.42 million copies in the UK alone the 7… Read more »
So by the end of the games Metallica was the smartest. With a very successful GH of their first 5 albums they could go from 134 million albums sold to less than 100 million…
No, Metallica is much closer to Pink Floyd, a band who sold 200m albums including about 14m compilations…
“In fact, once we combine all their pre-1993 catalog, it shipped 4.85 million units from 1993 to 1999 in the UK. From 2001 to 2007, while the market increased by 17.6%, the same catalog sold 1.544 million, a drop of 3.306 million units. In these years, they released 1, Love, and the naked version of Let It Be, which combined for 3.83 million.”
3.83m+1.544m=5.374>4.85m
I don’t understand where the loss is for the artist …
Hi Jsak! The numbers shown compare the period 93-99 with 01-07. ‘One’ was the focused product until September 2009 when the remasters arrived. As I said, we haven’t got full 1992 sales, but using the 1993-1999 average to compare with 2008, they ‘lost’ an additional 601k that year (693k vs 92k), and then again some in early 2009, although that was in part on purpose to make room for the remasters. So it’s really 3.83+1.544+.092=5.466<5.543m (=4.85+0.693) Then, the market was 17.6% higher in the later period. With the same ongoing popularity, they should have sold over 6.5 million to replicate… Read more »
In your opinion, how much could Metallica lose from 134 million albums sold with a “1” post black album?
“what’s safe to say is that we can’t say nor believe that One added 3.3m+ sales in the UK (or 30m+ globally) to their sales.”
Just to be clear, no one said that.
Top 10 most streamed songs from 1 (EAS) : Let It Be [Let It Be] – 569,000 Hey Jude [Orphan] – 555,000 Come Together [Abbey Road] – 520,000 Yesterday [Help!] – 448,000 I Want to Hold Your Hand [Orphan] – 326,000 Help! [Help!] – 253,000 Eleanor Rigby [Revolver] – 231,000 Something [Abbey Road] – 230,000 Love Me Do [Please Please Me] – 172,000 A Hard Day’s Night [A Hard Day’s Night] – 168,000 Nothing from Sgt Peppers, the White Album or Rubber Soul (3 of the 4 best selling Beatles albums) but two songs from Help (their 8th best selling… Read more »
Hi Analord! I see that you keep your vendetta against me, but no issue I’ll answer on raw facts as usual. There are two main things to consider with this example of One. 1) the specific nature of the Beatles’ catalog. It’s actually detailed on their article and various comments I made how much they benefited from having not 1 discography as most artists but 2 discographies, their studio sets and their stand-alone singles. This enabled EMI to sell countless of compilations with an impact on studio albums that is quite lower than the usual impact. Red / Blue sold… Read more »
I definitely don’t think ABBA’s studio albums would’ve become major classics without their compilations, and for the same reason I think a lot of people who bought One would’ve never bought these classic Beatles albums, as I said it’s a different kind of audience.
You might be right about not liking “ifs” very much though, but guessing can be fun sometimes 😉
“Had they been replaced by a major compilation in 1971, who knows where these albums would be among all-time best albums lists.”
What about the 1973 Red/Blue compilations ?
Oh, and I don’t have a “vendetta” against you 😆
“Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Honestly, even 3m more for Appetite seems like a little stuff to me
Pyromania?
I’d say 12.5m, almost all of it in North America.
I find their streaming results a bit dissapointing. I’m really surprised that The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd outsream Led Zeppelin as much as they do. I know the Stones have a huge catalogue but none of their albums were anywhere near as big as Led Zeppelin IV. I thought Led Zeppelin IV would have similar streaming numbers to The Wall or Darkside of the Moon.
Zeppelin IV does have similar streaming numbers to DSOTM (1.5b), less than The Wall though (2b), but of course this one has 26 songs.
I don’t know why you’re surprised though, the Stones and Pink Floyd sold more albums than Zeppelin after all, partly because they have much larger discographies (especially the Stones, as you said).
I never saw numbers about Led zeppelin sales in Brazil.
Do They have some information about this?
The CSPC: Data Collector link isn’t working anymore