This is the chart of Italian Music Artists listed by estimated sales according to the most important Italian newspapers, national television channels and music magazines. As the compilation of official data of sale of records in Italy it began to have departed only since 1995, thanks to the FIMI, some corporate body of musical survey, as for instance Hit Parade Italy have tried to put order to the preceding respects furnished by Musica e dischi, TV Sorrisi e Canzoni, Ciao 2001, and Doxa. From 1990 to 1995 any corporate body has furnished official data or estime of sale of the singers.
Reliable sources of estimated sales are most important Italian newspapers and magazines, like Il Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, Il Giornale, Il Messaggero, and national radio and TV channels, like Rai, Mediaset, MTV, and Radio Italia.
To date, national sources attest 145 Italian music artists have surpassed five million records sold, eleven of which have sold between 50 and 100 million copies and five of which have sold over 100 million records.