RIAA single certification

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). After the change, the certification standards were brought up to the same standard as retail distribution. Since then, digital distribution has become a prime selling method for singles - overhead can be considerable when distributing a CD with only a few tracks on it, and the roughly $1/track standard for digital distribution, combined with the ease of use in sellers like ITunes, has caused enormous growth.

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

Digital singles are certified:

• Gold means 500,000 tracks downloaded
• Platinum means 1,000,000 tracks downloaded
• Double platinum means 2,000,000 tracks downloaded

Note: Before June, 2005, gold was achieved at 100,000 copies, and platinum at 200,000

The Best Selling Digital Singles

1. Low - Flo Rida Feat. T-Pain (4× Multi-Platinum)

2. Apologize - Timbaland Feat. One Republic (3× Multi-Platinum)

3. Umbrella - Rihanna Feat. Jay-Z (3× Multi-Platinum)

4. Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis (3× Multi-Platinum)

5. Big Girls Don't Cry - Fergie (2× Multi-Platinum)

6. How to Save a Life - The Fray (2× Multi-Platinum)

7. Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne (2× Multi-Platinum)

8. Bad Day - Daniel Powter (2× Multi-Platinum)

9. Fergalicious - Fergie (2× Multi-Platinum)

10. Before He Cheats - Carrie Underwood (2× Multi-Platinum)

11. I Kissed a Girl - Katy Perry (2× Multi-Platinum)

12. No One - Alicia Keys (2× Multi-Platinum)

13. Smack That - Akon Feat. Eminem (2× Multi-Platinum)

14. Glamorous - Fergie Feat. Ludacris (2× Multi-Platinum)

15. You're Beautiful - James Blunt (2× Multi-Platinum)

16. Irreplaceable - Beyoncé (2× Multi-Platinum)

17. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley (2× Multi-Platinum)

18. Hips Don't Lie - Shakira Feat. Wyclef Jean (2× Multi-Platinum)

19. Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield (2× Multi-Platinum)

20. Gold Digger - Kanye West Feat. Jamie Foxx (2× Multi-Platinum)

21. Love Song - Sara Bareilles (2× Multi-Platinum)

22. Kiss Kiss - Chris Brown Feat. T-Pain (2× Multi-Platinum)

23. 4 Minutes - Madonna Feat. Justin Timberlake (2× Multi-Platinum)

See also

• RIAA certification