RIAA Flips on Magna Carta Status and Applies “New Rules”

 

Chalk one up for Roc Nation as the RIAA has reversed it’s stance on counting digital record purchases the sales status of records. As the center piece of the Holy Grail Magna Carta promotional plan this new position will lock in Jay-Z’s new album for platinum status out the box.

We think it’s time for the RIAA – and Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman – to align our digital song and album certification requirements. That’s why today we are officially updating this rule in our G&P Program requirements. Going forward, sales of albums in digital format will become eligible on the release date, while sales of albums in physical format will still become eligible for certification 30 days after the release date.

Not only do we believe it’s sensible and logical to align digital album rules with those we have maintained for digital singles since the program’s inception, we also consider today’s move in line with our larger efforts to modernize the G&P Program to reflect the new music marketplace. In May we announced the integration of on-demand streams to the program to more broadly recognize online demand for songs.

Liz Kennedy
Director, Communications and Gold & Platinum Program, RIAA

While the RIAA has updated it’s digital view, Billboard delivered a previous statement that they will hold to of not counting the Samsung App gifted copies of HGMA in their calculations of the BillBoard 200.