Creating a wall total of gold and platinum albums utilised to be a requisite portion of the rock star operating practical experience. But for a wide variety of explanations, it can be getting a excellent deal tougher for fundamental rock artists to add to their collections these days.

Beneath you will obtain a list of the previous time rock’s largest acts gained a platinum plaque by supplying more than a particular person million copies of a new studio album. (We are not counting “wonderful hits”-selection compilations or box sets.)

The shift from actual physical to digital distribution is the biggest trigger for this modify. In accordance to the Earth Economic Discussion board, in the ten a lot of years subsequent the 2001 arrival of Apple’s iPod, bodily new music sales declined by far extra than 60 per cent. This eradicated an believed $14 million in yearly earnings, and changed it with just $4 million in electronic music earnings. Streaming options these sorts of as Spotify (which introduced in the United States in 2011), YouTube and Apple Songs have now come to be the industry’s dominant provide of earnings, accounting for two-thirds of all earnings in 2022.

The RIAA – which certifies and awards gold, platinum and diamond awards for income of 500,000, just a single million and ten million copies respectively – has developed a prepare to account for digital income. But it will take 1,500 streams to count for just a single album sale. So to earn a platinum album strictly from streaming, it would have to produce 1.5 billion streams.

In current a extended time, most of rock’s greatest and longest-managing acts have significantly slowed down the level at which they launch new albums, potentially partially given that of the lowered income they produce. As an instance, AC/DC unveiled 5 albums in each of these the ’70s and ’80s, but just two just about each and every in the ’90s and ’00s, and only two added to date following that.

The instances of even the most important rock artists getting radio help to enhance their new albums is lengthy absent, as classic rock stations have practically entirely deserted the notion of adding current tunes to their playlists, even from artists whose common songs dominate their playlists.

The conclude finish outcome of all of this is rock’s largest bands putting out fewer new albums, delivering drastically significantly less copies of these albums, and for that purpose not earning virtually as a lot of plaques for their trophy rooms. We searched the RIAA internet-web page for the certification histories from 30 of rock’s most important a brief whilst ago active artists to come across out how lengthy its been offered that they earned a new platinum item sales award.

Just a single very important disclaimer: Since artists have to ask for – and spend out for – the certification audit approach from the RIAA, it is very attainable the numbers listed are not wholly up to day. Using AC/DC as an instance however once again, it would look that their most new spherical of certifications took location in December 2019, at which time 1980’s Back once again in Black was credited for income of 25 million copies. It definitely is most possibly that album has marketed an added million copies or added in the prior 5 decades, as just a single instance. So theoretically it definitely is doable that a lot extra modern day albums from some of these artists have purchased a million copies but have not been submitted for certification.