The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the trade group the represents the U.S. recording industry.

RIAA Gold and Platinum Certification:

G = 500 000 units
P = 1 000 000 units
M = multi-platinum

1) Prince
02/15/80 - G
02/21/80 - P

2) Dirty Mind
06/20/84 - G

3) Controversy
01/14/82 - G
01/11/85 - P

4) 1999
01/11/83 - G
05/17/83 - P
10/22/84 - M(2)
07/22/85 - M(3)
03/24/99 - M(4)

5) Purple Rain
08/29/84 - G
08/29/84 - P
11/13/84 - M(8)
01/16/85 - M(9)
02/22/89 - M(10)
05/16/96 - M(13)

6) Around The World In A Day
07/02/85 - G
07/02/85 - P
07/02/85 - M(2)

7) Parade
06/03/86 - G
06/03/86 - P

8) Sign "O" The Times
07/02/87 - G
07/02/87 - P

9) Lovesexy
12/05/88 - G

10) Batman
08/29/89 - G
08/29/89 - P
08/29/89 - M(2)

11) Graffiti Bridge
11/01/90 - G

12) Diamonds And Pearls
12/04/91 - G
12/04/91 - P
01/30/92 - M(2)

13) Love Symbol
12/17/92 - G
12/17/92 - P

14) The Hits 1
12/01/93 - G
08/10/95 - P

15) The Hits 2
04/12/94 - G
08/10/95 - P

16) The Hits / The B-Sides
12/01/93 - G
12/01/93 - P

17) Come
10/18/94 - G

18) The Gold Experience
12/07/95 - G

19) Emancipation
01/31/97 - G
01/31/97 - P
02/07/97 - M(2)

20) Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic
12/10/99 - G

21) The Very Best Of
11/12/02 - G
09/21/04 - P

22) Musicology
05/20/04 - G
06/25/04 - P

note: all other albums by Prince didn't reach Gold-Certification, so far.

Iam most surprised at "grafitti bridge"? Only gold? U can always find a copy of it in UK....maybe it did better over in UK then US.....mind u "lovesexy" only gold with the big US tour he did musta really shook him up sales wise!

umm people always say that u can expect a prince cd to go platinum and this told all to me

yeah i always wondered why graffiti bridge bombed in the US, it went to number one in the UK and sold quite well! strangely Come also went to number one in the UK and sold more over here than in the US, i think the symbol album did pretty well 2!

during these times US music was going south into that hell that is complete HIP-Hop domination. And look what we got from it classics like "I got the Power", "Rump Shaker", and "Humpty Dance" truly fun music at the clubs in those days, but revolutionary??? Never

Hey, don't mess with the "Humpty Dance".....

That's still really good. 16 platinum albums is pretty incredible. It only seems like a small number for Prince because of the number of albums he's released. I knew most of this info before, but what surprises me is the certification dates. Dirty Mind has probably shipped 500,000 copies over the last 20 years, wouldn't you think? It must be due a platinum certification. Also maybe Lovesexy and Graffiti Bridge. Look at GB, it's certification came several months before Tevin Campbell's "Round & Round" was released as a single. Not that the album made a huge comeback from that song, but it probably came close to shipping a million. I also remember reading that was very close to double platinum in the spring of '93, after "7" was a hit, but Warner Bros. didn't apply for another certification. Remember, RIAA certifications aren't based on how much an album actually sold, they're based on how many copies were shipped to stores.

If Warner Bros. and Prince ever release the remasters look for several of those gold albums to be bumped up to platinum.

The Gold Experience stayed gold...

renfield said:

yep because i learned recently that when u re-release u are still adding on to the ammount of the original album and some more