Monday, May 1, 2017

Exploring the Gold and Platinum Database: The RIAA



Gold & Platinum & Multi-Platinum

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold and as of last year with streams. The awards program was created to honor artists and create a standard to measure the commercial success of a sound recording. Sixty years later and the awards program is still the most regarded form of recognition of success for the music industry. The original certification benchmarks were 500,000 physical albums sold ranked as Gold, 1,000,000 sold ranked as Platinum, and 2,000,000+ ranked as Multi-Platinum. This was updated in 2013 to include digital sales for both singles and albums. As of 2016 it utilizes these same benchmarks for streaming.


The RIAA set the new Album Award formula of 1,500 on-demand audio and/or video song streams = 10 track sales = 1 album sale. RIAA’s Digital Single Award ratio was updated from 100 on-demand streams = 1 download to 150 on-demand streams = 1 download. As streaming consumption continues to rise the formula is altered to reflect the growth. The RIAA created this formula with the help of industry colleagues and comprehensive analysis of streaming and download consumption, historical impact and more. The RIAA announced that its analysis and determination of the formula was based on comparative consumption patterns, not marketplace value.

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