Ringtones go Gold and Platinum in Canada
 

Ringtones go Gold and Platinum in Canada
Tuesday, 22 April 2008

In February 1942, RCA awarded Glen Miller a "gold record" award celebrating 1,200,000 sales of the Chattanooga Choo Choo and in 1958 the Recording Industry Association of America trademarked the term "gold record" to denote when a music single had reached sales of one million records.

Fifty years later, in what can best be described as a dubious award, the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), has announced a gold/platinum awards program for ringtones.

In Canada, gold ringtone certification will be awarded for sales of 20,000 ringtones and platinum for 40,000 ringtones. An album or CD is said to go Gold / platinum at 50,000 and 100,000 units respectively. Music downloads go gold / platinum with sales of 10,000 and 20,000 downloads respectively.

The industry also has a Diamond designation with is 400,000 for music downloads and ringtones.

The CRIA says sales of master ringtones - original song recordings downloaded by mobile phone subscribers to replace standard ring sounds - represented approximately 45 percent of Canada's digital music sales in 2007.

The CRIA kicks off the program with 17 ringtones awarded Gold and 43 awarded Platinum certification.


Calgary based WestNet Wireless, a first to offer free data and free downloading on its limited area CDMA network, says they are not surprised by the sales of Ring Tones.


The first Gold and Platinum-certified ringtones include...