Gold, platinum rules eased for Latin musicians

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Latin musicians now do not need to sell as many albums in the United States to receive gold and platinum awards, thanks to the industry slump.

The Recording Industry Assn of America, the trade body that oversees the awards, has quietly halved the requirement for a gold album to 50,000 copies shipped. Likewise, the threshold for a platinum album has been halved to 100,000 units.

This places the requirements for gold and platinum albums only slightly above the standards set by Mexico's Assn. of Record Producers, 40,000 and 80,000 units, respectively.

U.S. shipments of Latin music fell 18.6% in 2007, according to RIAA numbers. The group's certification requirement for pop albums remains shipments of one million copies for platinum and 500,000 for gold.

Reuters/Billboard