50 Most Popular Live Albums of All Time

Intimate concerts, arena tours, festival lineups — whatever your preferred manifestation, live music has been missing from our lives for over a year. Although nothing can replace that magical feeling of seeing your favorite bands in the flesh, especially if you missed out on hyped performance in 2020, we can still turn to live albums for a taste of the experience. So, we ranked the most popular live albums on Discogs.

But first, the details on how we got the data. First, we scoured all of the most collected Master Releases by Discogs users. that included the phrase “live,” skipping the irrelevant albums the popped up in the search. While most of the albums were recorded in the same location (like a concert), we kept those that were collections of live songs from different spots. For example: Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty. However, we excluded releases that included live recordings in addition to studio songs. For example: ZZ Top’s Fandango! or Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma.

What follows is a pretty standard lineup for rock n’ roll greatness. What do the majority of these live albums have in common? Classic rock icons performing and recording in the 1970s, usually at a large concert or on tour. However, there are a few exceptions to the trend, such as The Köln Concert featuring jazz pianist Keith Jarrett; Friday Night in San Francisco with jazz luminaries Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, and Paco de Lucía; early electronic rock pioneers Portishead performing at Roseland Ballroom in New York City; the iconic live album from the Talking Heads, and few Bob Marley releases.

Until our beloved concerts return, fans everywhere are listening to these live albums or reliving the best recorded performances of their favorite bands — the kind of legendary performances you can watch on Qello Concerts.

From now until May 2, the streaming service is hosting a World Tour that showcases concerts from artists like Blondie, Hall and Oates, B.B. King, Elton John, Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper, Guns N’ Roses, and Red Hot Chili Peppers playing in venues across Australia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. There will be four “free” shows each week (meaning you don’t need to have a subscription to enjoy them), but you should sign up here for a 75% discount on a one-month subscription to Qello Concerts, which includes complete access to the World Tour.