While working with the United States Justice Department to track down people illegally sharing music on the internet, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has announced that their program for awarding gold and platinum records for sales will be extended to digital music. The program will launch in late August. The RIAA will calculate the sales of music downloaded from the various legal download sites.
Currently a CD single must sell 500,000 copies shipped from the US to achieve gold status and one million for platinum. Downloaded singles will be considered gold after 100,000 are sold and platinum with 200,000 single sold. Multiple platinum awards will be given starting at 400,000 sold and increase by 200,000 download sales.
The first gold record was issued in 1958. In 1976 the platinum record was added. And in 1999 the RIAA added a third award – the diamond was added which is awarded when 10 million copies of an album are sold.
