Talk:RIAA certification
Madonna's Riaa Single Certifications
I don't understand why do you erase the Madonna updated certifications. You are wrong. Madonna has:
26x Gold singles
6x Platinum singles
2x Multi-Platinum singles
The RIAA database show those certifications:
Madonna's RIAA Certified Singles (According with the Riaa database):
GOLD: 26
1. Borderline
2. Like A Virgin
3. Crazy For You
4. Angel/Into The Groove
5. Papa Don't Preach
6. True Blue
7. Like A Prayer
8. Express Yourself
9. Keep It Together
10. Vogue
11. Hanky Panky
12. Justify My Love
13. Rescue Me
14. This Used To Be My Playground
15. Erotica
16. I'll Remember
17. Secret
18. Take A Bow
19. You'll See
20. You Must Love Me
21. Frozen
22. Ray of Light
23. Music
24. Don't Tell Me
25. Hung Up
26. 4 Minutes
PLATINUM: 6
1. Like A Prayer
2. Vogue
3. Justify My Love
4. Music
5. Hung Up
6. 4 Minutes
MULTI-PLATINUM: 2
1. Vogue
2. 4 Minutes
Guns N' Roses
GNR's Appetite For Destruction has been certified to have sold 18 million copies, according to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).
Artist: GUNS 'N ROSES
Title: APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION
Certification Date: 09/23/2008
Label: GEFFEN
Award Description: 18.00x MULTI PLATINUM
Format: ALBUM
Category: GROUP
Type: ST
RIAA Link: http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=tblDiamond
Wrong List
The Following list is wrong and incomplete:
- Elvis Presley (54G+27P+8MP)[1]
- Mariah Carey (23G+10P+2MP)[2]
- The Beatles (24G+6P+4MP)[3]
- Madonna (26G+5P+1MP)[4]
- Janet Jackson (21G+5P)[5]
- Whitney Houston (19G+7P+1MP)[6]
- Elton John (17G+6P+1MP)[7]
- The Temptations (17G+6P)[8]
- Aretha Franklin (15G)[9]
- Creedence Clearwater Revival (10G+5P)[10]
- Barbra Streisand (9G+5P)[11]
- TLC (9G+4P)[12]
- Britney Spears (7G+4P)[13]
- Christina Aguilera (9G+2P)[14]
- The Carpenters (10G)[15]
- Destiny's Child (7G+3P)[16]
- George Michael (8G+1P)[17]
- Billy Joel (7G+2P)[18]
1 - Where's is Michael Jackson?
2 - Until 1988, Gold single was 1 Million sold/Shipped. With this rule the table change. The beatles outsold Mariah...
Please Change.
- Michael Jackson should be in the list, that's true. However, the list is of the recording artists and bands that have the greatest total RIAA certifications for singles, not sales. Some of those listed are also the ones with the most actual singles sales, but there are others that aren't on the list because they don't have as many certifications.Odin's Beard (talk) 00:45, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
It says here: "Traditionally, an American RIAA-certified gold record was a single or album that sold 500,000 units (records, tapes, and/or CDs). A platinum record was one that sold 1,000,000 units, representing typically four or five times greater sales than a gold record."
I may be missing something, but where does the "four or five times greater" come in? Should it not be TWICE as many? Even if a lot of sales go by unnoticed, that same percentage should be unnoticed no matter whether they're being counted for a gold or a platinum album. Also, by the time it got to four times greater sales, it would be going DOUBLE platinum ... right?
MXVN (talk) 12:21, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
Why it is said in the records section that 2Pac only sold 36.5m units when it is written in the 1st paragraph of "2Pac" article that he sold over 75m worldwide including over 50m in the US? Yornitsuj 15:40, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
This is User:NamelessNote, I just editted the Tupac's album sales, seems that they did not count all of the numbers in the album and just did a random math. —Preceding comment was added at 18:16, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
just out of curiosity, has there ever been a diamond album?
- nevermind, wasnt using brain. or google.
I don't think this is a stub any more, but it's still short. It would be good to have current details of the thresholds for various countries, and the names of awarding bodies for other countries where one exists. Andrewa 00:11, 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)
- I should say, my comment above was made when this page was called Gold album, as possibly was the comment below from Wshun (I don't know how to tell exactly when a page was renamed, or is it just I don't know or is there noplace to look?). Anyway, we now have two pages, this one has become (obviously) a page about gold albums etc in the USA, the original page has reverted to being a more general article. Andrewa 21:05, 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)
- Found where to look! You go to the redirect page (go back to the redirect page from the new article via the 'redirect ed from' is one way to get there), go to its 'talk' page, again go back via the 'redirected from' link, and look at the page history. This is no longer necessary for this page as the original has been recreated. But the info is there. Andrewa 21:11, 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Too US-centric! Information for other countries? Wshun
- Well the third A in RIAA stands for America. Maybe there should be another page for international record rankings? As far as I know, the RIAA doesn't rank internationally. Lypheklub 06:46, Aug 31, 2003 (UTC)
- Music recording sales certification discusses certification in general (worldwide). Will remove the proposed merge tag to Gold album (which now redirects to Music recording sales certification). --Lph 18:31, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
Merge
Should this article be merged with Single certification or vice versa? --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 08:03, 3 August 2005 (UTC)
This article really needs to be checked for accuracy. I know for a fact that Mariah Carey has 17 platinum singles, not 8. Just suggesting.
Try Merging this data
Totals are derived from cumulative album sales totals (U.S. only) Source RIAA
Artist |
Units(*) |
BEATLES, THE |
168.5 |
PRESLEY, ELVIS |
116.5 |
LED ZEPPELIN |
107.5 |
BROOKS, GARTH |
105.0 |
EAGLES |
89.0 |
JOEL, BILLY |
78.5 |
PINK FLOYD |
73.5 |
STREISAND, BARBRA |
70.5 |
JOHN, ELTON |
69.0 |
AC/DC |
66.0 |
AEROSMITH |
65.5 |
ROLLING STONES, THE |
64.5 |
SPRINGSTEEN, BRUCE |
61.5 |
MADONNA |
60.0 |
STRAIT, GEORGE |
60.0 |
JACKSON, MICHAEL |
59.5 |
CAREY, MARIAH |
57.5 |
METALLICA |
57.0 |
VAN HALEN |
56.5 |
HOUSTON, WHITNEY |
54.0 |
U2 |
50.5 |
(*)Certified Units in Millions Edited article to correct numbers for Pink Floyd's gold, platinum, and multiplatinum albums.
Album Figures
Am I reading this correct, or does it state that Elvis had 97 Gold albums? Hackajar 09:16, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
On another note, shouldn't Rush be on this list somewhere? They have at least 19 gold/platinum/multiplatnum records certified by the RIAA.
Platinum to Diamond
It says that The Eagles' Greatest hits had 29X platinum. Why isn't it 2X diamond or something? —Akrabbimtalk 14:43, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
Because Diamond is not a precise certificaiton, like if the album would have sold 20 000 000 copies it would have the same certification than another that sold 29 000 000 copies, even if this one has sale 9 million times more. That's why they use the platinum system for high selling album, like they could use the gold one, thats even more precise but numbers would be too high. yornitsuj 10:35, 24 october 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.217.75.180 (talk)
I agree that there should be a diamond column. Piyush90 14:05, 11 August 2007 (UTC)
Singles
Under "Artists with most Gold, Platinum and Multi-platinum singles" #10 Billy Joel is said to have 1 gold and yet is ahead of #11 Aretha Franklin who has 15 gold albums. I'm guessing this is some kind of typo however I was unable to find a comprehensive source for anything under the singles section. Hopefully someone whit more knowledge and skills in this domain can fix this. ASA-IRULE 22:07, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
Total BS?
This page claims that Insane Clown Posse's The Tempest is the best selling album in the United States, with a ridiculous number of albums sold. Obviously a malicious edit; any way to revert to what it was before? 71.108.124.162 01:59, 6 February 2007 (UTC)A skeptic
- For future issues about ICP see RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for Insane Clown Posse unless provided a different source. The Tempest does not even appear in this database.R00m c 05:34, 28 July 2007 (UTC)
- While that was obviously a malicious edit... Why aren't they even mentioned? They do have 2 Platinum and 4 Gold RIAA certified albums. Does this page only cater to mainstream artists? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.243.29.81 (talk) 19:21, 7 October 2007 (UTC)
vandalism of the best-selling albums table
The Eagles are mentioned as selling 29 million copies of Hell Freezes Over (which sounds right to me, btw; last I checked it was 28 million); but they're not even in the best selling album table. That table really needs to be checked over for vandalism. 67.170.212.250 02:01, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
Eminem as of this day does not have a Diamond certified album, but there are several pages on wiki which state so, none with any source. Marshall Mathers LP and Eminem Show both sold many albums, but is only certified 9x platinum in the US as of June 2007.
- According to RIAA's own site, they list all the Diamond awards. Eminem is DEFINITELY not on the list of Diamond awards, and the Eagles are not only listed under RIAA's top selling artists (at #5, I believe with 91 million units), but listed #1 in top selling albums (EAGLES/THEIR GREATEST HITS 1971 - 1975 at 29 million copies), and have three Diamond awards: EAGLES/THEIR GREATEST HITS 1971 - 1975, HOTEL CALIFORNIA, & EAGLES GREATEST HITS VOLUME II. Further, Def Leppard isn't listed, even though they appear twice in the RIAA's Top 100 Albums for PYROMANIA and HYSTERIA, both of which are also Diamond certified, and have sold 35 million certified units; Eminem only 27 million. So maybe he belongs on the list, but it's clear "Eminem" has been stuck in there alphabetically between "Chicago" and "Clapton, Eric".
- This page is already locked from edits by unregistered users, so what else can we do? Obviously even locked pages aren't immune to vandalism. I'm going to change it later today and try to watch it closely. Besides, the page needs to be updated monthly as the RIAA release their current data. --Chÿna 21:14, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
Diamond Awards
Just because an artist sells over 10 million copies doesn't mean they are issued a Diamond certification. There is criteria that has to be met, and it is up to the Artist's people to submit the Artist, pay a fee, prove sales criteria, etc. to the RIAA to receive the certification. So saying that an Artist is an RIAA Certified Award winner is FAR different than how many copies an album, single, video, or even total units, have sold!! Please don't assume the Artist is a Diamond award winner based on copies sold or post accordingly. If you'd like to know how many Diamond Awards were handed out, go to the RIAA's website and look. There aren't that many, and Eminem is NOT one of them. --Chÿna 21:14, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
Top selling artists
Are these numbers correct? (in millions, US only?)
- Beatles, The 351
- Presley, Elvis 326.5
- Brooks, Garth 312
- Led Zeppelin 301
- Eagles 245.5
- Joel, Billy 206
- Pink Floyd 167.5
The source mentioned other data.... Christo jones 15:39, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
Why some bestselling albums are not in the list?
I'm sorry, but where is Thriller (album) by Michael Jackson in Diamond sales part? AFAIK it is one of best selling album of all time both all over the world and in USA, isn't it? And where is noted above Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) by The Eagles?
It is unclear for me what is this whole Diamond sales part about if there is no such (and maybe some others) best selling albums there? 77.120.129.111 00:02, 4 December 2007 (UTC)
Why include the top-selling artist list?
There is no need for this list here. The information is at List of best-selling music artists. This article should be about the subject of RIAA certifications (what the levels are, how they're given, etc.) Lists of artist and their records abound on WP. Hult041956 (talk) 22:01, 12 December 2007 (UTC)
thriller 25
As you probably already know Thriller 25 has been released and billboard are saying that its sales in america will be added to those of the original album.[1] This means that the platinum X27 will increase soon. Realist2 (talk) 23:29, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
Limp Bizkit - Chocolate Starfish
The RIAA website has this album selling 6 million copies, this article lists it as selling 19. The band total of 54 million looks a bit fishy as well. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.240.42.138 (talk) 06:07, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
Multi-disc albums
Counting each disc as a separate unit if the set is over 100 minutes in length may be the current rule, but it wasn't in the nineties when they first started counting double albums twice. Pink Floyd's The Wall, for example, is about 81 minutes, but it's double counted. It went from 11x platinum to 22x platinum in 1997. 74.77.222.188 (talk) 00:37, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
Inaccurate RIAA data
I've gone to the site that is copied on this post, and it is copied correctly, but the data is simply incorrect. How can Mariah Carey not be listed in the list of Gold and Platinum albums when she is listed on the bottom of the page as having the second most Gold and Platinum albums out of any artist in history? She also received the Chopard award for selling more tha 100 million albums, but is listed over here as having sold 61.5... what gives? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.57.238.48 (talk) 23:12, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
- She is listed though the information you have on her having the second most number of RIAA certified albums is certainly faulty. When it comes to an artists RIAA certification, the most reliable source is the gold and platinum database on RIAA.com itself. The RIAA was created for just that kind of thing, to keep track of album sales in the United States. Any publication or website that lists a different number of RIAA certifications than the database itself should be viewed as highly suspect in terms of accuracy.Odin's Beard (talk) 22:35, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
- OK just an FYI, Mariah is the 3rd best-selling female in the U.S., behind Barbra and Madonna for selling 61.5M albums to date. Likewise, per IFPI which certifies worldwide sales, Mariah is also the 3rd biggest-selling female worldwide with 160M albums behind Madonna and Celine Dion, who both have sold more than 200M albums. Hope that cleared it up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.225.92.93 (talk) 13:25, 18 May 2008 (UTC)
I have done much research on exactly how many albums Jay-z has sold, the total is 32,056,000....not including singles. With singles he's said to be over 60 million but it doesn't look like these totals include singles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.149.157.174 (talk) 22:35, 24 June 2008 (UTC)
- I don't know where you're getting your information from, but it's not accurate in the least. The RIAA gold and platinum database lists that Jay-Z has only 5 gold singles. That's a couple of dozen million units short of what would be required for his album and singles to total up to 60 million units.Odin's Beard (talk) 22:56, 24 June 2008 (UTC)
Gold and Platinum albums: bad sort on the Multi-Platinum column
On the "Records" section, there's a sort problem on the rightmost column of the right table.
Click on Multi-Platinum and you get the numbers as follows: 10,11,12,13,14,15,1
Click again and you get: 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,27,24,1.
Can anyone fix this? Thanks 89.1.68.129 (talk) 16:47, 3 August 2008 (UTC)
I'm also finding this problem. It doesn't seem to be resolved, and I have no idea how to fix it. Anyone know how? Wrelwser43 (talk) 03:45, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
The Beatles' best selling album
In the "Diamond sales" section, "The beatles" album is the top one. However, the Beatles article states something else on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_(album)#Sales : "The Beatles has outsold all other Beatles album releases except Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band and Abbey Road, according to United World Chart".
Can anyone correct the wrong info? Thanks 89.1.3.77 (talk) 16:40, 4 August 2008 (UTC)
- The RIAA is an organization that tracks sales/shippments of albums, singles, and various videos association with music in the United States alone, not on a worldwide scale. There are other organizations in a number of other countries like Canada, the U.K., Australia, and many others that track the various sales/shipments of other albums for those countries. There are differences, however, because an album that sells 50,000 copies in Canada is certified Gold and I think that it's 60,000 in the U.K. Anyhow, my point is that "The Beatles" is the group's highest certified album in the United States with 19x Multi-Platinum while Sgt. Pepper's and Abbey Road have been certified 11 and 12x Multi-Platinum respectively. So, the article is correct as is.Odin's Beard (talk) 22:36, 4 August 2008 (UTC)
- Thanks for the excellent answer. Wouldn't you think it can help if different articles used the same measurements regarding record sales? It confused me,it might confuse others as well. It's a bit inconsistent. Thanks 77.125.158.37 (talk) 15:55, 5 August 2008 (UTC)
- We can't use the same measurment because the music industry of other countries has different standards than the United States. I can only assume that the reason for that, such as 50,000 units qualifying as a Gold album in Canada for instance, may have something to do with population? After all, a lot more people live in the states than in Canada and the U.K. combined which might explain why U.S. certifications require much higher sales/shipments. The Canadian Recording Industry Association and the British Phonographic Industry, or the CRIA and BPI for short, are basically their versions of the RIAA and so we have to use their certs for albums that've been certified in their countries rather than just assigning our own to them in the articles. Both organizations have websites with searchable databases like the RIAA does. I think that the CRIA's website is www.cria.ca and I'm not entirely sure about the BPI but just type in British Phonographic Industry in a Yahoo or Goggle search engine and it'll be brought up. There are also other organizations from other countries listed in the style guide section of the WP:WikiProject Discographies page. I haven't looked up most of those because, if I'm not mistaken, the sites of those organizations are, of course, written in their respective languages.Odin's Beard (talk) 23:14, 5 August 2008 (UTC)
- Thanks for the excellent answer. Wouldn't you think it can help if different articles used the same measurements regarding record sales? It confused me,it might confuse others as well. It's a bit inconsistent. Thanks 77.125.158.37 (talk) 15:55, 5 August 2008 (UTC)
~~$£Construtive Critisism and General Edit Tips For This Page
This page is a load of bollocks, fair play, what's with the list of best-selling artists? Its all wrong, and the same with the albums. Unless the best-selling albums is in no particular order, which it must be. Because the Dark Side of the Moon has sold tonnes more units than the Wall. And the same with the units of sales with the Beatles, 170 million, I don't think so! Its over a billion and as if Gareth Brooks is gonna be the second best-selling artist of all-time, and the people adding to this page are taking most of their sources from in wikipedia! The think the list of best-selling artists is the US, or an example, but I think the public would prefer accurate infomation, agreed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.165.237.53 (talk) 16:49, 24 October 2008 (UTC)
- The Recording Industry Association of America is an organization that tracks the sales/shipments of albums within the confines of the United States, not on a worldwide level. There is no organization that keeps track of album sales on a worldwide scale, but the music industry of some other countries have similar organizations. For instance, Canada has the Canadian Recording Industry Association and the United Kingdom has the British Phonographic Industry. In the future, I advise you to know what you're talking about first before offering criticism on the subject of any Wikipedia article.Odin's Beard (talk) 22:37, 24 October 2008 (UTC)
Removal of artists certification levels
Note that I intend to remove the detail on artists award levels for the following reasons:
- That this article is about RIAA cerifications and their levels, so not appropriate to the articles context.
- That all of this detail exists in more appropriate pages. List of best-selling albums in the United States and List_of_best-selling_music_artists_in_the_United_States.
The diamond awards detail can be moved across to the best selling albums page. Any objections to this should be noted here on the discussion page. Eight88 (talk) 19:52, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
- I wasn't aware that there were articles already listing the best selling albums and the best selling artists in the United States. In that case, then yes they should be taken out of this article. It's redundant to have multiple articles saying the same thing. As far as the other list in the article, the ones listing the total album certifications, shouldn't that remain? It doesn't deal with album sales, just album certs in and of themselves. I was looking over the section dealing with the singles certification and I got to thinking. Since there's not a list of them on the RIAA website, unlike the other lists on the page, it could possibly constitute original research.Odin's Beard (talk) 01:09, 21 December 2008 (UTC)
The Marshall Mathers LP
The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem released May 23, 2000 was certified Diamond by the RIAA and has sold 19 million copies,but is absent from the list of diamond records. I dont know how to edit the page but this should be added. It also sold 1.76 million in its first week. It is the fastest selling album ever,so I think it should be on the list.
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Elvis Presley
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Mariah Carey
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by The Beatles
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Madonna
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Janet Jackson
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Whitney Houston
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Elton John
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by The Temptations
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Aretha Franklin
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Creedence Clearwater Revival
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Barbra Streisand
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by TLC
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Britney Spears
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Christina Aguilera
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by The Carpenters
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Destiny's Child
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by George Michael
- ^ RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for singles by Billy Joel