It is essential to provide reliable sources when editing this article.
For examples, see the references section. Unsourced or unreliably sourced additions will be removed immediately.
The list is frequently edited in good faith; however, sales figures published by reliable sources may need to be verified with certification databases to avoid inflated figures.
Artists without sufficient certifications to support published claimed figures may not be added to the list.
Editors should expect all artists' claimed figures to be supported by the following specified percentage of certified units.
To be on this list, artists who began charting:
before 1960 are required to have their available claimed figures supported by 40% in certified units
before 1973 are required to have their available claimed figures supported by 38% in certified units
between 1973–1990 are required to have their available claimed figures supported by 38-70% in certified units. (That is 1.88% for each additional year after 1973)
between 1990–2000 are required to have their available claimed figures supported by 70-77% in certified units. (That is 0.7% for each additional year after 1990)
between 2000–present are required to have their available claimed figures supported by 77-80% in certified units. (That is 0.14% for each additional year after 2000)
The eras above are based on when certification-databases of each music market began, and the global-market-share each country represents. Note that the US market share has been much bigger in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, than in the 1990s or 2000s, therefore, all artists that have begun charting before 1973 will need more US certified sales than those that have begun charting in later years. More information about when each music market started issuing certifications can be read on the main page.
Whilst we encourage editors to be bold, it is highly recommended to discuss changes on this talk page before editing.
The year next to markets below indicates how far back the certification-systems go in each country, and the percentages stand for the global-market-share countries represented in 2007.
Below you can get an understanding as to when certifications for songs are added to the total certified sales of the listed artists.
One lead artist and one featured artist. (The issued certification(s) should be added to the total of both, the lead artist and the featured artist as both will have almost equal amount of part).
Two lead artists. (The issued certification(s) should be added to the total of both lead artists as both will have almost equal amount of part).
Two lead artists and one featured artist. (The issued certification(s) should be added to the total of both lead artists as well as the featured artist. Both lead artists will play a significant part in a song and the part of the featured artist also should be significant enough).
One lead artist and two featured artists. (The issued certification(s) should be added to the total of the lead artist and to the total of both featured artists as almost all should have equal amount of part).
