RobynH99 wrote:Sammy, you are a gem. Where do you get all this stuff? LOL. Are you sure you aren't an industry insider?
I was really worried whether digital downloads were included in the accreditations for Gold and Platinum, as they talk about shipments FROM the record companies TO retailers - and try as I might I could NOT get onto the ARIA accreditation site to confirm, but Wiki (which I never trust) says digital sales are included.
Which if you think about it is weird, as the accreditation is then a mix of wholesale and retail sales. Mind you, given the total flip in the industry (see my Decade post about the industry changes, link below) they'd almost have to include digital downloads, as physical sales have dropped right off.
https://stanwalker.forumotion.com/off-topic-f16/a-decade-of-change-t290.htm
Digital sales are included for
everything these days, including accreditations, the ARIA charts, the End Of Year charts and the ARIA Awards highest sellers. This was changed in 2007 I believe, as the digital market began to dominate singles sales. It was starting to become unfair, as sometimes the highest sellers were actually mainly digitally bought, and were not appearing in the charts because those sales did not count.
It hasn't really affected the album charts much at all, even now, because people still prefer physical copies of albums. But if digital sales were not counted for accreditations and chart position for singles now, you might have someone with a less than a thousand sales at #1 on the ARIA chart, and someone with thousands and thousands of sales not even in the top 100. And no one would ever get a gold or platinum single ever again. That is how few physical singles are sold these days. Within the next year or so they will no longer exist at all. Another thing which has really happened because of digital sales is that singles now are very rarely over accredited. Because the physical single is almost obsolete, it is hard for record companies to create false accreditations for their artist's singles, as they would find it difficult to find a retailer willing to take an oversupply. So apart from a very rare occurance, singles are usually accredited correctly.
But it is now more complicated for the record company to supply accreditation proof to ARIA, because there are so many different forms of a song, mixes, videos, ringtones etc, and so many different download sites. In the past before digital sales counted, all the record company had to do was to keep a tally of shipped units. Once it reached the required amount they sent the proof to ARIA, paid the fee and the cd was given its accreditation. Now they still have to supply the same proof, but they haven't actually shipped anything except a few physicals, so they dont have any shipping records. The download site is creating the downloads, likely from a master copy or file(Something like that anyway. Computer gizmos are not my forte
). The record company now has to go to so many sources to find out what used to be in their own departments. So much more effort required. So hence sometimes accreditations are delayed quite a bit.
The stupid thing is though, that as the download and other retailers report sales directly to ARIA, ARIA actually knows when a cd has reached an accreditation level. But they still insist on the record company supplying the proof. They should just hand out the accreditations as the sales reach the correct point. But I guess then ARIA wouldn't get the fee for auditing the record company documents. Auditing which probably amounts to getting an office junior to check up the song's sales on the ARIA computer :^0:
I am just a very avid chart watcher. Keenly interested in Australian chart history. That is how I know so much. Just from studying the ins and outs of the charts, and checking out the rules and information on the ARIA site. And boy oh boy, I have probably sent you all to sleep. What a long post :^0:
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so Black Box must have sold really big. Likely its highest sales since debut. 
soooo happy for him oh bte thanks sammy 
You should post more often! 
well done to Stan! 
As the article says:
.. And the Album is is still in top 10 also!! 
