List of best-selling music artists

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The world's best-selling music artists cannot be listed officially, as there is no organization that has recorded global music sales. This page lists those artists who have had claims made to be among the top sellers. Within their sales brackets, artists are listed in alphabetical order, rather than by number of records sold. Equal weight is given to album and single sales, as well as paid downloads. Sources are record labels, newspaper articles or manual addition of figures from various official sources. This means that these figures should be considered claims, not facts.

Constraints in establishing best-selling status

Although the criteria for the following list are intended to be expansive (including comparisons for total sales for all recording artists) there are certain limitations and constraints that may limit the conclusions that can be derived from this data.

Such constraints include:

Bias towards acts who have had success in a specific country or region.

Bias towards modern artists. There is now a broader genre spectrum of music to listen to now which limits the number of listeners.

Bias of fans, who feel that quantity of records sold equates to quality of music

Bias towards modern artists. Comparatively less successful modern artists will have sold more records, as both global spending power and population have increased. In 1950, the world's population was 2.5 billion; by 2000 it had risen to 6 billion. Also, older artists suffer from bias as their record sales are less likely to have been accurately tracked, and estimates of their early sales are likely to be more vague.

Bias towards older artists. Particularly, those artists who began their recording careers since 1990 may have experienced some loss in sales from illegal downloading of tracks.

Fan sites, press articles, certification authorities and record companies have been known to inflate record sales claims.

Inflated claims for artists who performed in different acts during their careers. Sometimes all of the sales data is attributed to an individual artist. For the purposes of this list, an effort is made to separate the individual acts (e.g., the sales figures for The Beatles and Paul McCartney & Wings are mutually exclusive).

Inconsistencies between the sources of the various statistics. For example in some cases world sales are compared to US (RIAA certifies US sales only).

World's best seller

The best-selling musical act in history cannot be accurately determined. However Michael Jackson, The Beatles, and Elvis Presley have been given the title by various sources.

Artists by reputed sales

500 million records or more

Artist	Country	Period	Genre
Janet Jackson	USA	1980–Present	Rock / Pop / Psychedelic / Experimental
Bing Crosby	U.S.	1926–1977	Jazz / Vocal / Pop
Elvis Presley	U.S.	1954–1977	Rock / R&B / Gospel / Blues / Rockabilly / Pop / Country
Frank Sinatra	U.S.	1935–1995	Pop / Easy Listening / Vocal / Jazz / Swing
Michael Jackson	U.S.	1967–Present	Pop / R&B / Rock / Soul / Dance / Swing / Disco / Motown / Gospel

50 million Records Or More

Artist	Country	Period	Genre
Alanis Morissette	Canada	90s-00s	Alternative / Folk Rock
Alabama	U.S.	70s-00s	Country
Alice Cooper	U.S.	60s-00s	Hard Rock / Heavy Metal / Shock Rock / Glam Rock
Andre Kostelanetz	U.S.	40s-70s	Easy Listening
Andrea Bocelli	Italy	90s-00s	Opera / Classical
Anne Murray	Canada	60s-00s	Pop / Country
B.J. Thomas	U.S.	60s-00s	Country
Blondie	U.S.	70s-00s	New Wave
Bob Dylan	U.S.	50s-00s	Folk / Rock / Blues / Country
Bob Marley	Jamaica	60s-80s	Reggae
Bob Seger	U.S.	60s-00s	Rock
Boyz II Men	U.S.	90s-00s	R&B / Soul
Bruce Springsteen	U.S.	60s-00s	Rock / Folk Rock / Heartland Rock
Cat Stevens	United Kingdom	60s-00s	Folk / Pop
Charlie Daniels	U.S.	70s-00s	Country / Rock
The Corrs	Ireland	90s-00s	Rock
Def Leppard	United Kingdom	70s-00s	Hard Rock / Heavy Metal
Depeche Mode	United Kingdom	1980–Present	New Wave / Synthpop
Destiny's Child	U.S.	90s-00s	Pop / R&B / Dance
Dreams Come True	Japan	80s-00s	Pop / Jazz
The Diamonds	Canada	50s-70s	R&B
The Doobie Brothers	U.S.	70s-00s	Rock
Don Cornell	U.S.	50s-90s	Pop
Duran Duran	United Kingdom	1981–Present	New Wave / Synthpop / Rock
Enya	Ireland	80s-00s	New Age / Celtic
Eric Carmen	U.S.	70s-00s	Pop / Easy Listening / Adult Contemporary
Fleetwood Mac	United Kingdom/U.S.	60s-00s	Rock / Blues
Four Tops	U.S.	50s-00s	R&B
George Michael	United Kingdom	80s-00s	Pop
George Strait	U.S.	70s-00s	Country
Heino	Germany	60s-00s	Country
Herb Alpert	U.S.	50s-90s	Instrumental Pop / Easy Listening
James Last	Germany	60s-00s	Instrumental / Classical
Jethro Tull	United Kingdom	60s-00s	Progressive Rock / Hard Rock /Rock
Johnny Cash	U.S.	50s-00s	Country
Kazuhiro Moriuchi	Japan	70s-00s	Enka
Kylie Minogue	Australia	80s–Present	Pop / Dance
Linda Ronstadt	U.S.	1967–Present	Rock / Pop / Country
Linkin Park	U.S.	90s-Present	Alternative Rock/ Nu Metal
Luis Miguel	Mexico	80s-00s	Latin
Meat Loaf	U.S.	70s-00s	Rock / Hard Rock
Mills Brothers	U.S.	30s-70s	Pop
Mr. Children	Japan	80s-Present	Pop / Rock
Nat King Cole	U.S.	30s-60s	Jazz / Vocal / Pop
Nelson Gonçalves	Brazil	40s-90s	Samba
New Kids on the Block	U.S.	80s-90s	Pop
Nirvana	U.S.	80s-90s	Grunge / Alternative Rock
'N Sync	U.S.	90s -00s	Pop/Dance
Oasis	United Kingdom	90s-00s	Britpop / Alternative Rock
Olivia Newton-John	Australia	70s-00s	Adult Contemporary / Pop
Orhan Gencebay	Turkey	60s-00s	Arabesque / Folk
Ozzy Osbourne	United Kingdom	80s–Present	Heavy Metal
Paul Revere & The Raiders	U.S.	60s-00s	Pop
Pearl Jam	U.S.	1990–Present	Grunge / Rock / Hard Rock
Petula Clark	United Kingdom	50s-00s	Pop
The Police	United Kingdom	70s-80s	Rock / New Wave
Ray Conniff	U.S.	50s-00s	Pop / Easy Listening
Reba McEntire	U.S.	70s-00s	Country
Red Hot Chili Peppers	U.S.	80s-00s	Funk Rock / Alternative Rock
Richard Clayderman	France	60s-00s	Easy Listening / Instrumental Pop
Robbie Williams	United Kingdom	80s-00s	Pop
Sade	United Kingdom	80s-00s	R&B / Soul / Jazz
Shakira	Colombia	90's-00s	pop
Shania Twain	Canada	90's-00s	country / pop
The Seekers	Australia	60s, 90s-00s	Folk / Rock
Spice Girls	United Kingdom	90s-00s	Pop / Dance
Stevie Wonder	U.S.	1961–Present	R&B / Soul / Funk
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers	U.S.	70s-00s	Rock
The Turtles	U.S.	60s	Rock
UB40	United Kingdom	80s-00s	Reggae
Vernon Dalhart	U.S.	10s-40s	Country
Vernon Dalhart	U.S.	10s-40s	Country