List of the best-selling music albums certified by BVMI in Germany

Herbert Grönemeyer (2014)

The list of the best-selling music albums certified by BVMI in Germany is an overview of all music albums that have received gold and platinum awards in Germany from the Federal Association of the Music Industry (BVMI) for over one million copies sold ( million sellers) . As a representative of the interests of the German music industry, this association has been awarding such certifications for commercially successful music albums since 1975. The most successful award-winning work comes from Herbert Grönemeyer and was published in 2002. His eleventh studio album Mensch sold over 3.15 million copies. The oldest works awarded are from 1973 and come from the Beatles ( 1962–1966 and 1967–1970 ) and Pink Floyd ( The Dark Side of the Moon ). The first million sellers were awarded in 1978. The two albums Nightflight to Venus ( Boney M. ) and Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track ( Bee Gees / Various Interpreten) passed the one million mark that year.

Notes on interpreting the statistics listed

This list includes artists whose music albums have been awarded by the BVMI. The BVMI has officially been awarding gold and platinum awards for audio products since January 1, 1975. The record companies concerned must apply for the certifications; the awards are not automatically assigned. Already before 1975 record awards were made by the respective sound carrier manufacturer, but not according to standardized and officially tested criteria. According to a guideline dated January 1, 1976, the number of rated sales is determined according to the units sold to GEMA or another collecting society of the authors as domestic sales. The article also contains external sales figures - which were not stated through a BVMI award - if these can be proven to come from trustworthy sources.

The music albums can be found in the following table in descending order of their certified sales and in ascending order of the year of release. The table contains information about the album title, the artist, the album type, the year of publication (“Jahr VÖ”) and the year of the highest award (“Jahr Ausz.”), The highest award and the amount of certified sales. The list takes into account all types of popular music albums such as studio albums , live albums , compilations or even soundtracks . The list does not include audio books or children's radio plays . The information in the "Certified sales" column is a minimum number of phonograms sold for the respective work. Since there are fixed lending limits for the awards, the actual sales of the respective sound carriers can be somewhat higher - i.e. between the awarded and the next awarding limit.

In addition, the first publication to flow in music albums by 1 January 2016 also made music streaming with the sales statistics one. However, only “premium streams” of the corresponding online music services with a certain “conversion factor” are included. Only the twelve most played tracks on an album are counted for the calculation of the album equivalent . The two most played tracks are not taken into account with the actually achieved “streams”, but only with the average amount of the ten following tracks. The premium streamings determined in this way - which were streamed for over 30 seconds - were recorded in the period from January 1, 2016 to April 5, 2018 with a factor of 1000: 1 and since April 6, 2018 with a factor of 2000: 1 Music albums taken into account.

Problem

Since the BVMI has only been awarding gold and platinum awards since January 1, 1975, music albums that peaked before 1975 rarely appear in this list. For this reason, the most successful chart album My Fair Lady - German original recording by Karin Hübner and Paul Hubschmid has not been included in this list, although it can be assumed that the album topped the German album charts for 91 weeks and 21 months respectively , and more than a million copies of it were sold. Furthermore, only those popular audio and video carriers that have been registered with the BVMI and therefore received gold and / or platinum awards are awarded.

Limits to the award of phonograms

Since September 24, 1999 - due to decreasing sales figures - the lending limits for music albums have been adjusted at irregular intervals. The awards are based on the respective release date of the sound carrier, not on the date of certification. For example, an album released in 1980 is now awarded a gold record for over 250,000, not 100,000 units sold.

In Germany there is a special feature that gold records are awarded again between the platinum awards. Only AMPROFON in Mexico also follows this award system. Usually there are no further awards between the individual platinum records until a diamond record is awarded. In Germany these are given out for music albums and singles, all other sound carriers are not awarded diamond records in Germany. In countries such as Poland , the diamond record represents the highest award level. In Germany this is not the case. For example, if an album receives a diamond award from the BVMI for 750 thousand copies sold, but later reaches the eight hundred thousand mark, the diamond award is replaced by a four-fold platinum award as the highest award. There are genre-specific awards for comedy and jazz recordings. The award limits for comedy albums are identical to those for regular music albums. The Jazz Award has its own award limits.

Music albums

Award	until September 24, 1999	until December 31, 2002	until December 31, 2012	since January 1, 2013
gold	250,000	150,000	100,000
platinum	500,000	300,000	200,000
3 × gold	750,000	450,000	300,000
2 × platinum	1,000,000	600,000	400,000
...
diamond	-			750,000

Jazz Award

Award	Sales
gold	10,000
platinum	20,000
3 × gold	30,000
2 × platinum	40,000
...

Albums sorted according to certified record sales

• Rank: shows the order of the music albums. This is determined by the amount of "certified sales".
• Release year: the year in which the music album was first released.
• Year award: the year in which a gold and platinum award was last made.
• Title: shows the title of the music album.
• Type: indicates what type of music album it is:
  • Compilation (Ko.)
  • Concept album (Ka.)
  • Live album (left)
  • Soundtrack (Sun.)
  • Studio album (St.)
• Artist: indicates which artists are involved in the music album.
• Award: reflects the highest award of the gold and platinum awards awarded.
• Certified sales: indicates the limit of the "Awards" given.

rank	Year release	Year exc.	title	Art	Interpreter	Award	Certified sales
1	2002	2005	human	St.	Herbert Grönemeyer	21 × gold	3.15 million
2	1989	1994	... But Seriously	St.	Phil Collins	6 × platinum	3 million
3	1984	2011	4630 Bochum	St.	Herbert Grönemeyer	11 × gold	2.75 million
4th	1991	1994	We can't dance	St.	genesis	5 × platinum	2.5 million
	1992	2008	ABBA Gold - Greatest Hits	Ko.	ABBA	5 × platinum
6th	2013	2018	play of colors	St.	Helene Fischer	12 × platinum	2.4 million
7th	1988	2010	Tracy Chapman	St.	Tracy Chapman	9 × gold	2.25 million
	1991	2008	Greatest Hits II	Ko.	Queen	9 × gold
	1994	1995	Over the hump	St.	The Kelly Family	9 × gold
	2001	2012	Best of	Ko.	Andrea Berg	15 × gold
11	1973	1994	1962-1966	Ko.	The Beatles	4 × platinum	2 million
	1979	1994	The Wall	Ka.	Pink Floyd	4 × platinum
	1987	1995	bath	St.	Michael Jackson	4 × platinum
	1987	1990	Dirty Dancing (OST)	So.	Various Artists	4 × platinum
	1991	2019	Metallica	St.	Metallica	4 × platinum
	1991	1993	Dangerous	St.	Michael Jackson	4 × platinum
	1995	1997	Bocelli	St.	Andrea Bocelli	4 × platinum
	1995	1996	Adventure land	St.	Pure	4 × platinum
	1996	1999	Everything	Ko.	Wolfgang Petry	4 × platinum
	2010	2015	Best of	Ko.	Helene Fischer	10 × platinum
21st	2010	2017	Lot of freedom	St.	Unholy	9 × platinum	1.8 million
22nd	1981	2005	Face Value	St.	Phil Collins	7 × gold	1.75 million
	1988	2007	Ö	St.	Herbert Grönemeyer	7 × gold
	1991	2008	Greatest hits	Ko.	Queen	7 × gold
	1991	2008	Joyride	St.	Roxette	7 × gold
	1994	2005	Monkey theater	St.	Marius Müller-Westernhagen	7 × gold
27	2000	2007	1	Ko.	The Beatles	11 × gold	1.65 million
28	2011	2013	21st	St.	Adele	8 × platinum	1.6 million
29	1973	1993	1967-1970	Ko.	The Beatles	3 × platinum	1.5 million
	1977	1978	Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track	So.	Bee Gees / Various Artists	3 × platinum
	1982	1995	thriller	St.	Michael Jackson	3 × platinum
	1985	2005	No jacket required	St.	Phil Collins	3 × platinum
	1987	2012	Winter children ... looking for Christmas	Ka.	Rolf Zuckowski and his friends	3 × platinum
	1990	1996	live	Li.	Marius Müller-Westernhagen	3 × platinum
	1990	1991	rhyme	St.	Matthias Reim	3 × platinum
	1990	1995	Serious hits… Live!	Li.	Phil Collins	3 × platinum
	1992	1993	The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album	So.	Whitney Houston / Various Artists	3 × platinum
	1993	1994	Both sides	St.	Phil Collins	3 × platinum
	1993	1994	Happy Nation	St.	Ace of Base	3 × platinum
	1993	1996	Tightrope walker dream	St.	Pure	3 × platinum
	1995	1997	HIStory - Past, Present and Future Book I.	St.	Michael Jackson	3 × platinum
	1995	2008	Made in Heaven	St.	Queen	3 × platinum
	1997	1999	Let's talk about love	St.	Celine Dion	3 × platinum
	1997	1999	Eros	Ko.	Eros Ramazzotti	3 × platinum
	1998	2000	Ray of Light	St.	Madonna	3 × platinum
	2001	2007	Swing When You're Winning	Ka.	Robbie Williams	5 × platinum
47	2008	2016	City monkey	St.	Peter Fox	13 × gold	1.3 million
	2012	2018	Til the end of the world	St.	Santiano	13 × gold
49	1968	-	Heintje	St.	Heintje	-	1.25 million
	1977	2006	Rumors	St.	Fleetwood Mac	5 × gold
	1978	1979	Grease (OST)	So.	Various Artists	5 × gold
	1979	2004	Christmas with Andrea Jürgens - My 20 most beautiful Christmas carols	Ka.	Andrea Juergens	5 × gold
	1984	1993	Private dancer	St.	Tina Turner	5 × gold
	1991	1996	Stars	St.	Simply Red	5 × gold
	1991	2006	Out of time	St.	SEM	5 × gold
	1991	1996	Use Your Illusion II	St.	Guns n 'Roses	5 × gold
	1991	2011	Automatic for the people	St.	SEM	5 × gold
	1992	2007	1492: Conquest of Paradise	So.	Vangelis	5 × gold
	1992	2006	Unplugged	Li.	Eric Clapton	5 × gold
	1996	1998	Falling into you	St.	Celine Dion	5 × gold
	1996	2019	Load	St.	Metallica	5 × gold
	1997	2020	ReLoad	St.	Metallica	5 × gold
	1997	1998	Titanic (OST)	So.	James Horner	5 × gold
	1998	1999	Back for Good	St.	Modern talking	5 × gold
	1998	1999	Radio Maria	St.	Marius Müller-Westernhagen	5 × gold
66	2002	2004	Escapology	St.	Robbie Williams	4 × platinum	1.2 million
	2006	2010	Back to Black	St.	Amy Winehouse	6 × platinum
	2007	2010	from the same Star	St.	I + me	6 × platinum
	2013	2018	With the tide	Ka.	Santiano	6 × platinum
	2015	2017	25th	St.	Adele	6 × platinum
	2015	2018	Christmas	Ka.	Helene Fischer	6 × platinum
72	2003		United	St.	American Idol All Stars 2003	11 × gold	1.1 million
	2005	2006	Intensive care	St.	Robbie Williams	11 × gold
	2006	2011	The great life	St.	Rose pride	11 × gold
	2011	2014	MTV Unplugged - Live from the Hotel Atlantic	Li.	Udo Lindenberg	11 × gold
	2015	2019	native language	St.	Sarah Connor	11 × gold
77	1999	2000	All the Way ... A Decade of Song	Ko.	Celine Dion	7 × gold	1.05 million
	2000	2005	So far ... - Best Of	Ko.	Marius Müller-Westernhagen	7 × gold
	2001	2002	Elle'ments	St.	No Angels	7 × gold
80	1968	-	Christmas with Heintje	Ka.	Heintje	-	1 million
	1973	1993	The Dark Side of the Moon	Ka.	Pink Floyd	2 × platinum
	1975	1992	Greatest hits	Ko.	Cat Stevens	2 × platinum
	1976	2004	Arrival	St.	ABBA	2 × platinum
	1977	2012	Rolf's bird wedding	Ka.	Rolf Zuckowski	2 × platinum
	1978	1991	With peppermint, I'm your prince	St.	Marius Müller-Westernhagen	2 × platinum
	1978		Nightflight to Venus	St.	Boney M.	2 × platinum
	1980	2003	Back in Black	St.	AC / DC	2 × platinum
	1980	1981	revenge	St.	Peter Maffay	2 × platinum
	1980	2004	Super trouper	St.	ABBA	2 × platinum
	1981	1998	For usszeschnigge!	St.	BAP	2 × platinum
	1982	1994	Hello, I Must Be Going!	St.	Phil Collins	2 × platinum
	1982	2004	Vun inside noh gland	St.	BAP	2 × platinum
	1983	1990	Christmas with Roger Whittaker	Ka.	Roger Whittaker	2 × platinum
	1984	1989	Born in the USA	St.	Bruce Springsteen	2 × platinum
	1984	1985	Lucky that you exist	St.	Roger Whittaker	2 × platinum
	1986	1991	Break every rule	St.	Tina Turner	2 × platinum
	1986	1993	Jumps	St.	Herbert Grönemeyer	2 × platinum
	1986	1987	True blue	St.	Madonna	2 × platinum
	1987	1994	The Joshua Tree	St.	U2	2 × platinum
	1987	1995	Tango in the Night	St.	Fleetwood Mac	2 × platinum
	1988	2019	... And Justice for All	St.	Metallica	2 × platinum
	1988	1999	Look Sharp!	St.	Roxette	2 × platinum
	1989	1996	Crossroads	St.	Tracy Chapman	2 × platinum
	1989	1990	Foreign Affair	St.	Tina Turner	2 × platinum
	1989	1993	Alleluia	St.	Marius Müller-Westernhagen	2 × platinum
	1989	1996	The Best of Rod Stewart	Ko.	Rod Stewart	2 × platinum
	1990	1991	Herzilein	St.	Wildecker Jacks of Hearts	2 × platinum
	1990	1996	MCMXC aD	St.	Enigma	2 × platinum
	1990	2001	The Razors Edge	St.	AC / DC	2 × platinum
	1990	1997	The Very Best of the Bee Gees	Ko.	Bee Gees	2 × platinum
	1990	1992	The Very Best of Elton John	Ko.	Elton John	2 × platinum
	1991		Crazy World	St.	Scorpions	2 × platinum
	1991	1995	Life is cruel	St.	The princes	2 × platinum
	1991		luxury	St.	Herbert Grönemeyer	2 × platinum
	1991	1993	Use Your Illusion I.	St.	Guns n 'Roses	2 × platinum
	1991	1998	Nevermind	St.	Nirvana	2 × platinum
	1992	1993	Yes / Yes	St.	Marius Müller-Westernhagen	2 × platinum
	1992	1997	PUR Live	Li.	Pure	2 × platinum
	1993	1994	So far so good	Ko.	Bryan Adams	2 × platinum
	1993	1994	Music box	St.	Mariah Carey	2 × platinum
	1993	1994	Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell	St.	Meat loaf	2 × platinum
	1993	2012	December dreams	Ka.	Rolf Zuckowski	2 × platinum
	1993	2002	Rich & sexy	Ko.	The dead pants	2 × platinum
	1994	1995	Cross Road - The Best Of	Ko.	Bon Jovi	2 × platinum
	1994	2012	In kindergarten	Ka.	Rolf Zuckowski	2 × platinum
	1995	2001	Greatest hits	Ko.	Bruce Springsteen	2 × platinum
	1995	2005	Jagged Little Pill	St.	Alanis Morissette	2 × platinum
	1996	1997	Tic Tac Toe	St.	Tic Tac Toe	2 × platinum
	1996	1997	Backstreet Boys	St.	Backstreet Boys	2 × platinum
	1996	1997	Almost Heaven	St.	The Kelly Family	2 × platinum
	1996	2002	Opium for the people	St.	The dead pants	2 × platinum
	1997		Fold the 2nd	St.	Tic Tac Toe	2 × platinum
	1997		Backstreet's Back	St.	Backstreet Boys	2 × platinum
	1997	1998	Never enough	St.	Wolfgang Petry	2 × platinum
	1998	1999	Believe	St.	Cher	2 × platinum
	1998		Much theater	St.	Pure	2 × platinum
	1998	1999	Not from this world	St.	Xavier Naidoo	2 × platinum
	2006	2007	Loose	St.	Nelly Furtado	5 × platinum
	2007	2012	This is the life	St.	Amy Macdonald	5 × platinum
	2008	2009	Black Ice	St.	AC / DC	5 × platinum
	2010	2017	Weightless	St.	Andrea Berg	5 × platinum
	2011	2017	adventure	St.	Andrea Berg	5 × platinum
	2017	2018	Helene Fischer	St.	Helene Fischer	5 × platinum

• Selection of cover images of the excellent music albums
• 

  Herbert Grönemeyer - " 4630 Bochum "

• 

  ABBA - " ABBA Gold - Greatest Hits "

• 

  Pink Floyd - " The Wall "

• 

  Metallica - " Metallica "

• 

  Herbert Grönemeyer - " Ö "

• 

  The Beatles - " 1 "

• 

  AC / DC - " Back in Black "

Leaderboards

The following ranking lists provide information about the artists with the most million-sellers, from which nations the most performers come and which album type is the best-selling.

The following peculiarities apply to the list of "million seller by country of origin": If several artists are involved in an album, the nation of each artist counts as a whole point. If an interpreter has several nationalities or the interpreters of a group come from several countries, the value is divided by the number of nations present. Different artists are not included in the list.

Million seller by artist number Artist 7th Marius Müller-Westernhagen 6th Phil Collins 5 Herbert Grönemeyer 4th Helene Fischer Metallica Michael Jackson Pure Rolf Zuckowski 3 ABBA AC / DC The Beatles Andrea Berg Celine Dion Queen Tina Turner Robbie Williams 2 Adele Backstreet Boys BAP Bee Gees Tracy Chapman Fleetwood Mac Guns n 'Roses Heintje The Kelly Family Madonna Wolfgang Petry Pink Floyd SEM Roxette Santiano Bruce Springsteen Tic Tac Toe The dead pants Roger Whittaker

Million sellers by country of origin number nation 55.0  Germany 31.0  United Kingdom 30.0  United States 6.0  Sweden 5.0  Canada 4.0  Australia 2.0  Ireland  Italy  Netherlands 1.5  Switzerland 1.0  Greece 0.5  Portugal

Million seller by album type number Art 101 Studio albums 20th Compilations 11 Concept albums 6th Soundtracks 5 Live albums

See also

• German album charts → Number one albums / Top 10 albums
• List of the world's best-selling music albums
• List of the best-selling jazz albums in Germany
• List of the best-selling rap albums in Germany
• List of artists with the highest number of BVMI certified recordings sales

Web links

• BVMI gold / platinum database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ SCVC: Happy Birthday, Gold Record! . ( Memento from January 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) hr-online.de, February 10, 2012, accessed on August 12, 2020.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Guidelines for Gold / Platinum and Diamond Awards. musikindustrie.de, accessed on April 7, 2018 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Award limits. musikindustrie.de, accessed on January 6, 2018 . 
4. ^ ^{A b} Joseph Murrells: The Book of Golden Discs: The Records That Sold a Million . 2nd Edition. Limp Edition, London 1978, ISBN 0-214-20512-6 , pp. 241 .

This version was added to the selection of informative lists and portals on April 16, 2018 .