RIAA Now Counting Streams For Awards

As we slowly see music turning into a streaming world, so apparently does the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the industry organization that doles out the gold (500,000 sold) and platinum (1,000,000 sold) record awards.

Wanting to get ahead of the curve, the RIAA just announced that it will now also include streaming music in the count for their Digital Single Award certification. As a result, 56 songs have immediately earned awards, even a number of oldies from Aerosmith and Whitney Houston.

What's interesting is that the RIAA counts 100 streams as equivalent to 1 download, which means that you'd need 100 million streams to reach Platinum in a streaming-only world, a figure that seems fair as it's as difficult to attain as a million sales or downloads.

The organization is including streaming figures in its count from a number of apps, including Spotify, Rdio, MOG, Rhapsody, Xbox Music and Muve, as well as video sites like YouTube, Vevo, MTV.com, Yahoo Music and others.

There are so many artists getting massive streaming counts, and they should be recognized, as streaming influence is perhaps greater than any other sales parameter at the moment. It's another indication that the music business is evolving right before our eyes.

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