The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent,[1] is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy.[2][3] This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditional album sales. The album-equivalent unit was introduced in the mid-2010s as an answer to the drop of album sales in the 21st century. Album sales more than halved from 1999 to 2009, declining from a $14.6 to $6.3 billion industry,[4] partly due to cheap digitally downloaded singles.[5] For instance, the only albums that went platinum in the United States in 2014 were the Frozen soundtrack and Taylor Swift's 1989, whereas several artists' works had in 2013.[6][7]
The usage of the album-equivalent units revolutionized the charts from the "best-selling albums" ranking into the "most popular albums" ranking.[8] The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) have used album-equivalent unit to measure their Global Recording Artist of the Year since 2013.[9]
- ^ "Standards". Indian Music Industry. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
pitchforkwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
BillboardRulewas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Why Album Sales Are Down". Speeli. April 2021.
- ^ Covert, Adrian (April 25, 2013). "A decade of iTunes singles killed the music industry". CNNMoney. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
- ^ McIntyre, Hugh (October 16, 2014). "Not One Artist's Album Has Gone Platinum In 2014". Forbes.
- ^ Sanders, Sam (November 5, 2014). "Taylor Swift, Platinum Party of One". NPR.
- ^ Caulfield, Keith (May 22, 2016). "Drake's 'Views' Rules at No. 1 for Fifth Week on Billboard 200 Chart". Billboard. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
- ^ "Global Recording Artist of the Year". International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Archived from the original on March 5, 2014. Retrieved November 11, 2017.