Certified Awards mark sales achievements in the albums, singles and Music DVD markets by member companies.
Singles: Silver 200,000; Gold 400,000; Platinum 600,000
Albums: Silver 60,000; Gold 100,000; Platinum 300,000
Music DVD: Gold 25,000; Platinum 50,000
History
BPI certified awards were originally introduced in April 1973 to measure the performance of individual titles based on sales to the trade each week.
Qualification for albums was initially on the basis of revenue received by manufacturers, but in January 1978 the BPI abolished the old monetary system for albums and replaced it with a unit system. This brought album awards into line with singles and also with other countries where qualification levels are based on unit sales. Multi-platinum awards, introduced in February 1987, are any multiple of the platinum level, e.g. quadruple platinum status for an album = 1.2m. The growth of digital formats saw a la carte singles and album downloads become eligible from 2005 onwards; at this time the first Music DVD certification was also awarded. For a full timeline please click here.
BPI member companies apply for titles to be certified via the BPI research department and well over 9,000 have been issued since the awards scheme was launched.
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Note: those eligible for BPI presentation awards include the artist, record company, label, manager, producer and anyone the BPI member company regards as integral to the recording in question. Any enquries relating to the issue (or replacement) of framed awards should be addressed to the relevant member company (ie the label or distributor currently handling the release) rather than the BPI itself.