Hello guys and gals,
As I'm sure most of you know, there recently was some new RIAA gold and platinum awards announced for a number of Elvis Presley album titles. This currently puts Elvis' album sales (both full length and extended play albums) at 146.5 million. To break it down. It looks like this:
Full Length Albums
54 Gold = 27 million (54 x 500,000)
32 Platinum = 32 million (32 X 1 million)
24 Multi-Platinum = 70 million (varies)
1 Diamond = 10 million (1 X 10 million)
Total = 139 Million
Short Form Albums
6 Gold = 1.5 million (6 X 250,000)
8 Platinum = 4 million (8 X 500,000)
2 Multi-Platinum = 2 million (2 X 1 million)
Total = 7.5 million
Combined total = 146.5 million
My question is this. Why are Elvis' certifications for his extended plays different than the regular full length albums. Why does gold start out at 250,000 for an extended play but for a full length album, it is 500,000. What I also don't understand is why does the RIAA website list short form albums (i.e. extended plays) as needing 500,000 for Gold yet it would seem that Elvis' were certified gold at 250,000. Was there a rule change at some point and if so, when? The R.I.A.A. website indicates that there is some sort of 30 minute rule regarding short form albums. Since Elvis' extended play albums were less than 30 minutes, does that mean that they only needed 250,000 for gold?
I'm just trying to figure out why Elvis' extended plays are certified gold at 250,000 yet the R.I.A.A. indicates on their website that it takes 500,000 for a gold short form album.
DarylR