i wonder if anyone knows which band has played to the highest aggregate attendance for an entire career. i have tried to find the answer to this for a long time and every time i google the question i always get many answers to different questions.

i get answers to whos played to the largest single crowd, or who has played the most gigs etc or whos played the highest grossing tour, or highest total attended tour, but never the answer to my question.

would also like to know who has had the highest concert takings, not for a single gig, but a career total, taking inflation into the equation.

and which band has made the most earnings from all media, from sheet music, record sales, concert takings, merchandising, books, dvd,s, cd,s etc.

Tough data to compile, but easy to conclude just based on longevity and popularity.. The Rolling Stones! for both answers.

Yes.
Except record sales.

***
I'm just a Bad Boy Boogie



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-29 23:58 by powerage78.

Quote
powerage78
Yes.
Except record sales.

1. Beatles.
2. Elvis
14. Rolling Stones

In terms of total attendance and number of people played to overall, my top 5 would also include the Grateful Dead, they toured intensively for a long time and to very large crowds; many packed arenas especially due to the fact that they almost never played the same song at 2 consecutive shows and many like myself would see them on a string of dates.

Quote
FrogSugar
In terms of total attendance and number of people played to overall, my top 5 would also include the Grateful Dead, they toured intensively for a long time and to very large crowds; many packed arenas especially due to the fact that they almost never played the same song at 2 consecutive shows and many like myself would see them on a string of dates.

Dylan has to be up in the top 5 in terms of raw audience numbers.

Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Eagles and AC/DC are ahead the Stones ?

Quote
jlowe

Quote
powerage78
Yes.
Except record sales.

1. Beatles.
2. Elvis
14. Rolling Stones

***
I'm just a Bad Boy Boogie



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-30 17:51 by powerage78.

-

***
I'm just a Bad Boy Boogie



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2017-09-30 17:51 by powerage78.

Quote
buttons67
i wonder if anyone knows which band has played to the highest aggregate attendance for an entire career. i have tried to find the answer to this for a long time and every time i google the question i always get many answers to different questions.

i get answers to whos played to the largest single crowd, or who has played the most gigs etc or whos played the highest grossing tour, or highest total attended tour, but never the answer to my question.

would also like to know who has had the highest concert takings, not for a single gig, but a career total, taking inflation into the equation.

and which band has made the most earnings from all media, from sheet music, record sales, concert takings, merchandising, books, dvd,s, cd,s etc.

Keep in mind a lot of this information was never collected and compiled.

I would have to say The Grateful Dead - they toured all year, every year playing to huge audiences that only got bigger in the last decade moving from arenas to stadiums, and also headlining a few festivals with 6 digit attendance figures.

It's even harder to figure out now with huge draws like Radiohead headlining festivals with multiple simultaneous stages and people wandering in and out.

I attended 7 so that's a start............

__________________________

In terms of total attendance and number of people played to overall, the Stones are probably #1.Just think that during the 1989 - 2016 period, their gigs attracted almost 32 million people. I think that are following acts like U2, Springsteen, Bon Jovi, but for sure not bands that retired decades ago.

Talking about album sales, the Stones are # 8 (source: IFPI/MEDIA TRAFFIC, don't take seriously the "kingdom of inaccuracy" named Wikipedia...). As for track sales, they are #5 (same source).

Bigger album sellers than the Stones are (from #1 to # 7) Beatles, Elvis, M. Jackson, Pink Floyd, Madonna, Elton John, Led Zeppelin).

But the Stones have another record: No act has earned more top 10 albums. And, if I remember correctly, since 1966 all their studio albums reached Top 5 in UK and USA, except "Bridges To Babylon", that get #6 on Billboard.