Ok so I just found out that Vanessa Carlton's hit A Thousand Miles has none RIAA certification.

The only thing being certified is the album but not the song. How is that possible?

Any other examples of strong performance songs without a RIAA cert?

Cruel Summer is eligible for a diamond certification and has none. But you could fill in the blank with basically any Taylor single. She's under certified for singles by LITERALLY hundreds of millions of units and will become the best selling artist in history (Guinness book of world records method) the moment she updates them . She hasn't really done any single certs since the beginning of the Lover era.

Edited December 22, 2025Dec 22 by DevilsRollTheDice

DWAS still isn't certified yet. Eligible for 8x Plat currently, will be eligible for Diamond early next year.

I always wondered, why do artists not certify their records? Is there some sort of strategy involved?

1 hour ago, DevilsRollTheDice said:

Cruel Summer is eligible for a diamond certification and has none. But you could fill in the blank with basically any Taylor single. She's under certified for singles by LITERALLY hundreds of millions of units and will become the best selling artist in history (Guinness book of world records method) the moment she updates them . She hasn't really done any single certs since the beginning of the Lover era.

Why is her team so far behind when it comes to certifications?

41 minutes ago, susansontagapologist said:

I always wondered, why do artists not certify their records? Is there some sort of strategy involved?

You have to pay for them in the United States. Other countries might boast an automatic system but they vary in quality too (BPI is great in the United Kingdom but SNEP is terrible in France).

Edited December 22, 2025Dec 22 by gustavothehuman

Steve Lacy's Bad Habit. Well over a billion streams, #1 hit and still no certification. In fact nothing of his is certified (song/or album) apart from Dark Red which is heavily under-certified as well. Just Platinum for a song that has nearly 2 billion streams. RCA is useless.

I mean, is there really a use for certifications other than bragging rights?

#1 in Narnia!

Cupcakke's discography

Many songs preceding the 1960s tbh.