If the sales would have occurred pre-digital era, as physical singles, the earnings – at least for the label, as artists had a lower royalty rate back then – would have been around 24 times that of a “YouTube platinum artist”. Had the Gold certificate been completely based on downloads, the earnings would have been about eight times that much. Of course the artist’s royalties would most likely go towards recouping their record deal, including video costs (which could easily be a few hundred grand), so they’d actually still be in the red.Ĭonsidering that the certification plaques are not actually given away – a standard plaque will set you back around $200-250, and you can choose more elaborate ones for a higher price – artists may choose to pay their heating bills instead of purchasing one. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Thriftshop” has over 293 million views so far – which on its own would earn them six times Gold certificate.
The VEVO video for Lana Del Rey’s Video Games (RIAA only counts “official videos”, and not user-generated ones) has so far had over 40 million views. With these new calculations, a track could earn a plaque without even having been released as a download, simply by racking up 50 million hits on YouTube – a figure that is not that unusual. Is this a step forward or is it a move that will make these certificates somewhat irrelevant, monetarily or otherwise?Īccording to RIAA rules, 500,000 unit sales earns a Gold certificate, 1 million earns a Platinum and 10 million a Diamond. Of course it’s important to acknowledge new forms of music consumption, but is it fair to give a YouTube stream, for example, the same value as a Spotify stream? Will the RIAA simply look at the number of hits, or extract the number of views from the US? Views coming from countries where YouTube doesn’t have music licenses in place can’t be monetised, and shouldn’t count anyway, as its certificates should only be reflective of US sales.
Opting to rely on average consumption patterns, it has decided to count 100 streams as one digital download sale. Major label trade organisation RIAA has just announced that from now on, on-demand downloads will count toward its Combined Gold and Platinum Digital Single Award Plaques.
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