The nearly 60-years old certification has finally modernized.
Update: Top Dawg Entertainment CEO Anthony Tiffith has taken to Twitter to refuse the new RIAA qualifications and say that they will not acknowledge To Pimp a Butterfly as platinum until there are one million units sold:
we don’t stand behind this @RIAA bs. ole skool rules apply, 1 million albums sold is platinum.until we reach that #, save all the congrats.
— dangeroo kipawaa TDE (@dangerookipawaa) February 1, 2016
no cheat codes 2 platinum… #TDE
— dangeroo kipawaa TDE (@dangerookipawaa) February 1, 2016
Starting today (February 1), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will now including streaming audio and video and single track sales into an album’s gold or platinum sales status. The single track and stream figures will also account 10 plays or buys of one single track as equivalent to a full album purchase.
More details from the RIAA:
After a comprehensive analysis of a variety of factors – including streaming and download consumption patterns and historical impact on the program – and also consultation with a myriad of industry colleagues, 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. Also effective today, RIAA’s Digital Single Award ratio will be updated from 100 on-demand streams = 1 download to 150 on-demand streams = 1 download to reflect streaming’s enormous growth in the two plus years since that ratio was set.
Within these new parameters, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly is now platinum, Fifth Harmony’s Reflection is now certified gold and Michael Jackson’s Thriller is 32x platinum. Read more about the updated system and which albums have been awarded gold and platinum status here.
