Almost a year after the release of his eighth studio album, “The Life of Pablo”, Kanye West has purpose to celebrate. On Tuesday (April 4), Pablo reached platinum status, according to a statement from the Def Jam label rapper. A representative of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) confirmed the Billboard certification.
Although the label says that the project is the first streaming album to go platinum, Billboard reported that in April last year TLOP was briefly available for sale on Kanye west official website upon launch in February. TLOP – which entered into exclusive Tidal – got the number 1 on the Billboard 200, after 70 percent of the album’s debut earnings – 94,000 equivalent albums units – are due for streaming. (TLOP streamed over three billion times in the world). In addition, the Kanye West site sells digital downloads for $ 20.
Although it was difficult to know if the platinum status was part of the album’s sales in addition to streams, source says that the RIAA does not break down the components of certification. Platinum certification reflects million albums equivalent units, combining traditional album sales, sold album of songs and streaming audio and video on demand. Billboard contacted representatives of Kanye West for additional comments.
Due to creative setbacks and a few changes in the title of the album, Pablo has gone through many facelifts after its release. After changing the list of tracks, Kanye West has decided to release the album in February 2016. The album, led by the controversial single “Famous” served as his seventh No. 1 album. The album is full of stars featured famous artists, including Chance the rapper, weekend, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Frank Ocean and more.
After the release of Pablo, Kanye West began his national tour Saint Pablo, which was canceled later due to health problems. Last week, Kanye West returned to the music scene as a guest on the new single from Mary J. Blige “love yourself”. Life of Pablo, which was launched in February last year, was adopted by more than 3 billion times around the world, and has made 1.5 billion streams in the US, which is the first certified platinum album by the RIAA. Only 0.7 percent downloads contributed to their units in its first week, according to Billboard and TLOP satisfies the requirement for “platinum” without these numbers.
Life of Pablo continues to make history for the streaming, although its small number of actual album sales records discredited opportunity that Chance the rapper’s in May 2016 release “The coloring book” then snatched up – as the first streaming-only album, to chart in the BillboardTop 200 and the first streaming-only album to be nominated or win a Grammy.
