Streams for Gold and Platinum certifications accepted in US, Vance Joy benefits
The Recording Industry of America (RIAA) is now accepting on-demand audio and video streams to contribute to Gold or Platinum album certifications.
Starting yesterday, the RIAA’s Gold and Platinum certifications now include audio and video streams and a track sale equivalent, with 17 artists already benefitting from the update with new certifications.
Australia’s own Vance Joy is included in that list. His 2014-released debut album Dream Your Life Away is now Gold in the US, with 500,000 sales. The record is also Platinum in both Australia and Canada. The Melbourne artist is signed to Liberation Music in Australia and is managed by Unified founder Jaddan Comerford.
Michael Jackson’s seminal record Thriller is now 32x Platinum and alt-J’s debut album An Awesome Wave is now credited Gold.
The new Award formula used is 1,500 on-demand audio and/or video song streams = 10 track sales = 1 album sale.
The US benchmarks are as follows: 500,000 for Gold, 1,000,000 for Platinum and 2,000,000 plus for multi-Platinum.
RIAA’s update follows its change in 2013 when it began including on-demand streams for its Digital Single Award.
“Modernising 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,” said Cary Sherman, Chairman and CEO, RIAA.
The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) has been accepting streams for songs since November 2014. On November 24 2014 ARIA merged the singles streaming chart with the sales chart, using a secret weighting method which was agreed upon by its members
ARIA accreditations however, are sales based. A Gold single or album is awarded for 35,000 units shipped and Platinum for shipments of 70,000.
RIAA has awarded the following artists with new certifications:
Alt-J “An Awesome Wave” (Atlantic Records) Gold
Big Sean “Dark Sky Paradise” (Def Jam Recordings) Platinum
Brett Eldredge “Bring You Back” (Atlantic Nashville) Gold
Coldplay “Ghost Stories” (Atlantic/Parlophone) Platinum
Elle King “Love Stuff” (RCA) Gold
Fifth Harmony “Reflection” (Epic) Gold
Halsey “Badlands” (Astralwerks) Gold
Hozier “Hozier” (Columbia) Platinum
Kendrick Lamar “To Pimp a Butterfly” (Top Dawg Entertainment/Interscope) Platinum
Michael Jackson “Thriller” (Epic/Legacy) 32X Multi-Platinum
Miranda Lambert “Platinum” (RCA Nashville) Platinum
Romeo Santos “Fórmula Vol. 2” (Sony Latin) 11X Diamante/RIAA Latin G&P Program
Sam Hunt “Montevallo” (MCA Nashville) 2X Multi-Platinum
Shawn Mendes “Handwritten” (Island Records) Platinum
The Weeknd “Beauty Behind the Madness” (XO/Republic Records) 2X Multi-Platinum
Vance Joy “Dream Your life Away” (Atlantic Records) Gold
Wale “Ambition” (Atlantic Urban) Gold