The Recording Industry Association of America shook up the music industry last week when it debuted a new formula for it’s Gold/Platinum album certification program that’s been in a effect since the 1950’s.

While streaming of music has grown exponentially in the past ten years with help from Pandora, Spotify and many other streaming services. Streaming hasn’t been recognized in the famous album certification program. That all changed last week when the RIAA reworked it’s formula to include streams as well.

The old formula only counted album sales through physical sales and online purchases. The new formula adds on to the original by equating one album sale to 1500 song or video streams.

The new formula instanted benefited a couple of artists across a multitude of genres. Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, which is also nominated for Album of the Year at this year’s Grammy Awards, recieved a platinum certification with a one million records sold/streamed.

Some other notable artists were; Big Sean – Dark Sky Paradise (Platinum Certification, Vance Joy – Dream Your Life Away (Gold Certification), Miranda Lambert – Platinum (Platinum Certification), and Shawn Mendes – Handwritten (Platinum Certification).