Top 100 Best-Selling Music Artists
 

I don't know how many people have seen this, but I thought it was a pretty good show of Ayumi Hamasaki's influence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...illion_records

awesome ! =D

I'm surprised Madonna isn't included here...she's been around forever haha
But I'm happy to see Ayu on here. :) Thanks for sharing~

ayu is next to Hibari Misora and it might change within the next period...

I bet most of the people saw this already...:)

lmao Madonna = 200 millions, that's why she's not with Ayu :)

This is, however, based ONLY on her domestic sales.. And even then, it needs an updated number :) However, seeing as she's only been around since a decade or so, it's amazing she can even compete with artists that have been around for ever :)

This really needs to be updated though, but thanks for sharing

wowww..
this is awesomeee!!!
thanks for sharing!!!

the source is 2008, and after 2 years, I believe it has reached 60 million.

Hopefully it will be updated soon :yes.

From what i saw in wikipedia for ayu asia sales if the numbers are correct. with japan + asia CD sales should be near the 100 million not counting digital. but seeing as how the numbers listed in wikipedia can be added/edit by just anyone, i have my doubts, but i did see some award show that was said ayu had sold over 5millions in asia that year, so im really confuse as to how much ayu has sold outside japan in total. if only japanese singers sales outside japan as well as digital sales would all be counted, im assuming americans count all their cd sales + digital when we get their numbers.


Glay Japan 1994–present Rock / Pop 56 million[189]

i had no idea glay sold over 50million

Hikaru Utada Japan 1993–present J-pop / Pop / Dance 50 million[234]
wasnt utada around her 40million :eyebrow

Eh, she's been on this list for a few years now. I know I've been seeing her under that list for a while, anyway.

But it's still always nice to read :)

hadnt seen this before~~~

glad to see ayu in the list ^^

it's so obvious that she can't reach 60mil in just 2 years even when u combine asia's sales

Yeah, for Japanese artists they tend to just count domestic sales, which really isn't all that fair compared to Western artists who often have worldwide sales published.

i sometime have my doubts on the numbers western artist list XD

Awesome! Go Ayu!!! I'm glad to see she made the list :yes

There's Utada an also Vivente Fernandez :D

I agree.

Though Go Ayu!! :D

In any case, I think she's one of the few Japanese to make that list all together.

this is cool hikki is here also

Yarp! When I'm thinking about it, when counting worldwide sales, both B'z and Ayu should be one list higher! (until 100 million).

Oh well, we should at least be happy she's getting SOME credit ; )

I saw it long time ago, I'm pretty much sure it's around 60 millions now.
Anyway I'm so proud of Ayu. ;)

i think shes still in the 50million counting only japan sales, which is what you see on this list. but like i said b4, if you check her page in wikipedia, ull see shes at around 100million with japan + asia sales, but that is if the numbers listed in wikipedia are true.

and here we have some award show where the girl says she has sold over 5million in asia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avq5CaDpwK4

so who knows how she has really sold outside japan, but my guess would be around 100million

wow! im so proud of Ayu :yes shes one of the artist that represent Asia among those western artists. go Ayu!

yes,really hope they would count the sale outside japan too,if that happen we'll see her album sale increasing(imo) as shes more popular outside japan now~

It's impossible that she sold almost 40 million outside of japan. :P I would guess she's closer to 60 than 50 now, but not 100.

as of 2005 for japan (from music station)

From Music Station 2005.04.01

Rank Artist Sale

1 B'z 75,614,000
2 Mr. Children 50,635,000
3 Southern All Stars 47,083,000
4 Hamasaki Ayumi 45,528,000
5 DREAMS COME TRUE 40,893,000
6 Matsutoya Yumi 37,790,000
7 GLAY 35,800,000
8 ZARD 35,450,000
9 Utada Hikaru 32,160,000
10 CHAGE & ASKA 31,220,000


Actually I¨m not sure if she passed SAS yet, but it's possible which would make her the third most selling japanese artist domestically of all time. THese are oricon's numbers.

this is really awesome.

^
Probably. But I don't really think that her total sales counting all asian countries are that much higer because sales in these countries are really really low. Other worldwide artists sold/sell a lot in the biggest music markets which includes mostly western europe, north america, japan and to a certain extent south america.

She's been on there quite a while. :) Hikki too! They rock! :heart

Utada was 40 million worldwide when EXODUS came out, so she definitely has to be past that now with the sales of HEART STATION & ULTRA BLUE, as well as This Is The One. :yes

According to the discography thing on Wikipedia, Utada has around 37 million CD sales (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikaru_...8Japan_Only.29). I'm really skeptical about that 50 million...:S

^50 million is the number her record label released...

i believe wiki said 37 million for japan. but since hikki technically is a more international artists with her us releases her total would be around 50 million like adrenekoi said.

ayu on the other hand would just be domestic sales, yes?

or we could go by the sales Avex reports, instead of oricon. the numbers would be a lot different.

one thing for sure is that i think oricon has reported she has pass the 50million. and seeing in the clip that i posted where the asian chick said she had sold over 5million that year, i wouldnt be surprise if the sales would be just about what she has sold in japan, most likely less but not that far apart.

OMG~ ayu awesomeee~~

Yes, the official avex sales is what I was going by when I said to tack on a significant amount more.
Also, according to all the sources I've ever seen about Asia sales, the totals of all other countries usually equal the amount of just Japan, so yeah.... In other words, Ayu has sold over twice as much as what ORICON says, lol. In physical sales alone.

Yaaay go Ayu!!! :yatta :heart

this list is odd. where is Britney and Madana???

wiki says that ayu sold 75 million in asia n japan in total,,,,

I was about to say where's Britney, Madge, and Micheal? But this is 50-74 sold, they're way past that, lol. :P

Good for Ayu and Hikki too... though I'd be a little more excited if that list was actually up to date. :innocent

wow!! Congrats to Ayu and Andrea Bocelli!!

It's really strange tehre isn't Laura Pausini, she's so famous worldwide

Such a shame people in Japan adore Oricon XD. I'm not saying it's not handy, but they tend to consider it to be the conclusive factor in an album's succes.
Although I DO believe avex, and all record companies, exaggerate numbers for promotion, I do think that they're somewhere in between.

Plus people shouldn't underestimate the strength of the Asian market. Korea and Singapore, I think, are one of the few countries that publish actual numbers, and those aren't very high, but there are a lot of other countries and even though individual numbers may be low, combined they can match the Japan numbers.

Take Lady Gaga. She recently said she has sold over 5 million in Asia. Probably a bit exaggerated, but when you considered probably only one of those millions is from Japan ...

woo~hoo! Ayu will conquer the world \('_')/
I'm surprised that there are so many recent artists here, with present day illegal download and everything it's a bigger achievement to sell over 50 millions

i was looking for Madonna, MJ and BEP but they probably sold more than 50 million...

^Michael sold either 750, 350 or 300 million,
Madonna sold 200 million
BEP sold +- 35million and they are not on the list at all =)

Did Gaga surpass the million sales in Japan? O_o

I highly doubt the accuracy of this list especially when not all of them are worldwide sales and I believe some of them are just total album sales not both album and singles.

I haven't seen this before.. it's nice to see that she's internationally recognised for her great work.

thats why i have my doubts with western artist, one day its 300 the next 400 the next 700 XD whats next a billion :shakehead its as if they get their info from wikipedia where just anyone can edit the numbers ;)

dont think so, i think it was more of an example ,seeing as how japan the second biggest music market in the world, most of her asian sales would have to come from japan.

Yeah, that was the point. ^^

According to Oricon all of her albums combined (The Fame, The Fame Monster, Remixes) sold approximately 600.000 copies, but that's just Oricon.

Oricon is corrupted jaja!!!

WOW OMEDETTO!!~ :D
what does that 174 means anyway??

This is just a list of artists who have sold 50-74 million albums and singles.

There are different lists on the same website, and the more globally-known artists everyone else has mentioned are in different (higher-up) sections.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._music_artists

AWESOME :heart

Should post the 75 million and beyond list so as to not forget B'z.

Uhhhh Idk if Ayu has sold 10 million more, in the last 2 years o_O

thanks for this explaination i was looking for madonna too . ayu and hikki number are impressive

And that is an excellent number for a western artist.

South Korea is also a economic powerhouse in terms of CD sales, so nowadays Asian sales are mostly equal to Japan and Korea + China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The rest of Asia makes a smaller percentage.
The Asian market is difficult to conquer from outside (not so hard if you are a Japanese/Korean/Chinese artist) but when you do it, the revenue is huge.

I was always under the impression that piracy was very high in S. Korea since the best selling album of the year sells about 300K copies.

people tend to forgot the artist and the music change and sometimes when artist dont sell much might also be because music wise it doesnt sounds as good or interresting . look at gaga she is a great exemple she sold millions of copy even though we have mp3 and people dl illegally her tour was so packed tickets sold out in a few hours for the staple center ....

i think that if artists makes good music it doesnt stop people from buying even though illegal dl are strong they often promote the artist .

i just think korean music in south korea those past few years isnt as good as before , also i notice compare to japan artist dont have much extra " gifts " its always a poster that come with the first press nothing extraordinary . i think if korean company start copying avex and do lucky do , small concert or interview in the street or shop and start giving better gift albums would sell way better :yes people always love good freebies

i also notice korean artist tend to do a lot of repackaging of their album months later with extra tracks or new cover or adding postal card but people already bought the cds it doesnt really help pushing the sale higher

an other things some atist produce mini albums ( cf bi rain and lee jung hyun for exemple ) and than put all those song in a full album ...i dont think its very smart sell wise because fans tend to expect full new albums not only a new mini album combine with the old one to make a full album

( dont missunderstand i m the first to rush as soon as first press albums come out )

yay!!

Actually, I think I read somewhere that the Koreans love to download and that legal downloads for both singles and albums is relatively high, but don't quote me on that.

I recently read in Billboard that Japan has surpassed the US in physical sales, though the US is naturally ahead of Japan in digital sales. That's hard to measure though, since actual sales aren't as readily available in the US as they are in Japan, and may be skewed because the release patterns are very different.

hmmm..no problem.. its only the artists between 50-74 mil ^_^ the artists with MORE arent on the list ^O^.

The numbers I saw are from 2008, and I read them in the RIAJ yearbook document, although the info themselves comes from a neutral party, but they said the following :

The US sold 2 million physical singles, Japan 50 million. (This number isn't all that surprising since physical singles are pretty much dead in the US.)

Japan sold 165 million albums, the US 385 million. (This number isn't all that surprising either, since Japan only has half the amount of inhabitants. I'm not sure whether the US one counts digital sales or not ...)

Also interesting is that in Japan, MORE dvds are sold than in the US. And not just by comparison of country size, in total, which I think is pretty amazing.

Also of note :

The retail value of everything sold in the US is 5.9 billion. In Japan, it's 5.1 billion. Now that is, I think, a tiny gap for a country with just half the amount of inhabitans o.O.

Anyway, that's my ramblings XD

^ That's interesting. Thanks for sharing the specifics.

I'm personally not surprised about the DVDs, since more types of videos are a lot bigger over there. And I'm definitely~ not surprised about the retail value, considering everything in Japan is twice as expensive. XD I didn't think there'd be such a difference in physical sales, though. :O

^ and yes, America does include digital sales for Albums, while Japan does not.

so ayu's gross would be equal to those who sold like 100++ millions in US lol

In terms of record sales, maybe. But you shouldn't forget that those are worldwide stars, they also sell in expensive countries like Japan. Plus, aside from in Japan, CDs and DVDs are pretty cheap in the rest of Asia.

But I get your point XD

i am proud of her~!

Thankz for the info :) and yes the u.s counts the digital sales and im guessing as well cd/digital sales outside the u.s

I'm not so sure about the second thing. I think it was all domestic info, but like I said, I'm not sure.

I remember looking at a chart listing the 20 biggest markets for music and dvds on which countries like Sweden (9mill approx) and Norway (4.7 million inhabitants) figured, both of these markets were considered bigger than China, Vietnam, india etc, most other asian and south american countries which is surprising to say the least. =P So if japan becomes the biggest music market for physical sales I'm not surprised.

There's a huge difference between the strategies in the US and japan though, In the us the companies seem to have been more than happy to abandon the physical format whereas in japan they try to make it more attractive by adding DVDs, extras (gifts, posters etc) and releasing limited editions.

Wahhhh! This is soooo cool!
I'm so proud of Ayu-chan!! :heart