George Strait has sold 68.5 million albums? - Lounge

ffudnebbuh

level 8

Gender: Male

Location: Boston

I am not a country music fan but when I went to the RIAA website which tracks the best selling albums and artists, I was stunned to see that George Strait (who I have never heard) has sold 68.5 million albums in the US alone, That is more than Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Metallica, Van Halen, U2...etc..Having worked as a buyer for a record chain for almost 20 years, I should have known that...thought this was interesting.

http://riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php...mp;action=

Applerill

Autistic Princess <3

Gender: Female

Age: 31

Location: Chicago

Yeah, when I heard about this years ago, it made me sad.

That's why I hate country music fans. They buy LOADS of singles, even if 99% of them are crap.

As far as I know, the last good country album was AftP back in '93.

ffudnebbuh

level 8

Gender: Male

Location: Boston

I can get into almost any kind of music, but country is probably my least favorite genre.

RFNAPLES

Level 8

Gender: Male

Age: 76

Location: Durham, NC, USA

George Strait has sold 68 million records world-wide.

Here are just some of the awards he has received:

Other country artists have out sold George Strait. Check these out:

Check out these other top selling country artists:

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Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by RFNAPLES
Bubbling Under The Top 100 Greatest Mus...y RFNAPLES

RFNAPLES

Level 8

Gender: Male

Age: 76

Location: Durham, NC, USA

ffudnebbuh wrote:

I am not a country music fan but when I went to the RIAA website which tracks the best selling albums and artists, I was stunned to see that George Strait (who I have never heard) has sold 68.5 million albums in the US alone, That is more than Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Metallica, Van Halen, U2...etc..Having worked as a buyer for a record chain for almost 20 years, I should have known that...thought this was interesting.

http://riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php...mp;action=

World-wide figures for the artists you mentioned look better:

_________________
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by RFNAPLES
Bubbling Under The Top 100 Greatest Mus...y RFNAPLES

Charicature

Age: 50

Location: Vermont

ffudnebbuh wrote:

I am not a country music fan but when I went to the RIAA website which tracks the best selling albums and artists, I was stunned to see that George Strait (who I have never heard) has sold 68.5 million albums in the US alone, That is more than Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Metallica, Van Halen, U2...etc..Having worked as a buyer for a record chain for almost 20 years, I should have known that...thought this was interesting.

http://riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php...mp;action=

Wow...Bush has sold as many units as Depeche Mode? They only had a third of the albums. For that matter...ABBA, George Harrison, Nine Inch Nails, and Ricky Martin have also not sold more than Bush (10.5 million certified units). I find this amazing. 1) that Bush, with one really good album, has sold as many as all these more popular acts and 2) that ABBA, George Harrison, and Depeche Mode have only sold 10.5 million units after 18 to 30 years of sales.

EDIT: Oh, okay - those aren't worldwide sales numbers. Gotcha.
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ffudnebbuh

level 8

Gender: Male

Location: Boston

I think that ABBA sold 300 million album globally. they didn't sell very much at all in the US, I remember reading about how big they were globally when I was a buyer and the WEA(Warner/Elektra/Altantic)rep would try and get our chain to buy tons of a new ABBA album based on the global sales insisting that they would break big in the US at any moment, but they never did...interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_be...ic_artists

Last edited by ffudnebbuh on 04/08/2010 12:41; edited 1 time in total

RFNAPLES

Level 8

Gender: Male

Age: 76

Location: Durham, NC, USA

ABBA 300-370 million
Depeche Mode-100 million
Ricky Martin-60 million
_________________
Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by RFNAPLES
Bubbling Under The Top 100 Greatest Mus...y RFNAPLES

Freddie55

Gender: Male

Location: Toronto, ON

List of best-selling music artists in the United States from RIAA

"The RIAA does not deal in sales of albums, only certifications of shipped units. Therefore this best-selling list is based on total accumulated certifications given per artist and may not reflect the true physical sales obtained by these artists." (are albums that are shipped and returned or ultimately just destroyed counted in this total?)

"It should be noted that since digital music players have become the dominant listening medium, sales of "hard albums" have declined sharply." (does this mean that the list doesn't include internet sales and therefore no modern artist will ever enter the top 100?)

The current list is almost entirely comprised of American artists. I think that the internet has probably increased the consumption of foreign music in the U.S. At least, I hope it has!

ffudnebbuh

level 8

Gender: Male

Location: Boston

That is a great point....It doesn't take into account returns. Sales reps really pressured buyers to purchase huge initial shipments of new albums so that they could get a gold certification. This was especially true for albums released through Polygram which distributed the Kiss albums..so if you ever noticed Kiss albums would always get a gold certification when in fact they never sold with the exception of Kiss Alive and Destroyer. The just had big initial shipments because there were alot of advertising dollars attached to the initial purchase...We would probably buy 3000 of a new Rolling Stones album like "Some girls'(which ended being the Stones biggest album) with no returns but only 150 of a new Kiss album and even then we ended up returning some. You are absolutely correct. It happened most often with the follow up release from artists who just had a huge album. You had to be very careful.