How You Can Go Gold, Silver, or Platinum

The music industry has changed so much with the dawn of the digital age. But one thing hasn’t changed—everyone still wants to sell a lot of music.

There was a time when people mostly bought singles--records with only one or two songs on them. Then came the era of the album--a time when artists were expected to record and people were expected to buy records with about a dozen songs on them. As you probably know all of the songs were not that good and some musicians and singers had a hard time coming up with enough good material to fill an entire album.

And of course now when we say album or record, we are really referring to a compact disc.

These days the music industry is still dealing with the changes that took place once people were able to download music from the internet.

One music critic recently compiled a list of the lowest-selling #1 albums. These albums hit the top of the charts, but they did not bring in heavy returns at the bank.

You've probably heard about the different categories for top-selling records, gold and platinum being the ones that most often make the news. There is also a diamond category and would you believe silver as well? The silver designation isn't used universally, however. An album can only go silver in certain countries.

When the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is counting up units sold to name the albums that sell gold, silver, diamond or platinum, they include records tapes and CDS into the count.

Usually, if you are in the United States, you would need to sell 500,000 units to earn the gold label

To be certified platinum, an album must sell 1,000,000 units.

The RIAA has changed the criteria for certification numerous times, so it is a little hard to keep up. Plus, the number of units one must cell to be certified, gold, platinum, silver or diamond can vary, depending on the type of music.

If you are not gifted vocally, you can still managed to sell platinum, sell gold or sell silver, but in a very different way. When you sell your gold, platinum or silver jewelry, you can get cash for gold, cash for silver or cash for platinum.