Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Pop music

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Please see Draft:Brittany Spanos, which may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. (The article was AfD'd for notability concerns, and has now landed in draftspace.) Cheers, Cl3phact0 (talk) 10:21, 15 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There is a discussion currently going on at Talk:The Celebration Tour regarding changes to the set list section. The discussion can be found at Talk:The Celebration Tour#Setlist. Thanks. HorrorLover555 (talk) 17:22, 29 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, recently some people (myself included) saw that the List of best-selling music artists article has old, outdated or wrong figures in many cases. For this reason, I asked on the talk page Talk:List of best-selling music artists what criteria are being adopted to keep the article updated.

In some cases the certified units are larger than those estimated as a total. This makes no sense and since this has been going on for years I would like to call for action to create a consensus and update the page with the agreement of the most experienced members of this group and following best practices. What do you think? Paladium (talk) 19:32, 19 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The solution regarding the page would be either to completely revise the claimed sales figures for every act without a established consensus already. Similarly artists close in certified sales should also be relatively close in claimed sales.

What i found after investigating various figures on the list was

- Madonna is claimed to have sold anywhere from 350-400 million to date, however the later figure comes from a statement by Madonna and should be discredited. [1]

- Research conducted by music experts in the early 1980s ruled the sales figures of Bing Crosby (300m) to be highly exaggerated as they came during a time before the music industry was developed. No independent audit of his global sales figures from royalty reports had been published. Similarly no independent audit of the global sales of Elvis Presley were conducted or published regarding the sales during his lifetime. Artists without certifications shouldn't be used here [2]

- Bill Wyman of the NewYorker did his own investigation and came to the conclusion that both The Beatles and Michael Jackson had sold around 500 million records worldwide discrediting the widely publicized 1 billion figures, with the Beatles sales being over 600 million if you combine the sales of each individual member. Which is where the 600 million sales figure for the group originates from[3]

- The best selling artist list from the "IFPI" circulated from 2006 was a fake and can't be traced back to them, i found no source reported by a reliable media outlet. Their only claim is that Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson were the best selling male and female artists of the millennium. [4]

- Chartmasters is run by a music fan who frequented message boards during the 2000s and estimated his sales information based on reports he "studied" during that period. It has no official backing with the RIAA or other sources and should be discredited.

- Taylor Swift was claimed to have sold 200 million records before the Era's Tour, she needs a boost to her claimed sales

- Mariah Carey has been certified for over 224 million records and she's missing around 20m from her studio albums by my count, which would bring her up to 250 million if we assume some singles are out of date. Mariah's claimed sales should be 250,000,000 units.

- The certified sales of the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd are extremely low and their claimed sales should probably be lowered. It's highly unlikely that either act has sold 250 million. Led Zeppelin could potentially also be lowered given how low their certified sales are.

- Regarding Elvis Presley: NBC claimed that after his death Elvis Presley had sold 25 million albums and 100 million singles in his career [5], whereas the Guardian cites a figure of 260 million records worldwide [6] It was reported that overall Presley had sold 100 million records worldwide in the 20 years following his death. [7] Presley was also retroactively certified up to date for all of his eligible albums during the 90s and it added another 100 million to his total. Based on his total certified sales to date (234 million) and the large discrepancy between him and the Beatles/Jackson, the most realistic claimed sales figure for him would be 400 million. [8]

- Celine Dion based upon adding up all of the claimed and certified sales has sold 170 million albums alone, excluding any physical singles or digital singles sales. Her claimed sales should be higher

- The Jackson 5 have not been certified for any of their records however adding the claimed sales for every album comes out to 63 million, with I Want you Back, I'll Be There, ABC and the Love You Save alone coming out to over 20 million singles. In all they sold around 110-120 million tops. It was common back in the day to add their sales to Michael Jackson's solo sales [9], which is where the 750 million records comes from. If we are keeping the Beatles at 600 million then this should also be added. But only if he were to surpass them in certified sales.

Just some of my thoughts regarding the claimed sales of the artists on the list.

@TheWikiholic @Loibird90 @Carlosmarkos2345 @HeartbreakOnAFullMoon Never17 (talk) 06:48, 20 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Can people please chime in on the Sia talk page here? OnlySee/Onlysee/onlysee Thanks! -- Ssilvers (talk) 04:25, 24 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

 You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:Pnau § Pnau and PNAU. -- Marchjuly (talk) 08:10, 18 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Tag Team (group)#Requested move 16 October 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. ASUKITE 15:51, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Christine and the Queens#Requested move 26 October 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. Web-julio (talk) 00:43, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Suga#Requested move 21 October 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. 𝙹𝚒𝚢𝚊𝚗 忌炎 (𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚔) 00:19, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:BoyNextDoor#Requested move 18 October 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. ModernDayTrilobite (talk • contribs) 18:42, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]