The factual accuracy of this article is disputed.

A single certification is the certification that the RIAA awards to singles based on their sales. It is estimated that there have been about 2,550 combined single certifications.

Recently, digital singles have begun to be certified due to the increase of the digital market and decrease of the physical commercial singles market. Although digital downloads have been around since 2003, they weren't considered to be significant until 2005, when they were first counted towards the Hot 100. Because of this, it is important to distinguish between singles that came out before and after the change (as singles after the change sold in higher quantities at a faster rate, while the older singles took longer to reach levels of certification).

In 2004, it would usually take over a year for a digital single to exceed sales over 100,000. Whereas In 2006, Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie", sold over 260,000 digital tracks in just a week. Fergie also sold 295,000 copies of her track, Fergalicious in one week in January 2007 and became Platinum in just one week.

Guidelines

Standard singles are certified:

• Gold when it ships 500,000 copies
• Platinum when it ships 1,000,000 copies
• Double platinum when it ships 2,000,000 copies

Note: Before January 1, 1989, gold was achieved at 1,000,000 copies, and platinum at 2,000,000[1]

Digital singles are certified:

• Gold means 100,000 tracks downloaded
• Platinum means 200,000 tracks downloaded
• Double platinum means 400,000 tracks downloaded

Note: This is the certification that Billboard gives, the official RIAA certifications are as the standard singles

See also

• RIAA certification

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