Well it looks like the RIAA has finally caught up to the times.
The Recording Industry Association of America just announced one of the biggest rule-changes in its history: As of Monday (Feb 1), the RIAA will now count streaming sales as part of its singles and albums certification process, making 17 albums automatically certified gold (500,000) or platinum (1 million) with the news. The rule change means both on-demand video and audio streams will be calculated in the RIAA’s certifications, with 1,500 streams counting as the equivalent of ten track sales or one album sale. And now 150 streams will equal one download, rather than the previous 100. In accordance with the new rules, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly has been recognized as having sold 1 million units along with Big Sean’s Dark Sky Paradise. The Weeknd’s Beauty Behind the Madness is now double platinum, while Michael Jackson’s Thriller is now 32 times platinum. (Damn!)
The rule restructuring comes at a time when some artists are beginning to demand that streaming count toward their overall sales. Last year, Nicki Minaj argued that her latest album, The Pinkprint, would already be at least triple platinum were all her streaming numbers factored in. Meanwhile, the RIAA has agreed to recognize Rihanna’s latest album Anti as platinum based on the 1 million prepaid albums she sold courtesy of Samsung.
See below for a list of all newly gold and platinum albums:
Alt-J, An Awesome Wave (Atlantic Records): Gold
Big Sean, Dark Sky Paradise (Def Jam Recordings): Platinum
Brett Eldredge, Bring You Back (Atlantic Nashville): Gold
Coldplay, Ghost Stories (Atlantic/Parlophone): Platinum
Elle King, Love Stuff (RCA): Gold
Fifth Harmony, Reflection (Epic): Gold
Halsey, Badlands (Astralwerks): Gold
Hozier, Hozier (Columbia): Platinum
Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly (Top Dawg Entertainment/Interscope): Platinum
Michael Jackson, Thriller (Epic/Legacy): 32X Multi-Platinum
Miranda Lambert, Platinum (RCA Nashville): Platinum
Romeo Santos, Fórmula Vol. 2 (Sony Latin): 11X Diamante/RIAA Latin G&P Program
Sam Hunt, Montevallo (MCA Nashville): 2X Multi-Platinum
Shawn Mendes, Handwritten (Island Records): Platinum
The Weeknd, Beauty Behind the Madness (XO/Republic Records): 2X Multi-Platinum
Vance Joy, Dream Your Life Away (Atlantic Records): Gold
Wale, Ambition (Atlantic Urban): Gold
Leave a Reply