Talk:Music recording certification

August 2003: Dissatisfaction with this article as Gold record
Hmmmm. The RIAA certification page is a great idea, but it wasn't a replacement for this one. Other countries have gold albums too! I'm finding out exactly what the standards are for gold in Australia. Andrewa 12:40, 31 August 2003 (UTC)


 * Doesn't Platinum indicate 1 million, and Gold 500,000 across the world? And why is this page located at Gold album and not Platinum album.  I tried to fix this by moving the page to RIAA certification, which is a good page, but too US-centric.  Maybe record rankings or something like that? Lypheklub 17:46, 31 August 2003 (UTC)


 * Hmmmm. I'm inclined to leave Gold album as a head word (that's what it's called in a dictionary, not sure what the technical name is in an encyclopedia). It's the natural place people will look if they want information about awards. Many people who don't even know that the RIAA even exists use the term "Gold album" in everyday speech, never bothering to think about the infrastructure that must be behind it. A redirect is IMO a little off-putting under those circumstances, we are essentially telling the reader "Daddy knows best" which isn't very welcoming. They know what question they have asked. I'd like to answer them as affirmingly as possible.


 * I'm checking my facts on the meaning of "Gold album" etc, but no, I don't think it does mean that at all. Certainly it wasn't the case a few years ago. That's why I wrote what I did in the original article. Watch this space. Andrewa 20:56, 31 August 2003 (UTC)


 * Even if we don't redirect Gold album to RIAA certification, i think it is all right to say platinum is 1 mil. and gold is 500k. That's rudimentary information all over the world. -- Lypheklub 20:59, 31 August 2003 (UTC)


 * What is the source of your information? In Australia, Gold is 35,000 acording to the certification body ARIA, see http://www.aria.com.au/accredindex.htm for my source. You may not agree with these standards, but that's irrelevant. Andrewa 00:09, 1 September 2003 (UTC)


 * I also have a qualm about the heading of this page being "gold album" when pages such as "platinum album" redirect here. I agree that naming it something obscure after RIAA is inappropriate (esp since I'm another Aussie). As Andrewa said, telling the reader "Daddy knows best" ... isn't very welcoming, and this is not disimilar to how I feel about being redirected here when I was trying to find a "platinum album" article to link to for a few pages. What about something simple like "album awards"? --Qirex 12:24, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

I have to say that I don't like the naming of this page as "Music recording sales certification" if it is the only page on wikipedia with information about gold & platinum albums and singles. If I'm reading a musician's bio, with a line like, "His last album went Platinum within a month of being released", and I click on the "Platinum" link and am taken to a page called "Music recording sales certification", then I would be very confused. To help fix this problem, I created the following pages: Gold (music sales) and Platinum (music sales), both of which give a short summary and then refer the user back to this page for additional information. SweetP112 15:45, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Early "Gold Album" Standard
The first RIAA gold album standard was for $1,000,000 worth of albums sold. I would imagine that this is the first standard set in 1958. At the time, most record sales were 45 RPM singles, which were often under fifty cents; 33 RPM albums were often $3.00 - $5.00 and generally sold well only if an artist and several songs on the album became fairly popular.Rlquall 13:16, 10 August 2004 (UTC)

I have been doing some research into the work of Art Satherley. Whilst the first RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) Gold Disc may well have been given to Glenn Miller, it would appear that, when the recording of Gene Autry's "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine" reached half a million sales, his producer (Art Satherley) had a gold-plated copy made of the disc which he presented to Autry. When the sales reached a million, they gave him another. Incidentally, there SHOULD be a Wikipedia page on Art Satherley.Sandonian 10:41, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * It seems to be very difficult to get proper information regarding the first gold record awards and how the definition of such changed with time. Sources indicate defining a gold record as equaling one million dollars in sales, then a million copies, and then 500,000 copies. Of course, all of these could have been true, the definition evolving to its current one of 500,000 copies of a single or album according to the RIAA. There is an interview with Elvis Presley recorded on September 22, 1958, just as he was embarking for Germany with the US Army, issued as an EP in December 1958 back when anything Elvis would sell. He states to be in the possession of 25 gold record awards, and then says he has 25 million sellers, and two albums that have sold a million each. This appears contradictory, but may imply the gold record award was for singles only, or at least that being Presley's understanding. Whether it means a million copies or a million dollars at that time is another thing. This interview is available on the box set The King of Rock 'n' Roll: The Complete 50s Masters. PJtP (talk) 22:37, 25 April 2013 (UTC)

The first gold record as awarded by the RIAA might have been in 1942. But I believe the first gold record--that is, the first recording to sell 1 million copies--was in 1903 (Caruso's "Vesti la giubba") and there were many subsequent to that, prior to 1942. - kosboot (talk) 22:28, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

Merge
Single certification should be merged with this article, or this one with it. Does anyone have any preference? This is much more useful, as it offers more detailed information in place of a list of certified albums (something that should be in a separate article). --Mel Etitis ( &Mu;&epsilon;&lambda; &Epsilon;&tau;&eta;&tau;&eta;&sigmaf; ) 21:57, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

No, gold album is about albums. If you want to merge it, merge it with RIAA Certification (which is about album certifications) OmegaWikipedia 22:48, 2 August 2005 (UTC)


 * True enough, I wan't thinking clearly enough. Yes, RIAA certification would be more appropriate. --Mel Etitis  ( &Mu;&epsilon;&lambda; &Epsilon;&tau;&eta;&tau;&eta;&sigmaf; ) 08:00, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

Currently, Platinum resolves to Gold, but Diamond to itself.
Seems each should either resolve to itself, or each should resolve to an article that prominently features the others. -:)Ozzyslovechild 01:20, 12 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Agreed. I propose merging Diamond album, which is much shorter, into Gold album, or moving them all into something like Album certification. Also, I propose removing the RIAA certification merge tag from this article, letting RIAA certification discuss album certification in the USA specifically, and having Gold album or Album certification be worldwide in scope. --Lph 18:09, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I totally agree and Gold, Diamond and Platinum must all be in one page.Vivek 11:03, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
 * How about Music recording sales certification? This list contains music videos, albums and singles. All the others would redirect there. --Canley 12:25, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm going to be bold and move the article. --Canley 12:38, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
 * And I'll be bold and remove the merge tag to RIAA certification. --Lph 18:28, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Uranium record
There is a precedent not mentioned here it seems. the Spanish singer Rafael Martos Sánchez (Raphael) received a Uranium record from HISPAVOX for the selling of 50.000.000 copies of a compilation of his hits. This entry on the Spanish Wiki http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_de_Uranio explains that in Spain 40.000 is for a gold record, 170,000 for a platinum (different from the table in this article) and that Raphael's uranium record equals 1.250 Gold records or 300 Platinum records. Worth researching. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Diabulos (talk • contribs) 21:18, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

IFPI Platinum Europe certification
I added the IFPI Platinum Europe certification as a separate subject, as I didn't feel it really belonged in the table with the national certification limits. Ordinary Person 02:05, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

Balkan
does anyone know if certifications exist in the balkan region, for bosnia croatia serbia slovenia, i know that edo maajka made gold albums because you can see it in one of his singles. So if anyone knows please help — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.148.164.155 (talk) 18:18, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Digital Downloads
The RIAA certifies legal downloads as well. I have added the criteria for gold and platinom certification. It would be great if someone can update the same for other countries as well Will231982 16:13, 6 August 2006 (UTC)will231982

Recipients?
Who receives the awards? Everyone who worked on the album? Just the artist? The Jade Knight 04:16, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

I heard anyone who pays can have one. Even fans. Jt_200075 10:34, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, you heard wrong. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.54.192.38 (talk) 16:36, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

Uruguay
Why is Uruguay listed as part of the USA? Jt_200075 23:53, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Mexico's info might be wrong
As I was reading through some news, according to Marci Stefan, spokeswoman for Warner Music Latina, Platinum in Mexico is awarded for 100,000 records sales. Here's the link, though it is in Spanish, it might serve as a reference. http://www.azcentral.com/lavoz/ent/articles/1207platino-CR.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wr.jordan (talk • contribs) 17:26, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

chart not properly aligned
the Country/Certifier column is not properly aligned with the Classification column for some countries, like canada for example, which leads to confusion, perhaps every country row should be separated with a line, or at least someone should align the countries properly so no country name starts between two classification types (ie album, single, etc)

edit:never mind someone did it as I was typing the text above —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.36.152.123 (talk) 00:10, 22 December 2006 (UTC).

There seems to be something wrong with the table. The borders are missing for those cells at the top part. Mbaluyos (talk) 06:30, 7 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I believe this is just a browser issue; I use Firefox, and it will randomly drop the borders from part or all of a table. Not a code issue, just rendering.  Strange though. — Huntster (t • @ • c) 16:01, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

needs to be checked
i found this surfing around on ifpi's web-page, it's to much for somebody as slow as me to handle please check and help out http://www.ifpi.org/content/library/certification-award-levels.pdf Jt_200075 — Preceding undated comment added 21:48, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Too many redirects
Someone needs to check the articles that redirect here, some of them may need to become disambig pages or redirect elsewhere. For example, gold disc and go gold redirect here, while I think it would be more suitable to redirect to software release life cycle (as in the "gold disc" manufacturing state, aka to "go gold"). ♠ SG →Talk 17:53, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

RIAA
Somewhere in here it should mention what the riaa is.99.224.132.115 (talk) 20:58, 1 May 2008 (UTC)


 * It already links to RIAA certification, so that should be good enough. No reason to explicitly explain RIAA when the article is of an international scale. — Huntster (t • @ • c) 00:30, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

The first album certified platinum by the RIAA lists a legend rather than a fact. Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was certfied platinum until 26 Jan 1993. Please click here to view RIAA's certifications of Iron Butterfly recordings, and then click "more details" under "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida". The first album the RIAA certified platinum was "Eagles/Their Greatest Hits 1971-1974" on 24 Feb 1976. Please click here to view RIAA's certfications of Eagles recordings, and then click "more details" under "Eagles/Their Greatest Hits 1971-1974". This can be confirmed by performing a date range search in the RIAA's gold and platinum certification, like I did here.

The reason why I'm posting this here in the Talk section rather than simply making the changes on the entry is that I'm guessing Iron Butterfly's management or fans will insist that the correction be changed back to the legend. By legend, it is often repeated that Iron Butterfly had the first platinum album. While they may have sold a million copies of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", the RIAA certifications do not prove that. The RIAA did not certify sales as platinum until 1976, and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was released in 1968 and was not certified platinum until 26 Jan 1993, when it was also certified 4 times platinum. There will need to be some moderation, then, to prevent a constant back-and-forth of changes as this factoid in this entry fights a widely held legend. — Preceding unsigned comment added by JumperTime13 (talk • contribs) 15:08, 12 August 2017 (UTC)

The first album awarded a Platinum record was indeed Iron Butterfly. But, like the Gold records given out in the 40's and 50's, it was awarded to them by their record company. And, in this case, for sales of over eight million copies. Of course, the RIAA didn't introduce their Platinum awards until 1976. But the first Platinum award, and the idea of an award over and above Gold record began with Iron Butterfly. But then, you probably already knew that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 197.86.143.140 (talk) 14:40, 18 March 2020 (UTC)

List of certifications
I recently removed the long list of certification requirements and replaced it with a link to List of music recording sales certifications. However, to assure all the hard work that's been put into the list on this page isn't lost forever, I figured it would be a good idea to copy+past the previous table here, if only for archival purposes. Drewcifer (talk) 19:04, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Most countries have only one threshold series, but some have different categories with different quantities to achieve a mark. Popular categorizations include:
 * By release type (album/single/music videos)

Based on units SOLD or SHIPPED?
This article seems to contradict itself on whether certification awards are based on units sold or shipped. Granted, it also looks like some of the sources do the same. Does anyone know which is correct? I've just realized that there's been alot of work on music-articles and discographies that may have been done on a false assumption, in part due to the unclear nature of this article. Is there anyone that knows which it is? Drewcifer (talk) 19:13, 16 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm in your boat. Realized this a while back and I think I did bring it up somewhere - don't remember. This needs to be sorted, the fact that the lead states "shipped" (which would be one's assumption to the figures behind certifications) but the rest of the article seems to assert "sales" (presumption would be that this means overall in-store sales), needs to be fixed. k.i.a.c  ( talktome  -  contribs ) 07:41, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
 * This blog by the RIAA should shed light on the issue. Definitely appears to be SHIPMENTS, not sales. k.i.a.c  ( talktome  -  contribs ) 08:46, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

The RIAA finds a way to ease our workload
The RIAA, always on the lookout for more ways to make money, has "enhanced" their Web site from which we have heretofore confirmed award status of their own members' artists. If you have just eaten, have a bucket handy, then go take a look at the RIAA site.

Now we don't have to add any more mention of gold, platinum, or diamond status of even the most popular recording artists, since most of us (I suppose, but nor refs for it) won't have a subscription to be able to discover or confirm award levels. Let the inflationist revert wars begin! Or we could just ignore the RIAA, and the member companies, and their signed artists, and go back to treating musicians the way we did before the awards were invented to standardize sales measurements, promoting the artists.

How do we respond to this change? I've already bumped into similar difficulties confirming chart performance in the UK because I'm not a paying subscriber with access to the Music Week Web site. I'm left trusting other paying editors to maintain articles with possibly inflated or outdated positions. Is that how we'll handle US certs now, too? &mdash; JohnFromPinckney (talk) 14:39, 28 March 2010 (UTC)
 * It's still free. The pay part apparently gives you access to more statistics and such, including the ability to "view, compare, and export historical year-end U.S. shipment statistics". TheJazzDalek (talk) 08:57, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Oh, well, that's great. Thanks for providing the link. How did you find it? Even now that I know that's what I should be looking for, I can't seem to get to it from the RIAA home page or the page I came into the site from WP, following a ref cite on Hey, Soul Sister, RIAA Search Results. Found it. Duh. Anyway, I'm glad I overreacted. ;-) Thanks again. &mdash; JohnFromPinckney (talk) 10:45, 29 March 2010 (UTC)


 * FYI -- to get a direct link to use as a reference: 1) search the database as you normally would 2) view the source code of the result page 3) search the code for "resultpage" -- it will be in a string of code that starts with  < a href="?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS and ends with  ">  4) copy the text string from the first ? all the way up to but not including the quote (") and angle bracket ( > ) at the end. It should look something like
 * ?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&action=&title=&artist=sex pistols&format=&debutLP=&category=&sex=&releaseDate=&requestNo=&type=&level=&label=&company=&certificationDate=&awardDescription=&catalogNo=&aSex=&rec_id=&charField=&gold=&platinum=&multiPlat=&level2=&certDate=&album=&id=&after=&before=&startMonth=1&endMonth=1&startYear=1958&endYear=2010&sort=Artist&perPage=25
 * paste that text at the end of this URL: http://riaa.org/goldandplatinumdata.php with no space, and run the whole thing through your browser. The end result should look like:
 * http://riaa.org/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&action=&title=&artist=sex%20pistols&format=&debutLP=&category=&sex=&releaseDate=&requestNo=&type=&level=&label=&company=&certificationDate=&awardDescription=&catalogNo=&aSex=&rec_id=&charField=&gold=&platinum=&multiPlat=&level2=&certDate=&album=&id=&after=&before=&startMonth=1&endMonth=1&startYear=1958&endYear=2010&sort=Artist&perPage=25
 * The gerry-rigged URL needs to be run through the browser first to replace any spaces with "%20"s (and to verify that your link works). Copy the end result and—voilà!—your direct link is ready. I realize this explanation is somewhat convoluted so if you need anything clarified, don't hesitate to ask. TheJazzDalek (talk) 23:27, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Holy crap. What I like most about it is that is gives us a nice, short URL. ROFL. Seriously, good work, Holmes, very resourceful (no pun intended) of you.
 * Looking some more at this (and remember, you started it) one can strip away most if not all of the empty parameters in the URL to use a shorter, yet still functional, equivalent one. So for the item that originally got me looking at this (Train's "Hey, Soul Sister" supposedly at double-platinum), instead of this:
 * http://riaa.org/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&action=&title=Hey,%20Soul%20Sister&artist=&format=&debutLP=&category=&sex=&releaseDate=&requestNo=&type=&level=&label=&company=&certificationDate=&awardDescription=&catalogNo=&aSex=&rec_id=&charField=&gold=&platinum=&multiPlat=&level2=&certDate=&album=&id=&after=&before=&startMonth=1&endMonth=1&startYear=1958&endYear=2010&sort=Artist&perPage=25
 * one can use something like this:
 * http://riaa.org/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&title=Hey,%20Soul%20Sister&artist=&perPage=25
 * or even just:
 * http://riaa.org/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&title=Hey,%20Soul%20Sister&perPage=25
 * Not that I'd recommend that procedure in a WP: article anywhere, but I might use it myself sometime. Thanks, &mdash; JohnFromPinckney (talk) 02:29, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

US Centric
I put the boilerplate on the article because, although, clearly the US plays an important role in the history of certification, the text doesn't make it clear that it is talking only about US sales, dates etc. So, the first gold record (in the world) may have been Perry Como or whoever, but things like inclusion of digital downloads, streaming etc. happened at different times in different countries and this isn't made clear. Btljs (talk) 08:24, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

Holy hatnotes!
Are all those hatnotes really necessary? I've never seen so many on one page. Is this an encyclopedia article or a directory? Lizard (talk) 06:38, 7 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Now that's much better. Lizard  (talk) 23:20, 18 January 2018 (UTC)

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There absolutely needs to be a section that they're not made of gold, but plastic.
That's why I came to this page, and the word "plastic" isn't here at all!

If you think "it's obvious that it's not gold" ask yourself what priors are you assuming? I say you're saying it's obvious only post-hoc. How the hell do I know how much gold is worth? A lot, sure. Maybe those things are worth a lot.

Even if you still think I'm being dumb, the object has the name of a material in its name, and it'd only take a sentence or two some where prominent to fix this. CrickedBack (talk) 15:41, 25 January 2023 (UTC)

Platinum
The RIAA didn't introduce Platinum albums. In 1968 Cream's "Wheels of Fire" sold double the $1,000,000 at wholesale level needed for an RIAA Gold Album award. Atlantic Records awarded them the first Platinum Record Award. In 1969 Atlantic awarded four more $2,000,000 Platinum Records, to Iron Butterfly for "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vuda", to The Rascals for "Time Peace:The Rascals Greatest Hits", and Led Zeppelin were awarded two Platinum Records, for "Led Zeppelin" and "Led Zeppelin II". Over the next year other Atlantic records that received Platinum Records were, but not limited to, "Deja Vu" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" by Derek and the Dominos, and of course "Led Zeppelin III".

Stax Records also started awarding Platinum Records for $2,000,000 in wholesale album sales in 1970. Most famously Isaac Hayes received four consecutive Platinum Record awards for "Hot Buttered Soul", "The Isaac Hayes Movement", "To Be Continued" and "Shaft".

Uni also started awarding $2,000,000 Platinum Records. Such as the one for Elton John's self-titled album.

However, a rival certification level was set. In 1971 Columbia awarded Platinum Records to Tammy Wynette and Lynn Anderson for "Tammy's Greatest Hits" and "Rose Garden" respectively. In each case the Award was for one million units. Soon, other labels, including Uni and Atlantic, were awarding Platinum Records for one million units sold. By the end of 1972 one million units, not $2,000,000 was the industry standard.

In 1976 the RIAA introduced their own Platinum Record awards. But by then there must have been hundreds of Platinum Records awarded. 197.87.143.177 (talk) 15:24, 20 February 2024 (UTC)