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.
The Beatles
Comprised of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, The Beatles are globally recognized and are credited with inspiring many famous musicians to pursue music. The most influential band of all time, The Beatles are creative and innovative, and a deserving band at the top of this list.
1. The Beatles. The Beatles are not only the best-selling band but also the most influential. Rock still lives under their shadow as they touched everything.
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 Rolling Stones are the highest-grossing live music act of all time, collecting over $2.5 billion according to Billboard Boxscore.
The Beatles have the most number one hits on the chart, with 20 songs having reached that position.
With over 3 billion views, the most popular song on YouTube is "Despacito." Released by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee in 2017, this Latin pop sensation took the world by storm and became a viral hit.
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.
The only audited measure of record sales in the United States is certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Since the RIAA introduced its awards on 14 March 1958, Elvis Presley holds the record for the most platinum certificates for both albums and singles with 82.
Madonna had held the record since 2008, after surpassing The Beatles' tally. The British band clocked up 34 top 10 hits between 1962's Love Me Do and 1995's Free As A Bird - which featured recovered vocals from the late John Lennon.
"Old Town Road" holds the record for the longest stretch at No. 1 with 19 weeks. It also became the fastest song in history to be certified diamond.
The Beatles have the most No. 1 hits of all time: 20. Though unclear for how long, the Beatles still reign supreme as the artist with the most No. 1 songs of all time.
Cher's career as a recording artist spans seven decades and she is the only artist to have a number-one single on a Billboard chart in each of the past six decades.
The Carpenters have sold more than 90 million records worldwide. In the UK, they are ranked as the seventh top-selling albums artist of the 1970s, and they have also been the third-best-selling international music act in the Japanese market, only behind Mariah Carey and the Beatles.
1. The Beatles — 183 million units.
1 Happy Birthday by the Hill Sisters (1893)
In 1990, Warner Chappell, a music holding company, bought the rights to the song for $15 million. Today, Happy Birthday brings in a reported $5000 a day, $2 million a year in royalties. The cost of using the song in a movie or on TV is $25,000.