The past decade has been important in redefining the music industry with the incorporation of online streaming as a media for music consumption. Back in the day, you had to sell half a million physical albums to get a gold record from the RIAA (the Recording Industry Association of America) and 1 million to go platinum but that’s a thing of the past now, as the RIAA decided to incorporate online streaming into their charts and now we have a list of the first metal artists benefiting by it.

The way the RIAA included online streaming into their numbers when accounting for album sales, is by attributing 1,500 plays by accredited online streaming services like Spotify or Apple music, to equal an album sold. You would need 750 million plays to reach a milestone and earn your gold record but combined with album sales, some bands like Lamb of God and Volbeat have already reached that number and will receive their gold plaques.

With the recent change on format, the bands and albums awarded by the RIAA are the following:

A Day To Remember – Homesick (certified on March 24th, 2016)
A Day To Remember – What Separates Me From You (certified on March 24th, 2016)
Hawthorne Heights – If Only You Were Lonely (certified on March 24th, 2016)
Volbeat – Beyond Hell, Above Heaven (certified on March 22nd, 2016)
Halestorm – The Strange Case Of… (certified on March 08th, 2016)
Halestorm – Halestorm (certified on March 08th, 2016)
Lamb Of God – Ashes Of The Wake (certified on February 18th, 2016)

Platinum:
Ozzy Osbourne – The Essential Ozzy Osbourne (certified on March 03rd, 2016)
Five Finger Death Punch – War Is The Answer (certified on February 01st, 2016)

Even if you share the same feelings about rewards with Limp Bizkit’s Wes Borland, it’s good to remind ourselves that people are still supporting artists by purchasing and streaming music and hopefully we’ll get to see more bands included in this list. Congrats to all for the achievement.