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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.[1] 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.[2] 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.[3] A similar discrepancy between shipments and sales was reported with The Lion King soundtrack.[4]
[edit] List of certifications[edit] AlbumsCurrently, the RIAA certification criteria for albums are:
[edit] Multi-discMulti-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. [edit] Spanish
The following certifications are given only to recordings of which over 50% of the content is in the Spanish language[5]:
[edit] SinglesIt 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[1]. [edit] 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:
[edit] RecordsLists from RIAA site showing current status holders of RIAA Certifications:
[edit] Artists with the most certifications of Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum albumsAlbums that have been certified Gold might receive additional certifications for achieving Platinum and Multi-Platinum levels. [edit] Artists with the most certifications of Gold, Platinum and Multi-Platinum singlesSingles 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.
[edit] Diamond salesDiamond (10+ Million) Certified[90] [edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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