In an attempt to reflect today’s ever changing music industry climate, the RIAA has announced that music streaming will now count towards an artist’s ‘Gold’ or ‘Platinum’ status.
“Including music streaming in Gold & Platinum awards marks the continued evolution of the industry’s premier program for recognizing artistic achievement, and it reflects the wide spectrum of ways consumers enjoy music from their favorite bands,” said Cary Sherman, Chairman & CEO, RIAA. “The music business, along with its incredible array of digital service partners, is offering fans more access to music than ever before. We’re thrilled that our awards will now more fully recognize artists’ commercial success today.”
With the changes, on-demand audio and/or video song streams (Spotify, Pandora, Rdio, etc) will now be counted towards the 500,000 (Gold), 1,000,000 (Platinum) and 2,000,000 plus (multi-Platinum) thresholds required for G&P’s Digital Single Award certification.
This means a ton of your favorite artists will be receiving new certifications, including Frank Ocean, Rihanna,Whitney Houston,Usher Michael Jackson his protege Justin Timberlake Emeli Sandé, Jason DeRulo just to name a few & others.
You can check out the full press release here. How do you feel about the changes?