understanding riaa gold and platinum record awards

Estimated reading time is 13 minutes.

MOST OF THE INFORMATION about the criteria required for an RIAA Gold Record awarded an album from 1958 through 1974 and singles through 1988 found on the internet is incorrect. This applies to almost every website I have seen, especially Wikipedia. Believe it or not, this even applies to the RIAA’s own website! 1

This article will assist you in understanding RIAA awards for albums issued before 1975 and singles issued before 1989. It addresses the basic criteria that were used by the RIAA for awarding Gold and Platinum Records to singles and LP albums. The focus is on the awards from 1958 through 1974, during which their criteria remained stable.

This article will help you understand the RIAA awards for albums and singles issued between 1958 and 1989.

A lot of changes have occurred since the RIAA awarded its first Gold Record to Perry Como in 1958. A few major changes are not addressed, such as the certification of extend-play EP albums and the addition of digital downloads to sales totals.

Most of the websites I have seen screw up the information when mentioning Gold Record Awards for albums. Most apply post-1974 criteria standards to awards certified from 1958 through 1974. They almost always mention the number of copies sold, which is often incorrect or exaggerated. (There are, of course, some exceptions to this blanket statement.)

Note: This article was previously published on this blog as “About RIAA Gold And Platinum Record Awards.” As I made several changes in the text and several changes in the images, I retitled the article “Understanding RIAA Gold And Platinum Record Awards.”

 

Understanding RIAA Gold Records: RCA Victor/Bluebird Records' in-house gold record award to Glenn Miller for the "Chattanooga Choo Choo" single from 1942.
On February 10, 1942, RCA Victor presented Glenn Miller with the American record industry’s first known gold record. It was an in-house award for sales of 1,000,000 copies of “Chattanooga Choo Choo” on their Bluebird Records imprint. The basic design of this award may have been the inspiration for the RIAA’s Gold Record Award in 1958.

The nutshell version of this article

The entire 3,000 words of this article can be summed up in four statements of fewer than one hundred words:

1.  From 1958 through 1974, the RIAA Gold Record Award for albums was based solely on dollar amounts.

2.  From 1958 through 1974, the number of albums sold was irrelevant for certification for an RIAA Gold Record Award.

3.  RIAA Gold and Platinum Record Awards for albums are not based on the number of copies sold, but the number of “units.”

4.  Any time you read a reference to an RIAA Gold Record Award made before 1975 that states the number of copies sold for certification, you are probably reading a source that doesn’t know much about RIAA awards.

I reiterate: No standard LP record was ever certified for an RIAA Gold Record Award based on “the sale of more than 500,000 copies” before 1975. Nonetheless, that is a common statement on countless websites, including the RIAA’s site. 2

 

Understanding RIAA Gold Records: Elvis Presley holding his first RCA Victor in-house gold record award for "Heartbreak Hotel" in 1956.
On April 11. 1956, RCA Victor presented Elvis Presley with his first in-house gold record for sales of 1,000,000 copies of “Heartbreak Hotel.” RCA finally submitted this record to the RIAA for certification in 1992, when it was awarded both a Gold Record and a Platinum Record.

The RIAA according to the RIAA

The RIAA was formed in 1952 as a united front representing the interests of the larger record companies. The work of the organization included oversight of copyright issues, working with various unions, and carrying on research “relating to the record industry and government regulations.”

The RIAA also established universal standards for such technical aspects of recording as the equalization curve and how stereophonic record grooves should be cut. These were very important issues to the industry at the time. Here is the introduction to the RIAA that greets one on their website:

“The Recording Industry Association of America® (RIAA) is the trade organization that supports and promotes the creative and financial vitality of the major music companies. Its members comprise the most vibrant record industry in the world, investing in great artists to help them reach their potential and connect to their fans.

In support of this mission, the RIAA works to protect the intellectual property and First Amendment rights of artists and music labels; conduct consumer, industry, and technical research; and monitor and review state and federal laws, regulations, and policies.

RIAA also certifies Gold, Platinum, Multi-Platinum, Diamond, and Los Premios De Oro y Platino sales and streaming awards. Originally conceived to honor artists and track sound recording sales, Gold & Platinum Awards have come to stand as a benchmark of success for any artist.”

Believe it or not, the RIAA website does not provide any meaningful background or history on the changing criteria of the various awards mentioned in this introduction.

On a side note, Wikipedia states that the RIAA spends between $2,000,000 and $6,000,000 a year lobbying members of the United States Congress. 3

 

Understanding RIAA Gold Records: Arista Records' in-house multi-platinum award to Whitney Houston for her self-titled first album from 1985.
In-house awards did not go away after the RIAA introduced their “official” awards in 1958. This is an in-house award from Arista Records to Whitney Houston for her 1985 debut album. The plaque reads, “Presented to Whitney Houston for Worldwide Sales of Over 10 Million Units of the Album, Cassette & Compact Disc ‘Whitney Houston’ From Your Family at Arista Records.”

In-house awards are not fake awards

Record companies were giving awards to artists for exceptional sales achievements for years but on February 10, 1942, RCA Victor presented Glenn Miller with the industry’s first known gold record. It was an award for sales of 1,000,000 copies of Chattanooga Choo Choo on their Bluebird Records imprint. (Curiously, RCA has never submitted this record to the RIAA for official certification.) 4

Other companies followed suit and gold record awards became a fixture in the industry. The sales that were being acknowledged were not confined to the US: a million-selling record is a big deal, wherever the sales are made. A record that sells 500,000 copies in the US and 500,000 copies in Europe is still a million-seller!

These awards are now called in-house awards and for many records, these are the only sales indicators that we have to go on. Despite the prominence of RIAA Gold and Platinum Awards in the record industry, record companies still make and present special in-house awards to their artists for all sorts of achievements not covered by those RIAA awards. 5

 

 
Understanding RIAA Gold Records: Jerry Wexler and  Aretha Franklin displaying her first two RIAA Gold Record Awards for "Respect" and "I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You" in 1968.
In this photo, Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler presents Aretha Franklin with a pair of RIAA Gold Record Awards. This photo was probably taken in June 1967 and the awards are for “Respect” and “I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You,” the first of her fourteen singles to pass the million mark in the US.

Gold Record Award for singles

The RIAA took an interest in all of this and instituted its own Gold Record Awards program that began in February 1958. Since then, the RIAA awards are considered the only “official” awards. To qualify for certification, record companies had to request certification and pay for an independent audit of their books to verify that a given record had in fact sold the requisite amounts.

As the awards had little value at first, many companies did not request certification for their artists. (There are many reasons why a record company might not want to show anyone their books.)

When the RIAA began issuing Gold Record Awards in 1958, singles were the medium that mattered but albums were recognized. The criteria for singles and albums were very different in the beginning: the RIAA counted records sold for singles but counted dollar amounts for albums as few LPs sold large quantities of records.

1958-1988

Initially, a single had to sell 1,000,000 copies within the United States. The RIAA counted all sales of 78s (which was almost obsolete as a viable commercial format in 1958) and 45s to wholesalers, retailers, and jukebox vendors. The RIAA also counted free copies given to retailers for placing large orders, as they were more a discount to encourage large orders than actual freebies. 6

The RIAA did not count free copies given for promotional purposes, notably those shipped to radio stations for airplay. These never counted for more than a few thousand per title.

1989-2021

With the increasing lack of interest in singles as a medium, sales plummeted over the years. This was not good for the industry as there were few million-selling singles so few Gold Record Awards for singles. Even records that topped the charts were often selling comfortably below the seven-figure mark!

In 1989, the RIAA lowered the criteria dramatically. A single only needed to sell only 500,000 copies for a Gold Record Award! Somewhere along the way, digital downloads were added to the count. 7

 

Understanding RIAA Gold Records: RIAA Platinum Record Award for the Beach Boys' PET SOUNDS album from 2000.
RIAA awaards became fancier with the passing of time. This Platinum Record Award was presented to Paul Atkinson, probably when PET SOUNDS was certified by the RIAA in 2000. Atkinson got his start in the recording industry as a member of the Zombies then moved into the business side of the recording industry. He went on to head the A&R departments at three of the five major labels, working with many of the biggest names in the world.

Platinum Record Award for singles

Many hit singles had sold more than 2,000,000 copies in the past by the time the RIAA introduced the official Platinum Record Award in 1976. But the first current hit to pass that mark and be certified for the first of these new awards was Johnny Taylor’s Disco Lady. Unfortunately, many media outlets reporting on this new award made it sound like Disco Lady was, in fact, the first single to reach this lofty level. Forty years later and that erroneous belief still, pops up on the internet.

1976-1988

In 1976, the RIAA introduced the Platinum Record Award for singles which sold 2,000,000 copies in the US.

1989-2021

In 1989, the RIAA completely redefined a Platinum Record for a single to mean only 1,000,000 copies sold. Somewhere along the way, digital downloads were added to the count.

 
 
Understanding RIAA Gold Records: RIAA Platinum Record Award for the MEET THE BEATLES album from 1977.
Here is the RIAA Gold Record Award to The Beatles for their 1964 album MEET THE BEATLES! The award was made “to commemorate the sales of more than one million dollars worth” of the album. This is what all RIAA Gold Records Awards for albums commemorated from 1958 into 1975.

Gold Record Awards for albums

As stated above, initially the RIAA only counted dollar amounts for albums. The criteria were constant for seventeen years before being changed out of necessity. Other changes have occurred since then.

1958-1974

Initially, an LP album had to sell $1,000,000 at the manufacturer’s wholesale price to qualify for an RIAA Gold Record Award. The wholesale price was determined by using one-third (or 33⅓) of the retail price.

The number of copies sold was irrelevant.

1975-2021

As the retail price of albums rose, the number of records needed to reach the magic million mark got smaller. On January 17, 1974, Bob Dylan’s PLANET WAVES received an immediate Gold Record Award on January 22, 1974. The problem was that the latest increase in the price of new LPs meant that the Award was made to an album with fewer than 500,000 sales!

Elektra/Asylum raised the suggested retail price on standard single record albums of its top artists to $6.97. That gave the RIAA a wholesale price of $2.10 per album, which allowed the Dylan record to “go gold” with only 476,190 units sold.

This caused some consternation in the industry and the RIAA set about tweaking the rules. Beginning in 1975, an album had to meet two criteria:

1.  An album must sell at least $1,000,000 at the wholesale level.
2.  An album must sell at least 500,000 units.

 

Understanding RIAA Gold Records: RIAA Platinum Record Award for Elvis Presley's MOODY BLUE album from 1977.
In the wake of Elvis Presley’s unexpected death on August 16, 1977, sales of his then-current album MOODY BLUE skyrocketed! On September 12, 1977, the RIAA certified it as having sold 1,000,000 copies. This RIAA Platinum Record Award was given to Mark Douglas, apparently an employee of RCA Records at the time.

Platinum Record Awards for albums

Not one single or album received an RIAA Platinum Record Award in the ’60s. Why? Because there was no such award until 1976! Starting sometime in the mid-1960s, some record companies gave their artists platinum records as awards for sales beyond the gold level. These were unofficial, in-house awards.

1976-1984

In 1976, the RIAA introduced the official Platinum Record Award. They used a similar set of criteria to the Gold Award:

1.  An album must sell at least $2,000,000 at the wholesale level.
2.  An album must sell at least 1,000,000 units.

1985-2021

In 1985, the RIAA introduced the Multi-Platinum Award for sales levels in multiples of 1,000,000. Wholesale dollar amounts were also a part of the award and were counted in multiples of $2,000,000.

For a 2xMulti-Platinum Record Award:
1.  An album must sell at least $4,000,000 at the wholesale level.
2.  An album must sell at least 2,000,000 units.

For a 3xMulti-Platinum Record Award:
1.  An album must sell at least $6,000,000 at the wholesale level.
2.  An album must sell at least 3,000,000 units.

Etcetera.

 

 RIAA Gold Record Awards: cover of CHICAGO AT CARNEGIE HALL album from 1971.
Chicago’s fourth album, CHICAGO AT CARNEGIE HALL, was a boxed set of four records. It was released in November 1971 with a suggested retail price of $12.98. It needed to sell 256,411 sets to qualify for an RIAA Gold Record Award, which it received within days of its release. Reputedly, it quickly sold more than 1,000,000 copies (or 4,000,000 units).

Certifying multiple-record albums

Exactly how the RIAA counts multiple-record sets has varied over the years. A single album is always one “unit”; a double album has been one or two units. At one time, whether or not a double album counted as two units or one was based on the length of the music!

This is completely contrary to the original intention of the Gold Record standards for LPs. Plus, it was just plain idiotic in action. Considers these possibilities:

•  If a two-record set had a manufacturer’s list price of $9.98 but was only 59:59 minutes long, it counted as a single unit towards certification. If it was 60:00, it counted as two units!

•  But if a two-record set was just one second longer (60:00), it counted as two units—even if it had a lower manufacturer’s list price (such as $7.98)!

Confused? Just remember that before 1975, an album need only sell $1,000,000 wholesale; the more expensive an album’s retail price, the fewer copies it needed to sell to reach that level.

 

 RIAA Gold Record Awards: magazine advertisement for Columbia Records' new long playing microgroove record.
While this 1948 advertisement boasts of forty-five minutes of playing time, actual pop albums tended to clock in at around thirty minutes. This had as much to do with money matters (like royalties) as it did with technical matters (like fidelity).

Understanding RIAA Gold and Platinum Awards

Consider this: how does anyone have a sane conversation about record sales in the ’60s based on RIAA Awards when not a single Motown record received a Gold Record Award in the ’60s? Using the RIAA Awards as a deciding factor, one could easily and reasonably conclude that Motown was not a particularly successful record company—just about the stupidest conclusion one could ever reach.

So, writers and “content providers” that clog up the Internet with observations based on ignorance, here’s my advice (the simplest one first): Stop mentioning sales figures when you mention RIAA Gold and Platinum Awards in your articles! 

This advice is more difficult (but more rewarding): Stop mentioning RIAA Gold and Platinum Awards as meaningful sales indicators in your articles without understanding the Awards and taking into consideration the circumstances surrounding each one.

 

Understanding RIAA Gold Records: RIAA Platinum Record Award for Queen's single "We Are The Champions" from 1977.

FEATURED IMAGE: The image at the top of this page was cropped from this photo. After the RIAA introduced a Platinum Record Award in 1975, a slew of hits were certified for this prestigious award. This Platinum Award was presented to Queen’s manager Pete Brown to commemorate the sale of more than 2,000,000 copies of the group’s 1977 smash We Are The Champions.

 

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FOOTNOTES:

1   Yes, indeed, the RIAA site gets it wrong, too. Due to how their data is paid out, a single LP’s sales level can only be rendered in units sold, not in dollars. So, for Gold Records awarded before 1975, each title is listed as selling 500,000 units despite some selling as many as 999,999 copies! (And don’t even get me started on the amount of misinformation on Wikipedia about RIAA certification and sales levels.)

2   I wrote that no record was ever certified for an RIAA Gold Record Award based on the sale of more than 500,000 copies in the ’60s and that is true. 1975 was the first year in which the RIAA awarded Gold Records to an album based on both dollar sales and unit sales (“the sale of more than 500,000 copies”). Before that, a few albums received Gold Records for sales of fewer than a half-million, but they were multiple-record albums with a higher list price.

3   For the word lobbying you may freely substitute bribing, paying off, or even buying and it won’t hurt the article any.

4   To avoid confusion throughout this article, I only capitalized RIAA awards (“Gold Records”). In-house awards or other references are in lowercase letters (“gold records”).

5   This does not mean that the next time that you visit the site of some aging rockabilly artist who issued a single on Unbelievably Obscure Records in 1962 that he claims sold 5,000,000 copies you should believe him.

6   In 1957, RCA Victor announced that Elvis had sold more than 10,000,000 singles in 1956, of which fewer than 10% were 78s. By the end of 1958, the few 78s manufactured in the US were mostly blues and rhythm & blues records for the black market.

7   And in a love that made little sense, they eventually made this new award retroactive, allowing companies to have singles from decades before—when the big hits were selling millions—now eligible for a “new” Gold Record for sales of half a million. But that’s another story.

 


 

6 thoughts on “understanding riaa gold and platinum record awards”

  1. 1. Another RIAA oddity is that the same album sometimes counts as being different releases. For example, if a band released an LP with a runing time of forty minutes, it’s one album (a standard, single album).

    2. If the LP was reissued as a CD with additional “bonus” material (such as B-sides, outtakes, etc.) and the CD runs over fifty-five minutes, then the RIAA counts it as a completely separate album (a double-album)!

    3. On the RIAA website, certain Gold or Platinum Awards are listed as being for the “standard version” of the album.

    4. Also, what always gets me is people using RIAA as the “ultimate truth.” As an example, the biggest-selling album of 1971 was Jesus Christ Superstar yet it has only ever been certified Gold because nobody at Decca Records ever bothered to get the album recertified as Multi-Platinum. And, to make it doubly dumb, many will say that it “had US sales of half a million.”

    Reply
    • 1. Yup. The early years of the Digital Era were confusing, especially to the folks at the RIAA.

      2. Yup again and how about this: During the Vinyl Era, double=albums were easy to ascertain: if it had two records, it was a double album. With the ability to put well over an hour of music on a CD, things got muddied: If a double LP album with a double-LP album list price is reissued on a single CD with a single CD list price, does it stop being a double-album? 

      3. The “Gold & Platinum” section of the RIAA website is a bit of a disaster for those of us who give a damn about facts.

      4. Given that Decca is owned by MCA, it is surprising that MCA hasn’t upped it certification. It doesn’t surprise me that many will say that it “had US sales of half a million as it appears that most online writers lnow absolutely nothing about researching their projects. 

      PS: It’s difficult kow nut I will bet you a French pastry to a Dunkin’ Donut that Tapestry outsold Jesus Christ Superstar in 1971.

      Reply
  2. 1. Very interesting read. One question: Is the dollar amount still the primary criterion for certification?

    2. As a hypothetical example, if an old LP had a list price of $4.50, its wholesale price would be $1.50.

    3. Now, let’s say it shipped 5,000,000 records and that’s $7,500,000. As the 5xPlatinum Aaward requiremt is $10,000,000, it falls short of that requirement. 

    4. As the 4xPlatinum Award is $8,000,000, it fails to meet that requirement, too. 

    5. But 3xPlatinum at $6,000,000 is achieved, as is meets the minimum 3xPlatinum monetary amount along with the requirement of 3,000,000 records.

    6. So, is it possible that a record that sold (well shipped) 5,000,000 copies could ultimately be certified 3xPlatinum?

    Reply
    • 1. According to the “RIAA and GR&F Certification Audit Requirements – RIAA Album Award” currently running on the RIAA website, the RIAA recognizes the following album award tiers:

      _________________________

      General Program
      Gold: 500,000 Units
      Platinum: 1,000,000 Units (increments of 1,000,000 thereafter)
      Diamond: 10,000,000 Units

      In order to count for certification purposes only, physical and digital sales of the complete album must be sold at a) an average wholesale value of $2 or more per unit or b) a suggested retail value of $6 or more per unit.

      _________________________

      2. So far, so good but keep in mind that, with inflation, $1.50 from a sale of an LP in 1963 would be worth many times the buying power (and therefore value) of the RIAA’s requirement of $2 in 2023.

      3. Apparently so.

      4. Apparently so.

      5. Apparently so.

      6. It would only happen if either the record company or someone in possession of the record company’s paper documentation of sales requested and paid for an audit by the RIAA.

      Finally, regarding records “shipped” verses records “sold”: As far as I know, the shipping thing occurred in the early ’70s and proved such a hassle (and is anyone old enough to remember when that was a hip word?) that it was dropped and proven retail sales were once again required.

      Reply

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