GN'R Greatest Hits Certified Platinum

[Eazy E]

If you look at the current Billboard album chart, you'll see a triangle next to Guns N' Roses' Greatest Hits album (It's currently at number 35).

http://www.billboard.com/bb/charts/bb200.jsp
In the chart key, a triangle has the following description:
RIAA certification for shipment of 1 million units (Platinum).

This is for a shipment of 1,000,000 units, I'm not sure if the actual sales have crossed a million yet, but it should be close.  Anyways, this triangle was not seen the last time I looked at the chart.  I believe the record company needs to request an album to be certified by the RIAA.  That means Geffen must have recently requested that the GH be certified... it's also likely that they requested the rest of the GN'R catalogue be updated. 
The certificaiton history on the Billboard website is only updated until July, so we can't see if they actually did this (FYI, Van Halen made the same move when their GH was certified, you can see all their other albums updated in  May 2004, just to give an example).  So it's quite possible that when the August certifications are posted online, we'll see Appetite up around 17-18X platinum, and we should also see the GH listed for Gold and Platinum certifications.  Velvet Revolver should also be in the August history for their platinum certification (they also have the triangle on the album chart), however they have already received a Gold certification.  If you've looked at the Billboard chart, you might have noticed that the Greatest Hits never had a circle next to it (which signals Gold - 500,000) because it was never requested, Velvet Revolver had this circle on the other hand.

So taking into account the Greatest Hits and Contraband's sales... I think the guys from Guns N' Roses might be the best-selling rock artists of 2004.  Not bad for a bunch of old guys.   

[HoldenCaulfield]

I think the guys from Guns N' Roses might be the best-selling rock artists of 2004.  Not bad for a bunch of old guys.

That's not taking into account the sales of the 'Welcome to the Videos' and 'UYI's' dvd's. btw, I'd say GH is past platinum, it's been selling quite well consistently...

[Dr H Lecter]

If you look at the current Billboard album chart, you'll see a triangle next to Guns N' Roses' Greatest Hits album (It's currently at number 35).

http://www.billboard.com/bb/charts/bb200.jsp
In the chart key, a triangle has the following description:
RIAA certification for shipment of 1 million units (Platinum).

This is for a shipment of 1,000,000 units, I'm not sure if the actual sales have crossed a million yet, but it should be close.? Anyways, this triangle was not seen the last time I looked at the chart.? I believe the record company needs to request an album to be certified by the RIAA.? That means Geffen must have recently requested that the GH be certified... it's also likely that they requested the rest of the GN'R catalogue be updated.?
The certificaiton history on the Billboard website is only updated until July, so we can't see if they actually did this (FYI, Van Halen made the same move when their GH was certified, you can see all their other albums updated in? May 2004, just to give an example).? So it's quite possible that when the August certifications are posted online, we'll see Appetite up around 17-18X platinum, and we should also see the GH listed for Gold and Platinum certifications.? Velvet Revolver should also be in the August history for their platinum certification (they also have the triangle on the album chart), however they have already received a Gold certification.? If you've looked at the Billboard chart, you might have noticed that the Greatest Hits never had a circle next to it (which signals Gold - 500,000) because it was never requested, Velvet Revolver had this circle on the other hand.

So taking into account the Greatest Hits and Contraband's sales... I think the guys from Guns N' Roses might be the best-selling rock artists of 2004.? Not bad for a bunch of old guys.? ?

Remember thats only the US. Here in Ireland the Greatest hits was no1 for weeks and weeks and recently I still saw it in the top 10 but I would be interested to see worldwide figures. As for Appetite, 17x-18x platinum in the US alone! that is a true testament in my opinion to the greatness that was GNR, thats not a million miles off 10% of the US population. Considering that Appetite is one of the hardest, sleaziest and unforgiving albums (as opposed to Michael Jackson's Thriller) I have ever heard, that is truly phenomenal.
GNR (in any form) forever.

[IndiannaRose]

The Guns N' Roses:Greatest Hits album has sold 1.1 million units in the U.S at the moment and counting. Worldwide it is rumored to have shipped between 5-7 million units (and counting). Also it is pretty much safe to say that the Guns N' Roses 'family' is the best selling rock act of 2004. This success might even carry over into 2005 if Chinese Democracy is released in the fall of 2004 and may boost up the sales of the Greatest Hits. And also if "Fall to Pieces" becomes a pretty well established hit.

[ccorn69]

very damn good for band who hasnt released anthing since the early 90s

[DazRose85]

very damn good for band who hasnt released anthing since the early 90s

*Cough* Live Era + "Oh My God" in '99

[nesquick]

In my opinion it's all good for "chinese democracy". 
I feel inside me that this album is going to be a monstruous success. I can't explain that, that's a GREAT FEELING.
my dream would be "the blues" as a single in its studio version...that could be one of the greatest success ever because that song could appeal to everybody, this is just wonderfull. Axl said it won't be released as a single but for me it could be the perfect first single to make the record exploding the charts...

[slave2thegrind]

All these positive numbers on album sales...doesn't it make you feel good to be a GNR fan.   

[My Michelle]

in the world the greatest hits it has sold more than 4 million than copies for hour

http://www.unitedworldchart.de/

enter in GLOBAL CHART -> Albums

[Izzy]

in the world the greatest hits it has sold more than 4 million than copies for hour

http://www.unitedworldchart.de/

enter in GLOBAL CHART -> Albums

That made no sense whatsoever

A global figure of 5 million seems to be a good bet - that's pretty good for a GH, and more than St Anger shifted

[campos]

in the world the greatest hits it has sold more than 4 million than copies for hour

http://www.unitedworldchart.de/

enter in GLOBAL CHART -> Albums

That made no sense whatsoever

A global figure of 5 million seems to be a good bet - that's pretty good for a GH, and more than St Anger shifted

metallica is the biggest catalog seller ever with beatles

[Izzy]

in the world the greatest hits it has sold more than 4 million than copies for hour

http://www.unitedworldchart.de/

enter in GLOBAL CHART -> Albums

That made no sense whatsoever

A global figure of 5 million seems to be a good bet - that's pretty good for a GH, and more than St Anger shifted

metallica is the biggest catalog seller ever with beatles

Aside from the fact that's wrong - what does that have to do with what i said?

Metallica have world wide sales of approx 100 million - Garth Brooks sold more than that in America alone so there goes what u were on about.....

[NickNasty]

I guess it proves that good music sells no matter what the time period, OTOH, I think I heard that none of the guys recieve any royalties off this thing. Not that I feel bad that the rich arent getting richer, but it IS still their hard work that produced this.

[Mysteron]

Gnr GH has sold 1.1m copies

VR has sold 800k+

[IndiannaRose]

in the world the greatest hits it has sold more than 4 million than copies for hour

http://www.unitedworldchart.de/

enter in GLOBAL CHART -> Albums

That made no sense whatsoever

A global figure of 5 million seems to be a good bet - that's pretty good for a GH, and more than St Anger shifted

metallica is the biggest catalog seller ever with beatles

Metallica has sold about 90 million records worldwide while the Beatles have sold an estimated amount of 1.1 billion records worldwide. Guns N' Roses has sold about 87 million records worldwide. The band was reported to have sold over 80 million records worldwide in 2002 but those numbers were an estimation from 1998. So with the addition of the Greatest Hits and GN'R's back catalogue it is safe to say that Guns N' Roses has sold between 86-88 million records worldwide.

Also please take in note that Metallica has released 4 full length albums since GN'R have broken up so they have an uneven advantage. (they're also a much older band-in terms of official releases)

Another interesting fact in terms of record sales is that if you take the added amount of album sales of both Illusion records worldwide, which is 40 million (18 million-UYI 1, 22 million-UYI II), then that would make the Illusion album set the 4th biggest selling record in the history of recorded music. Also Appetite For Destruction is the 12th biggest selling record in the history of recorded music, which would put Guns N' Roses on the Top 10 list of music history's biggest recording artists. (ie Michael Jackson, Elvis, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Garth Brooks, AC/DC,etc...)

Damn I'm a number whore.

[Eazy E]

I wonder if Geffen was waiting for Chinese Democracy to be released before they requested the Greatest Hits (and possibly all the other GN'R albums) be certifed by the RIAA, but since they are no longer planning on releasing the album this year, they might as well go ahead and certify the GH now??