CSPC: Pink Floyd Popularity Analysis

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Since 1973, one part of the Moon has been shaking the entire World. The British band Pink Floyd are the ones responsible for this event, and nearly half a century later they are still producing new music as Is This the Life We Really Want?, the first studio album by founding member Roger Waters in 25 years, came out just a few days ago.

Among music legends, some have been incredible sellers like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Others are nowhere near their stellar achievements a la Janis Joplin or Frank Zappa. So, just where do Pink Floyd stand?

The album Dark Side of the Moon is widely praised for its consistent sales since it spent decades charting on the Billboard US rankings. The 1979 double album The Wall was a long-standing #1 in various countries. On the minus side though, the band rarely issued singles. They also sold relatively few compilations. This means their studio albums have been catalyzing the largest part of their discography appeal. Thus, how does the band perform overall considering their lack of sales in several key formats? Are their pure album sales enough to put them among the A-List of the most popular artists of all-time?

As usual, I’ll be using the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept in order to relevantly gauge their results. This concept will not only bring you sales information for all the Pink Floyd’s albums, physical and download singles, as well as audio and video streaming, but it will also determine their true popularity. If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC method, the next page explains it with a short video. I fully recommend watching the video before getting into the sales figures. Of course, if you are a regular visitor feel free to skip the video and get into the figures.

Let’s go!

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Smiley

Just out of interest, after Queen, Michael Jackson and The Beatles, are Pink Floyd the biggest selling album artist (all types) in Europe?

Analord

Yes, just above Madonna, who obviously sold much more singles.

Clockingbell

I wonder how much Abba and U2 are separated from this top 5

Analord

ABBA would be #6 with around 70m albums sold (Pink Floyd sold 82m), U2 sold maybe 67m, less than the Stones.

Dan

According to Chartmasters – sales in Europe:

Queen – 97,259,000
MJ – 90,730,000
The Beatles – 86,230,000
Pink Floyd – 80,780,000
Madonna – 79,330,000
Rolling Stones – ~70m
Elvis – 58,445,000
Elton John – 53,790,000
U2 – unclear (not in the analysis)
Rod Stewart – 52,348,500
AC/DC – 50,810,000

Clockingbell

I think you missed some artists, like Phil Collins (61 m), or 2016 researched Abba and Celine Dion, whose exact Europe totals I can’t discover here, as well as those of the Rolling Stones

Analord

Céline Dion sold over 60m albums in Europe, the Stones around 69m. Dan’s list is missing a bunch of acts indeed (Dire Straits, Johnny Hallyday…etc.) and I’ve no idea why he put U2 beneath Elton John…

Clockingbell

Thanks! Missed Johnny Halliday myself…

Martin

Robbie Williams low 50ms also.

Smiley

Has the album ‘Wish You Were Here’ lost about a million or so EAS recently?

Matrix

Pink Floyd are the one of two artists to have two 50+ million albums each. The another one is Michael Jackson.