Nicki Minaj thinks her album - which has sold fewer than 1 million copies - should be triple platinum because it's been streamed so much
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The rapper and singer went on Instagram Wednesday to celebrate the one-year anniversary of her album "The Pinkprint," and asserted that it is triple platinum, even though sales figures dictate that it hasn't even hit platinum.
A platinum certification in music, given by the RIAA, signifies that a record has sold at least a million copies, and triple would be three million. "The Pinkprint" has sold less than a million copies in the US, with a gold certification (over 500,000 copies).
But on Twitter, Minaj provided this breakdown from her labe, Universal. As you can see, it combines actual album sales with "TEAs" (a la carte song purchases that are used to count toward album sales) and "SEAs" (the same but for streaming) across the world. The combined numbers make for the 3.3 million figure.
I didn't know I had to post this. I thought I made it clear but ppl can't read these days. This is from UNIVERSAL ?? pic.twitter.com/Wma19mqDRF
- NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) December 16, 2015
Minaj references a "March court date," which she says will decide whether streaming plays count in the official numbers for certifications and plaques awarded to musicians.
"Some artists removed their work off Spotify and other services of that nature, but for the ones who did not, we have to be patient for justice in our industry & it finally looks like it's coming," she wrote on Instagram.
Minaj further defended her reasoning on Twitter, saying musicians should get more credit than they currently do for their streaming numbers.
The fact that our music is given away for free then when we take credit for our actual REAL sales, we're "lying"? Sad. Universal is happy ??
- NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) December 16, 2015
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