The Daily Roxette discussions forum has been closed. The forum is only available as a read-only archive.
Is true that aBBA sold morethan 280millons ofcds?
35 replies
emilio said on December 2, 2001 19:23:
hey i put ABBA sales in google.com and i read that ABBA sold more than the beatles, i think it was a joke, aBBA? i know they are big guys, but i’m arround the music since 10 years ago and I’d never heard ABBa on the annual reviews of sales, I remember that the last years the beatles were the best seller group of the world ( with almost 250millons), the the best male singer was Michael Jakson ( over 100 millons) , The best female Mariah Carey ( over 125millons) and the best seller compilation was an album from the eagles ( almos 30 millons).. bye bye
Ingo said on December 3, 2001 07:44:
In the officcial ABBA biography is written that Abba had sold more than 300.000.000 records (singles, vinyl LP’s and CD’s), even after the separation in 1983, they sold with Best of albums in the 90’s more than 20 million CD’s!! ABBA-Gold was released in 1992, including no unreleased track, but stayed at No.1 of the german charts for 12 weeks, and received 4 Platinum records. In the UK, it was also No.1, and also in 15 other countries. Incredible, one of the all time best selling Abba albums, although there is no new song on it! Incredible!!!
Ferdan said on December 3, 2001 12:22:
Not so amazing, in the past it was easier to sell records..... records sales went down a lot.
For example here in argentina, you used to need like 250000 copies to get a platinum.... but now with 100000 you get a platinum.
coyboyusa said on December 3, 2001 12:40:
theres nothign really amazing about this the truth is that sales figure skyrocketed AFTER the broke up with their label polygram pushing out tons of retarded best of compilations etc and really milking their appeal in the gay community. the simple fact is if you take their 8 original releases abba aren’t that successful
PerFanatic said on December 3, 2001 14:12:
Ferdan, isn’t it Argentina that has the standard of 250,000 for an Argentinean artist is Platinum but if you’re a non-native group 100,000 units gets you Platinum? This may be in Brazil now that I think about it. Not sure now…
Coybow, granted, there have been a ton of ABBA compilations since their breakup and yes, it’s to the point now where most of them do not offer any new/unreleased material. However, the fact is that 300 million units is pretty f***ing impressive no matter how you cut it. Oh, and what are you talking about when you say “milking it to the gay community”? None of the members of ABBA were gay, the lyrics in their songs are about as “straight” as it gets and, I know a ton of people who love ABBA and none of them are gay.
The bottom line here… ABBA’s songs are timeless… they never get old no matter how many times you listen to them. That’s why they’ve sold so many records/CD’s. A true testament to this is the hordes of artists who have not only covered their songs, but mimicked their sound (A-teens, Friends, Arabesque, Erasure, E-rotic, and on and on and on). Dare I say that ABBA is one of (if not the) most covered group of all time.
ABBAle said on December 3, 2001 15:32:
LET ME EXPLAIN
150 MILLIONS WHILE THEY WERE TOGETHER
350 MILLIONS UP TO NOW
THEY HAVE SOLD MORE RECORDS THAN THE BEATLES WHEN THEY WERE TOGHETER IN 1977/8 BUT THEN THE BEATLES TOP THEM
ANYWAY THEY ARE THE SECOND BIGGEST SELLING GROUP AND THEY ARE FROM A NON ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY
sweet_stalker57 said on December 3, 2001 15:38:
I know “dancing queen” and that is it..........
where have I been?
emilio said on December 3, 2001 15:55:
sorry bur i ’ve got official docs from ifpi and i repeat the best selling grup are the beatles.... but seem s that ABBA is big! whoa
Pearls_Of_Roxette said on December 3, 2001 17:10:
ABBA is one of my favorite bands!!!
Does anybody know “LOVELIGHT”? It’s the best Abba´s song.
And “Does your mother know?” is a great song too.
coyboyusa said on December 15, 2001 16:35:
the bottom line about abba was most of their songs were horrid and the 12 gems they had were on abba gold. what i mean is that abbas resurgance is due to a huge interest in the gay community...and the 300 million copsies sold...a good 200, million of that is from re-releases, soundtracks and compilations....roxette have sold for all intents and purposes 56 mill no re-releases ...thats minus pop re-release and the usa hits package
vaxjoe said on December 15, 2001 22:39:
coyboy once again u re giving us a lecture though u dont know what u re talking about....
abba is a success and their songs are simply great just accept it!
whats wrong with gay ppl liking them? dont gay ppl count as fans?
in fact most of the ppl i know who like abba are str8...
just swallow it u cant accept that a swedish old band still does the trick! and how about all those new artists doing covers on abbas songs??
ABBAle said on December 16, 2001 06:05:
ABBA WITHOUT ANY RE RELEASE SOLD MORE THAN 150MILLION COPIES BY THE END OF THE 80’S AND IN LESS THAN 8 YEARS
coyboyusa said on December 17, 2001 00:51:
no all i know is everyboidy hypes abba and they aren’t that great it has nothing to do with them being swedish...
ulla said on December 17, 2001 03:28:
Well, whatever... I have been an ABBA fan since 1981 and I will be forever. Besides, I don’t think ABBA (or fans of any others) fans should really care which artist/band has sold the most records - at least I don’t. Me being their fan is all about them being the best band there ever has been (Roxette comes a good second) in my opinion, and their record sales have never affected my love for them. However, I can not say that I would not be glad about the fact that they have sold a lot, it only shows to people who “hate” them that ABBA still rocks, although they broke up a long time ago.
>Ulla
PS: Yes, Lovelight is a cool song! And have you ever stopped to think about that there are far better ABBA songs than only those well known hits (Dancing Queen, Fernando etc.)... Sometimes I think more people would like ABBA if only they could listen to other songs than those worn out hits.
coyboyusa said on December 20, 2001 20:01:
i bought the whole box set and there was alot of disappointing material on it almost 2 discs worth
royalball said on December 20, 2001 21:37:
It’s more like 279,075,000...they just like to make the numbers look better...actually they’ve sold more albums than the Beatles...Did you know that?
sweet_stalker57 said on January 10, 2002 14:44:
Tanita Tikaram covers an ABBA song on her sweet CD “the cuppachino songs”
and I thought hey this is her best song ever!
just to let you know who are into that kinda stuff. :)
PerFanatic said on January 10, 2002 14:58:
which ABBA song does she cover? gotta hit morpheus tonight:0
Cinnamon said on January 13, 2002 11:56:
TDBYC - I hate this song!!! But apart from that ABBA´ve got the 2nd place in my life just after Rox!!!
There are so many GREAT songs which most people just don´t know, what about The name of the game; Move on; One man, one woman; Dance (While the music still goes on); I am the city or I´ve been waiting for you (this song I want to be played at my wedding) ???
Santi said on December 13, 2002 16:06:
It seems they sell better than the tinned fish label :D (ABBA, well, you know :P)
So let’s get them as the biggest band of Scandinavia then :) (but I still like Kent more :P)
Santi said on December 13, 2002 16:18:
C’mon... A Swedish trademark of tinned fish!! :D Didn’t you know it? :D
roxtexanet said on December 13, 2002 18:12:
“The Day Before You Came” is my favourite ABBA song! Great, unique feeling in that song, you can really get into the character’s head... but I know it’s not for most people - in a poll in a Swedish newspaper awhile back surveying people’s favourite ABBA songs, it came in dead last with one vote!!!
bunny said on December 13, 2002 19:56:
yeah this is before people have recorders to copy tapes, cds, and of course before people started downloading music files ;-)
roxtexanet said on December 13, 2002 20:14:
I was thinking the same, Bunny... records were cheap and difficult to copy (or at least, taped copies of records were unsatisfactory in comparison to the CDs)... everyone had their own copy of, say, ABBA’s “Arrival,” but now if I buy the original CD, all of my friends ask to borrow it and then just burn their own... or download the whole thing from WinMX. It would be VERY hard for an artist to reach sales figures like this if most of their career was in the “digital age.”
Stormkeeper said on December 14, 2002 11:19:
I suppose (?) there was less competition in music business in the ´70´s than now.
ABBA is being covered many, many times.
For example by Erasure, E-Rotic, Mr. President, Angeleyes, Abbacadabra and A Teens of course.
Sascha said on December 16, 2002 14:18:
Btw. the fish-label “abba” is owned by the band-members as far as I know!
ChrisWilliams said on January 29, 2003 22:25:
In the 1980s, after ABBA’s split, various record companies set about trying to work out which group has had the most success. Parlophone (EMI)claimed that the Beatles had earned such-and-such, and I think ABBA were a few million records behind that. From out of nowhere, Parlophone added another few million records to the Beatles’ credit, despite their being no significant releases during that period.
At one point, ABBA didn’t even have a record deal in China, and since then, facts and figures - namely in Australia (which is one of the major countries as far as ABBA is concerned) - have been *lost*.
ABBA are estimated to have sold about 350million records, although the Beatles would be further ahead. It took ABBA 10 years to sell 20 million copies of Gold, whereas it took The Beatles 1 year to sell as many copies of their “1” album.
Don’t get “Abba” confused with “ABBA” - Abba tinned salmon has nothing to do with ABBA, other than ABBA needing permission to use the name for their entry in Eurovision... Abba’s reply was something like, “Yes, as long as you don’t destroy the brandname!”.... I think ABBA served them well :-)
[Phew - That was a long posting!]
coyboyusa said on January 30, 2003 09:27:
i cant believe someone said that the day before you came sucked!
the song is so autobiographical about friday and all the tensions in the group jesus some peoepl have np taste at all
my fave abba songs are
i let the music speak
andante andante
visitors
sos
there r mopre but i’d run out of space
Ferdan said on December 3, 2001 02:56:
I thought the best selling male was Elvis Presley.... with over 200.000.000 units sold...
a few years ago i heard ABBA has sold over 140.000.000 if units....