Hitsville wrote recently of the breathless coverage about the Rolling Stones’ leaving their longtime record label, EMI, for Universal. The Stones make a lot of money touring but don’t sell records any more. Hitsville suggested EMI might have been glad to unload the band.

One commenter, billing himself as “Chris,” caps lock firmly depressed, disagreed:

You are a DUMBASS!!! NONE OF YOUR INFO IS CORRECT!!! THE ROLLING STONES ARE AMONG THE LARGEST SELLING CATALOG ARTISTS IN THE WORLD. THEY HAVE SOLD AN ASTONISHING 300 MILLION ALBUMS IN THIER CAREER. THIER CATALOG RANKS IN THE TOP 40 SOUNDSCAN ERA BIGGEST SELLERS DESPITE RELEASING ONLY A HANDFUL OF STUDIO ALBUMS. HOT ROCKS HAS SOLD NEARLY 3 MILLION ALBUMS JUST SINCE 1991 AND IS NOW CERTIFIED FOR 12 MILLION COPIES SOLD. STICKY FINGERS IS ALSO AMONG THE TOP SELLING CATALOG SELLERS. IT HAS SOLD 1.1 MILLION COPIES JUST SINCE 1991. SOME GIRLS HAS SOLD 1.3 MILLION COPIES JUST SINCE 1991, LET IT BLEED HAS SOLD 1 MILLION COPIES SINCE 1991. ALL OF THESE ALBUMS ARE AMONG THE TOP 100 SELLING CATALOG ALBUMS!!!!!!! THE OTHER ALBUMS ARE ALSO STRONG SELLERS. THE ROLLING STONES’ CATALOG SELLS ABOUT 3 MILLION COPIES PER YEAR YOU MORON! THEY ACTUALLY OUTSELL MANY NEWER ACTS AND THEY ARE STILL POPULAR WITH YOUNG PEOPLE!!! THE ROLLING STONES HAVE SOLD MORE CATALOG ALBUMS THAN LED ZEPPELIN!!!!!! AND BY THE WAY, THIER NEWER ALBUMS ARE STILL SUCCESSFUL, THEY HAVE SOLD OVER 7 MILLION ALBUMS SINCE 1991, WITH VOODOO LOUNGE SELLING 2 MILLION, AND FORTY LICKS SELLING 3 MILLION COPIES. YOU ARE A COMPLETE JACKASS AND YOU DONT KNOW WHAT U ARE TALKING ABOUT!

Thanks for the spirited comment! Much of what you say is in tune with what I wrote and what the papers wrote. If Sticky Fingers has sold 1.1 million since 1991, well then that’s … what, 64k a year? The Journal’s figure was 48K sold last year, which makes sense. (The album would have done better when people were rebuying it in the CD era.)

Which reminds me—remember that the big sales for heritage acts don’t necessarily indicate the true size of the audience: A big percentage of all CD sales are in fact “rebuys,” and the two key parts of the catalog—the ABKCO holdings and then the Rolling Stones Records releases—have also been repackaged, meaning that they have come out on CD twice.

Note that Hot Rocks is a double album and if you’re going by RIAA figures that’s actually only 1.5M in sales since 1991 and 6M total. Six million is as high as it gets for Stones albums, or about one forth as many as Zoso.

As for the Stones selling three million CDs a year I’d be surprised. The reporters on the story, who I presume had access to full Soundscan figures, say it’s half that, or a little less than what the Beatles or AC/DC sell in a typical year.

As for Zeppelin, don’t be silly! Led Zeppelin has released less than half as many albums as the Stones and has sold close to twice as many.

Your figure for Voodoo Lounge is higher than Billboard’s, but otherwise you’re saying the same thing the stories did about the sales of their most recent albums. (1M for Voodoo, Babylon and Bang, 2M for Licks [which is certified for four but I assume counts as a double, being two discs], change for the other crummy live albums and compilations–about 7M.)