singer
Saado Ali Warsame receiving a gold record Lifetime Achievement Award The original gold and silver record awards were presented to artists by their own record companies to publicize their sales achievements. The first silver disc was awarded by
Regal Zonophone to
George Formby in December 1937 for sales of 100,000 copies of "
The Window Cleaner". The first literal gold record award was presented to
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra by
RCA Victor (for subsidiary label
Bluebird Records) on February 10, 1942, celebrating the sale of 1.2 million copies of the single, "
Chattanooga Choo Choo". Further examples of company awards are the gold records awarded in 1956 by RCA Victor to
Harry Belafonte for his album
Calypso for being the first
LP record album to sell more than one million copies and
Elvis Presley for one million units sold of his RCA Victor single "
Don't Be Cruel". Also in 1956,
Decca's presented a gold record award to
Jerry Lewis for the single "
Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody". At the industry level, in 1958 the
Recording Industry Association of America (“RIAA”) introduced its gold record award program for records of any kind,
albums or
singles, which achieved one million dollars in retail sales. These sales were restricted to U.S.-based record companies and did not include exports to other countries. For albums in 1968, this would require shipping domestically approximately 670,000 units, while for singles the number would be 1,000,000. No album was certified platinum prior to this year. The 1958 RCA Victor recording by
Van Cliburn of
the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto would eventually be awarded a platinum citation, but this did not occur until two decades after its release. In 1999,
the diamond certification was introduced for sales of ten million units. In the late 1980s, the certification thresholds for singles were dropped to match that of albums. and to
Johnnie Taylor's single "
Disco Lady" on 22 April 1976. As music sales increased with the introduction of compact discs, the RIAA created the Multi-Platinum award in 1984. Diamond awards, honoring those artists whose sales of singles or albums reached 10,000,000 copies, were introduced in 1999. In the 20th century, and for a part of the first decade of the 21st, it was common for distributors to claim certifications based on their shipments – wholesale to retail outlets – which led to many certifications which outstripped the actual final retail sales figures. This became much less common once the majority of retail sales became paid digital downloads and digital streaming.
Digital media certification In most countries, certifications no longer apply solely to physical media but now also include sales awards recognizing digital downloads (in the US and UK since 2004). In June 2006, the RIAA also certified the
ringtone downloads of songs. Streaming from on-demand services such as
Apple Music,
Spotify,
Tidal and
Napster has been included into existing digital certification in the US since 2013, and the UK and Germany since 2014. In the US and Germany, video streaming services like YouTube,
VEVO,
Xite, and
Yahoo! Music also began to be counted towards the certification, in both cases using the formula of 100 streams being equivalent to one download. Other countries, such as Denmark and Spain, maintain separate awards for digital download singles and streaming.
Symbolic certifications disc" granted to
Raphael by his label
Hispavox and collecting society music group
SGAE in early 1980s Other recording artists have received special and symbolic recognitions, including
Raphael with a "
Uranium disc" granted by
Hispavox and
SGAE in early 1980s recognizing his career's sales. and
Luis Fonsi received the "
Plutonium disc" from
Universal Music Group recognizing the global sales of "
Despacito" in 2017.
IFPI certification The
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) was founded in 1933, and since 1996, has granted the Platinum Europe Award for album sales over one million within Europe and (as of October 2009) the Middle East. Multi-platinum Europe Awards are presented for sales in subsequent multiples of one million. Eligibility is unaffected by time (from date of release), and is not restricted to European-based artists.
IMPALA certification The
Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA) was founded in April 2000 to grow the independent music sector and promote independent music in the interests of artistic, entrepreneurial and cultural diversity. IMPALA launched sales awards in 2005 as the first sales awards recognising that success on a pan-European basis begins well before sales reach one million. The award levels are Silver (20,000+), Double Silver (40,000+), Gold (75,000+), Double Gold (150,000+), Diamond (200,000+), Platinum (400,000+) and Double Platinum (800,000+). == Certification thresholds ==