The RIAA Factors in Streaming Allowing Kendrick Lamar and Big Sean to Go Platinum

Monday, February 1st, 2016 at 10:44 pm

Written by FreddyO Intern: James Wagner

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has released the news that they will now factor in album and video streaming into the Gold and Platinum certification process.

It makes sense because many artist count on streaming to distribute music to their fans. This is a huge jump because just recently the RIAA only counted streams for singles which helped make Rihanna’s newest single “Work” and her album Anti go platinum in two days. Fans of Rihanna streamed the album 13 million times and downloaded it one million times in just 14 hours!

Other big name artist to receive a bump from the rule change are Kendrick Lamar and Big Sean who had their most recent albums To Pimp A Butterfly and Dark Sky Paradise respectively have gone platinum.

Even the Weeknd has benefitted from the change with his album Beauty Behind the Madness going 2x Platinum. To get a better understanding of how the RIAA has restructured the awards process the new Digital Single Award formula is 150 streams = 1 download (previously 100 streams equaled 1 download). The Album Award formula is 1,500 video or strong streams = 1 album sale.