Jay-Z 'Magna Carta Holy Grail' Prompts RIAA to Change Rulings About Certification [VIDEO]
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) changed its rulings about digital sales certifications after a particular tweet by Jay-Z.
The new ruling, decided Monday, allows the organization to hand out digital certifications on an album's release date. The previous ruling dictated that all albums had to wait 30 days after their release date to get a certification, such as Gold (500,000 copies sold), Platinum (1 million sold) or Diamond (10 million sold).
"We think it's time for the RIAA . . . to align our digital song and album certification requirements," RIAA communications director Liz Kennedy wrote in a blog post Monday, "That's why today we are officially updating this rule in our [Gold & Platinum] Program requirements."
The new ruling was made in response to Samsung purchasing one million pre-order copies of Jay-Z's upcoming album Magna Carta Holy Grail. The deal allows the first million people who download an app to get the album for free.
"It is a novel and creative marketing move," Kennedy wrote, regarding the deal, "and it has rightly stimulated a healthy conversation about the sale's meaning and implications for the modern music business."
The rapper tweeted about Bilboard's decision to not count the promotional deal as part of the album's sales on June 17. He tweeted, "If 1 Million records gets SOLD and billboard doesnt report it, did it happen? Ha. #newrules #magnacartaholygrail Platinum!!! VII IV XIII".
Billboard editorial director Bill Werde wrote a letter from the editor on June 21 discussing their decision to not count the deal in the sales.
"It wasn't as simple as you might think to turn down Jay-Z when he requested that we count the million albums that Samsung 'bought' as part of a much larger brand partnership to give away to Samsung customers," he wrote. "The passionate and articulate argument by Jay's team that something was for sale and Samsung bought it also doesn't mesh with precedent."
Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail album is scheduled to be released nationwide on July 4.
Watch a video discussing the Samsung deal here:
