Congratulations Hozier!
Your debut album #Hozier is #Platinum, @Hozier! Congratulations! #RIAAAlbumAward @columbiarecords pic.twitter.com/zmbO7pbILY
— RIAA (@RIAA) February 1, 2016
Just want to say a big thank you to all the supporters in the US, thrilled to have heard about the album going platinum. Many thanks!
— Hozier (@Hozier) February 5, 2016
Hozier was released in the USA on October 7, 2014 and was Certified Gold (500,000 sales) on February 27, 2015. The Platinum Certification represents 1,000,000 units that fall under a new methodology.
Changing Calculations
On February 1, 2016 the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the body responsible for awarding certifications in the USA, announced that it had revised its methodology for calculating Gold and Platinum certifications to include on-demand audio and video streams in addition to sales.
Hozier’s album was one of the first 17 to be awarded a certification under the new calculations.
The new formula is:
1,500 on-demand audio and/or video song streams = 10 track sales = 1 album sale.
That’s 1.5 billion streams to make the equivalent of 1,000,000 albums! Of course, sales were included in the calculation of Hozier’s Platinum Certification, but this step by the RIAA begins to acknowledge the influence of audio and video streams in benchmarking the success of a recording.
Featured image: RIAA