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Because RIAA Rule Changes, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd & Big Sean Go Platinum

blame it on Meka February 1, 2016
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The Recording Industry Association of America has always been known as a platform that has been behind the times. They weren’t convinced that CD sales would become more popular than cassette tapes, they believed that digital music was simply a fad, and then they associated the medium solely with bootlegging. Yet once again they never cease to amaze the music world with their insistence on being proverbially late to the party.

Today (February 1st), the RIAA announced that they will, at last, include album streaming numbers in their certifications, with each 1,500 “on demand streams” the equivalent of one album sale. Because of this, a variety of albums—17, to be exact—have now gone either Gold or Platinum. Among them are:

• The Weeknd’s Beauty Behind the Madness is now 2X platinum
• Big Sean’s Dark Sky Paradise is platinum
• Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly has gone platinum*
• Wale’s Ambition has gone gold

Meanwhile, Michael Jackson’s Thriller – the highest-selling album of all time – is now 32X platinum thanks to the upgrade.

How, exactly, this all works is beyond me. Also, how does this work, exactly? Will it only apply to officially sanctioned streams (like this) or will it include every stream? Also (and I’ve raised this question before), will songs such as Black Jesus’ “What That Thang Smell Like” and other such smut-filled classics now get platinum plaques? The only people who really and truly know is the RIAA. Although, I’m kinda hoping that Joker The Bailbondsman eventually gets a gold plaque…

* Don’t go shooting Kendrick a congratulations just yet. According the TDE CEO Top Dawg, they’re not down with this new way of doing things and will only celebrate once they reach a million the OG way.