Recording artist

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A recording artist is a singer or musician who is known for making musical recordings.

Many recording artists are also stage performers, but a few work only in a recording studio. This may be because they dislike touring or giving live appearances, or because they prefer studio work or need to stay close to home.

Recording artists are usually paid royalties from sales of their recordings. They will get a percentage (as low as 1/2%, though rates can become much higher) of the money their record label receives when people buy their recordings. Some artists are only paid for session work, or by the number of recordings they make.

The Beatles remain the world's most successful recording artists, nearly forty years since they broke up in 1970. Their record sales are well over one billion. Elvis Presley is still the world's most successful solo recording artist.

Other artists who have achieved sales records or milestones include Michael Jackson (whose Thriller album became the world's biggest-selling record in the 1980s), Bing Crosby (whose "White Christmas" sold the most copies of any single, until Elton John's "Candle in the Wind" outsold it in the late 1990s), Pink Floyd (their The Dark Side of the Moon stayed on the Billboard sales charts for more than ten years), and The Eagles, who presently (2006) hold the record for most copies sold of an album, with their Greatest Hits collection.

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