In 1893, the Hill sisters needed a song for their kindergarten class to sing on birthdays. Fast forward 120 years and "Happy Birthday" is by far the richest and most profitable song of all time. The Ownership of "Happy Birthday" has changed hands a few times in the last 100 years.
Michael Jackson is the first musician to earn over $100 million in a year (1989), and has become the top-earning male soloist a record seven times. Dr. Dre currently holds the record for the highest annual earnings for a musician ever, collecting $620 million in 2014.
Taking the top spot is one of the most well-known chefs in the world, and star of popular TV shows The F Word and Hell's Kitchen, Gordon Ramsay.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, British rock band The Beatles are top of the list for best-selling artists worldwide, with 183 million units certified sales. Second is Garth Brooks with over 157 million units sales, followed by Elvis Presley with 139 million units.
Michael Jackson's Thriller, estimated to have sold 70 million copies worldwide, is the best-selling album ever. Jackson also currently has the highest number of albums on the list with five, Celine Dion has four, while the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Madonna and Whitney Houston each have three.
Elvis Presley tops the chart with combined sales of over 21.7 million singles.
It was never a hit single and got almost no play on Top 40 radio. There's even a dispute over the exact title. Yet “It's a Small World,” also known as “It's a Small, Small World” and “It's a Small World (After All),” is very likely the most played song in music history — nearly 50 million times.
According to Guinness World Records, Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" (1942) as performed by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single worldwide, with estimated sales of over 50 million copies.
The royalties on this song last over the period that the copyright protection of the song lasts. For artists in the US, the copyright protection of a song lasts for the lifetime of the copyright holder and an additional 70 years after their demise.
Record Label Royalties
It is an industry norm for a new artist to only receive 10-16% of their sales. The reason for this incredibly high (or low depending on your point of view) percentage is Record Labels take on all the financial risk that Artists never could imagine taking on their own.
Total royalties owed to a songwriter can account for up to $. 09 per reproduction or sale of a song and up to . 02 per stream of a song. Mechanical royalties are owed to the composers (including the songwriters) and publisher of a musical work each time a song is sold (50% for the composer and 50% for the publisher).
The Beatles have the most number one hits on the chart, with 20 songs having reached that position.
Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney and Phil Collins are the only musicians to have sold over 100 million albums as a solo artist and member of a group.
The best-selling album in the United Kingdom is Greatest Hits, a compilation album by the British rock band Queen that was first released in 1981. As of July 2022, it has sold more than 7 million copies, of which approximately 124,000 have been from downloads.
Post Malone holds the record for the most diamond-certified songs with eight to his name.
Abel Tesfaye, more commonly known as The Weeknd, is statistically the most popular musician on the planet, and no one else even comes close. The 33-year-old Canadian singer's success has seen him set two new Guinness World Records titles: Most monthly listeners on Spotify – 111.4 million (as of 20 March 2023)
Asha Bhosle – Most recorded artist in music history
Asha Bhosle has recorded up to 11000 solo, duets and chorus backed songs and several others in over 20 Indian languages since 1947.
Madonna is believed to have sold the most records among any female music artists in history, with 300 million records sold worldwide.