Kendrick Lamar, Hozier, Big Sean Albums Hit Platinum After RIAA Rule Change
New day.
It’s a new day for the music industry now that the Recording Industry Association of America has announced plans of factoring in streaming data into its gold and platinum certifications.
Announced today (February 1), the RIAA has decided to recognize streams when tracking album sales. “We know that music listening – for both for albums and songs – is skyrocketing, yet that trend has not been reflected in our album certifications,” said Cary Sherman, Chairman and CEO, RIAA in a statement. “Modernizing our Album Award to include music streaming is the next logical step in the continued evolution of Gold & Platinum Awards, and doing so enables RIAA to fully reward the success of artists’ albums today.”
The decision arrives after Rihanna’s ANTI was downloaded over a million times — with streams crossing the 14 million mark — after its release last week, quickly earning an RIAA-certified platinum certification.
So under the new method, 1,500 on-demand audio or video song streams now equates to 10 track sales, which all in all equals to one album sale. This new rule affected 17 titles, including albums like Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly and Big Sean’s Dark Sky Paradise, which are now officially platinum releases. Other LPs, like The Weeknd’s Beauty Behind the Madness and Sam Hunt’s Montevallo are now double-platinum.
While the news was exciting for some, others like Top Dawg of TDE has other opinions of the rule change.
Check out a list of the new changes below:
Alt-J An Awesome Wave – Gold
Big Sean Dark Sky Paradise – Platinum
Brett Eldredge Bring You Back – Gold
Coldplay Ghost Stories – Platinum
Elle King Love Stuff – Gold
Fifth Harmony Reflection – Gold
Halsey Badlands – Gold
Hozier Hozier – Platinum
Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly – Platinum
Michael Jackson Thriller – 32X Multi-Platinum
Miranda Lambert Platinum – Platinum
Romeo Santos Fórmula Vol. 2 – 11X Diamante/RIAA Latin G&P Program
Sam Hunt Montevallo – 2X Multi-Platinum
Shawn Mendes Handwritten – Platinum
The Weeknd Beauty Behind the Madness – 2X Multi-Platinum
Vance Joy Dream Your life Away – Gold
Wale Ambition – Gold