RIAA certification facts for kids
The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) gives out special awards to music artists. These awards celebrate how many albums and songs they have sold. It's a way to show how popular an artist's music is in the United States.
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What Are RIAA Music Awards?
The Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA, is an organization in the United States. They are in charge of giving out awards to musicians. These awards are based on how many copies of their music have been sold. This includes both full albums and single songs.
The RIAA awards help everyone see how successful an artist's music has been. It's like getting a medal for selling a lot of records! These sales are counted from stores and other places where music is sold.
How Albums Get Certified
The RIAA has different levels of awards. Each level means a certain number of albums have been sold. These awards are a big deal for artists and their fans. They show that many people love and buy their music.
Main Album Awards
Here are the main awards for albums in the United States:
- 500,000 units: This earns a Gold album award. It means half a million copies were sold!
- 1,000,000 units: This earns a Platinum album award. That's one million copies sold!
- 2,000,000 units: This earns a Multi-Platinum album award. This means two million or more copies were sold.
- 10,000,000 units: This earns a Diamond album award. This is the highest award, for ten million copies sold!
Spanish-Language Album Awards
The RIAA also has special awards for albums that are mostly in Spanish. An album needs to have at least 50% Spanish-language content to qualify. The sales numbers for these awards are different from the main awards.
Awards Before December 2013
For Spanish-language albums that earned awards before December 2013, these were the sales needed:
- 50,000 units: This earned an Oro album award. "Oro" means "gold" in Spanish.
- 100,000 units: This earned a Platino album award. "Platino" means "platinum" in Spanish.
- 200,000 units: This earned a Multi-Platino album award.
Awards After December 2013
For Spanish-language albums that earned awards after December 2013, the sales numbers changed:
- 30,000 units: This earns an Oro album award.
- 60,000 units: This earns a Platino album award.
- 120,000 units: This earns a Multi-Platino album award.
These awards help celebrate the success of music in different languages. They show how popular artists are with many different fans.
See also
In Spanish: Certificación de la RIAA para niños
