In the
United
States
, the Recording Industry
Association of America awards certification based on the number
of albums and singles sold through retail and other
ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards (see
music recording
sales certification). Certification is not automatic; for an
award to be made, the
record label must
request certification and pay a fee to have the sales of the
recording audited. The audit is conducted against net shipments
after returns (most often an artist's royalty statement is used),
which includes albums sold directly to retailers and one-stops,
direct to consumer sales (music clubs and mail order) and other
outlets.
Presently, an American RIAA-certified
gold
record is a single or album that has sold 500,000 units
(records, tapes or compact discs). Originally, the requirement for
a gold single was one million units sold and a gold album
represented $1 million in sales (at wholesale value). In 1975, the
additional requirement of 500,000 units sold was added for gold
albums. Reflecting growth in record sales, the platinum award was
instituted in 1976 for albums selling one million units and singles
selling two million units. The multi-platinum award was instituted
in 1984, signifying multiple platinum levels of albums and singles.
In 1989, the sales thresholds for singles were reduced to 500,000
for gold and 1,000,000 for platinum, reflecting a decrease in sales
of singles. In 1992, RIAA began counting each disc in a multi-disc
set as one unit toward certification. Because of these changes in
criteria, the sales level associated with a particular award
depends on when the award was made.
Nielsen SoundScan figures are not
used in RIAA certification; the RIAA system predates Nielsen
SoundScan and includes sales outlets Nielsen misses. Prior to
Nielsen SoundScan, RIAA certification was the only audited and
verifiable system for tracking music sales in the U.S.; it is still
the only system capable of tracking 100% of sales (albeit as
shipments less returns, not actual sales like Nielsen SoundScan).
This system has allowed, at times, for record labels to promote an
album as gold or platinum simply based on large shipments. For
instance, in 1978 the
Sgt.
Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band soundtrack shipped platinum but
was a sales bust, with two million returns. Similarly, all four
solo albums by the members of
Kiss
simultaneously shipped platinum that same year but none of them
even managed to crack the top 20 of the
Billboard 200 album chart. The following year,
the RIAA began requiring 120 days from the release date before
recordings were eligible for certification, although that
requirement has been reduced over the years and currently stands at
30 days. More recently,
Sony was roundly criticized in 1995
for hyping
Michael Jackson's double
album
HIStory as
five times platinum, based on shipments of 2.5 million and using
the RIAA's recently adopted practice of counting each disc toward
certification, while SoundScan was reporting only 1.3 million
copies sold. A similar discrepancy between shipments and sales was
reported with
The Lion
King soundtrack.
List of certifications
Albums
Currently, the RIAA certification criteria for albums are:
- 500,000 units: Gold album.
- 1,000,000 units: Platinum album.
- 2,000,000 or more units: Multi-Platinum
album.
- 10,000,000 units: Diamond album.
Multi-disc
Multi-disc albums are counted once for each disc within the album
if it is over 100 minutes in length or is from the vinyl era. For
example, each copy of
OutKast's
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
(running time of 134:56), and
Shania
Twain's
Up! (145:44), both
double albums, were counted twice,
meaning each album was certified diamond after 5 million copies
were shipped.
Pink Floyd's
The Wall and
The
Beatles'
White
Album, both vinyl-era, are counted double even though
their running times are under the minimum.
Spanish
The following certifications are given only to recordings of which
over 50% of the content is in the
Spanish language [39045] :
- 100,000 units: Oro album.
- 200,000 units: Platino album.
- 400,000 units: Multi-Platino album.
Singles
It is estimated that there have been about 2,550 combined single
certifications.
Standard singles are certified:
Note: Before January 1, 1989, gold was achieved at 1,000,000
copies, and platinum at 2,000,000[39046].
Digital
Recently, digital singles have begun to be certified due to the
increase of the digital market and decrease of the physical
commercial singles market. Although
digital downloads have been around since
2003, they weren't considered to be significant until 2005, when
they were first counted towards the
Hot 100.
Because of this, it is important to distinguish between singles
that came out before and after the change (as singles after the
change sold in higher quantities at a faster rate, while the older
singles took longer to reach levels of certification). After the
change, the certification standards were brought up to the same
standard as retail distribution. Since then, digital distribution
has become a prime selling method for singles - overhead can be
considerable when distributing a CD with only a few tracks on it,
and the roughly $1/track standard for digital distribution,
combined with the ease of use in sellers like
iTunes, has caused enormous growth.
Digital singles are certified:
Records
Lists from RIAA site showing current status holders of RIAA
Certifications:
Artists with the most certifications of Gold, Platinum and
Multi-Platinum albums
Albums that have been certified Gold might receive additional
certifications for achieving Platinum and Multi-Platinum
levels.
Artists with the most certifications of Gold, Platinum and
Multi-Platinum singles
Singles that have been certified Gold might receive additional
certifications for achieving Platinum and Multi-Platinum levels.
For example, Barbra Streisand has had 8 singles certified Gold, 5
of which went on to achieve Platinum certification as well.
This list includes the RIAA formats 'Single' and 'Video Single'.
This list includes singles of the RIAA types 'standard' and
'digital'.
This table tracks artists with some number of singles that have
received at least ten total certifications.
Diamond sales
Diamond (10+ Million) Certified
See also
References
- RIAA certification criteria. Retrieved on
September 19, 2006
- Hollie, Pamela. "Record Industry: Big Changes" The New York
Times January 12, 1980: 27
- Farber, Jim. "Don't Buy into Jax' Pyramid Scheme:
Platinum-Status Symbol on 'History' Marking Over 5-million Albums
Sold Proves to Be as Worthless as Fool's Gold" New York Daily
News September 11, 1995
- Philips, Chuck. "Sold, Shipped, What's the Diff? About 2
million albums, in the case of 'The Lion King,' pointing up the
disparity between industry's sales tally and SoundScan's" Los
Angeles Times January 15, 1995: 67
- RIAA, Artist Tallies
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- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Elvis
Presley
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Mariah
Carey
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by The
Beatles
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by
Madonna
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by
Whitney Houston
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by
Beyonce Knowles
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Janet
Jackson
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by
Michael Jackson
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Elton
John
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by The
Temptations
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by #
Rihanna
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Taylor
Swift
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Aretha
Franklin
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by
Creedence Clearwater Revival
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by
Prince
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Barbra
Streisand
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by
TLC
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by
Britney Spears
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by The
Carpenters
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by
Christina Aguilera
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by
Shakira
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Linkin
Park
- RIAA - Gold & Platinum - Diamond
Certifications
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