RIAA Reveals Year-End Stats
Only three albums released in 2008 were certified multi-platinum in the same year, according to the RIAA’s year-end tally. The year’s top certifications—all double platinum—went to rapper Lil Wayne (Tha Carter, Vol. 3), Brit rockers Coldplay (Viva La Vida), and metal masters AC/DC (Black Ice).
Lil Wayne’s June release reached double-Platinum prestige within only one month. AC/DC’s first commercial outing in eight years debuted in late October and hit the 2x Platinum mark in November. Meanwhile, Coldplay’s album came out in June and reached Platinum by August.
Twenty-one albums released last year received Platinum certification in 2008, with Sugarland and Toby Keith being the only Country crooners in the group. Helping the Mercury Nashville duo move a million units was its third release Love on the Inside. For Keith it was That Don’t Make Me a Bad Guy, released in October on Show Dog Nashville and certified Platinum in December. That pushed his career total to more than 23 million albums sold since his 1993 debut.
As for December RIAA certifications, Faith Hill’s Joy to the World was certified Gold, and Miranda Lambert earned a Gold Single and Gold Mastertone for “Gunpowder & Lead.”
Good morning…. I respectfully draw your attention to the following…
You state that Toby Keith’s album “That Don’t Make Me a Bad Guy” was certified platinum in Dec of 2008.
I believe that Sound Scan is showing Keith, as of Jan 11, 2009, with sales of less then 500 which does not even equate to Gold…
How can you designate it as Platinum ?
Thank you for reading this…
Thanks for your comment Adele. Actually, RIAA certifications are based on shipments to stores, while SoundScan data is based on sales (or scans). So many albums are certified Gold or Platinum before that amount of product has been sold.
well, albums are certified gold or platinum when the labels tell the RIAA they
have shipped that amount. They can thus earn gold or platinum “certification”
even though many wind up with net sales short of those marks.
Ms. Skates you may want to go back and double check the info you rec’d regarding Toby Keith. As of 1/11/2009 he had only sold 302T. Even with shipping it would be hard pressed to grant certification of more than gold at this point for a CD. BILLBOARD is only showing a gold certification on their current database.
Visit this link which should take you to a page on the RIAA web site searchable database of gold and platinum awards and you will see Toby’s album listed there with a Gold Designation. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom. The Platinum award was announced in an RIAA 2008 year-end press release in early January 09 and has not been updated yet in the database
http://tinyurl.com/avvn7u