Who has more gold records in the world?

For those who still don't know, a gold disc is a kind of reward that is offered to an artist because a single or an album has reached a certain number of copies worldwide. It is also called certification disk. This bonus is given by an official organization which is responsible for verifying the thresholds to be reached for the number of sales.

Since the creation of these awards, they have been classified under different sales thresholds, albums or singles. However, this kind of award is characterized by 4 different discs: silver, gold, platinum and finally diamond.

It should be noted that each nation has its own certification procedures concerning denomination, specific certification conditions and sales thresholds. However, these criteria may change over time, depending on the music market.

The evaluation of an artist for France

In France, the SNEP (Syndicat National de l’Édition Phonographique) and the UPFI (Union des Producteurs phonographiques français Indépendants) certify artists for awards based on the sales of their products. The first French gold records were officially awarded in 1973.

Since then, certification thresholds have varied widely depending on the record market. But if we take into account the crisis in the record industry, it turns out that the thresholds have dropped significantly since 2006.

As of 2016, a few rules have changed over time, and the evaluation of artists and their products has been done in partnership with GFK (GrowthFromKnowledge). Also, given the considerable evolution of computer technology, verification bodies have taken streaming into account.

Regarding the calculation method for rewarding artists in France, since 2016, SNEP and its evaluation partners have integrated the number of streaming listens into its calculation base. To do this, they add up the number of listens for each track on an album and subtract half of the most listened-to track, then divide the result by 1,500.

The final value obtained is called the "sales equivalent". This is added to the total number of sales to obtain each artist's certification score.

The value of the thresholds and the artist who has the most gold records in the world

Speaking of thresholds, since April 25, 2018, as a result of a case of cheating on streaming, the evaluating entities have concluded to take into account only streams that come from a subscriber account. As of this moment, the DVD sales threshold to have a gold disc is 5,000.

For a platinum disc, you need 10,000. For a 2xPlatinum disc, you need at least 20,000. For a 3xPlatinum disc, the total number of album sales must be 30,000, and for a Diamond disc, 40,000.

According to "The Guinnes Book of Records", there are only four artists and groups who have sold more than 335,000,000 records worldwide. These artists are the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Madonna.

It's important to know that the best of all time is Elvis Presley. Also known as the King, he died on August 16, 1977. In his case, he's the only one to have sold a billion records worldwide. The best artist's official website states that 60% of these sales were made in the USA and 40% of them were made by the rest of the world.