[Mrluvaluva]

Justin Bieber overthrows Elton John for 'Highest-Certified Single'

Justin Bieber's 'Baby' has overthrown Elton John's double A-side 'Candle in the Wind'/'Something About the Way You Look Tonight' to become the highest-certified single in history.

This is due to a recent change to the singles chart to incorporate on-demand streaming numbers.

Bieber's 'Baby' featuring Ludacris is now the highest-certified single in history. The track has sold 3.9 million copies in America and been viewed over 858 million times on Vevo and is now 12-times platinum.

Elton John's 'Candle in the Wind'/'Something About the Way You Look Tonight' has sold over 33 million copies worldwide but has no streaming data so its ranking remains 11-times platinum.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will only count a song's official video and has decided that 100 on-demand streams equal one download for the purposes of certifications.

Audio services Spotify, Muve Music, Rhapsody, Xbox Music, Slacker and MOG are also counted in addition to the video streaming services YouTube and Vevo.

The addition of streaming data now means that there are 11 Gold, 18 Platinum and 27 multi-Platinum new Digital Single Awards. Other changes in certifications include:
Eminem's 'Love the Way You Lie' featuring Rihanna: now 11-times platinum with over 561 million views on YouTube and sales of over 5.2 million.

Lady GaGa's 'Bad Romance': now 10-times platinum with 518 million views on YouTube and sales of 5.2 million.

Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Call Me Maybe': now 9-times platinum with over 457 million views on YouTube and sales of over 7 million.

There were six new Gold certifications including Lana Del Rey's 'Video Games' and The Weeknd's 'Wicked Games'. Aerosmith's 'I Don't Want to Miss a Thing' and Andy Grammer's 'Keep Your Head Up' were among the new Platinum certifications.

Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' rose to double-Platinum with sales nearing 5 million and 54 million views on YouTube.

Recording Industry Association of America CEO and chairman Cary Sherman said: "The Gold and Platinum certification programme has always been based on 'the consumer saying he or she wants a particular piece of music'. For decades that demand was represented by purchases, but today [people] can vote with both their pocketbooks and their clicks.

"But the RIAA decided to count streams only from 'pull' services like subscription service Spotify because the intent behind them is similar to a purchase. Streams from ]push' services, or non-interactive Internet radio services like Pandora, are excluded because they don't reflect the same consumer intent."


Digital Spy


This streaming rule was always a stupid one.

[Kizzy]

Hi baz That is sad, I agree!

[Saph]

I'm surprised.. I didnt realise 'Baby' was even that big

[Ramsay]

Excellent stuff, well deserved

[Joelle.]

Yeah I thought if anything 'recent' was going to do it it'd be Someone Like You, Call Me Maybe or Somebody That I Used To Know. That is depressing though

[Saph]

what are the top 20?

[Withano]

Don't worry guys. Take That will probably retire soon.

[Mrluvaluva]

Hi Kiz. "Views" going towards figures is just stupid. I could view a video 10 times, but I would not buy it 10 times over. Also, I use streaming services to check out new music. Does not mean I like it. Plus, it's been widely reported on that some artists can actually pay people to stream and "like" music. It doesn't mean anything tbh.

[Brother Leon]

Congrats to him.

[Shaun]

Not so fussed since Elton's was just in response to Diana's death (ie. the most hysterical overreaction of all time). But it does seem unfair to use something free and vastly more widespread to figure these things.