A song is certified platinum when it achieves 1 million "units" sold. These units include a combination of permanent digital downloads, physical sales, and streaming numbers, where 150 on-demand streams count as one unit. This certification is awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and requires formal submission and verification of sales figures to ensure legitimacy.
Details on Certification Units
- 1 permanent digital download = 1 unit
- 150 on-demand audio or video streams = 1 unit
- Physical sales also count as 1 unit each
Process and Context
The RIAA requires proof of sales and streams for certification. A song that reaches 1 million of these combined units receives platinum status. Before platinum, a song typically goes gold at 500,000 units, and it can reach multi- platinum for multiple millions sold. Streaming has become a significant factor, but it takes many streams (150 streams = 1 sale unit) to count towards this certification.
Thus, a platinum song has a verified total of 1 million units sold through all valid means combined under RIAA rules.