Eminem’s comeback era gems added two more international certifications to his collection of accolades.
Denmark updated the Recovery status, certifying it 4x Platinum. Meanwhile, New Zealand marked a new sales milestone for Em’s collaboration with Rihanna, which has reached the 5x Platinum status.
The Monster Hit
“The Monster” was Em’s fourth joint record with Rihanna. “Love The Way You Lie” unlocked their chemistry, which many fans still crave. And while this one has not reached the same level of penetrating fame as the Recovery single, “The Monster” has had its fair share of success. Released in October 2013 as the fourth single from The Marshall Mathers LP 2, the song debuted at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped charts in 12 countries. It even gave a name to Em and Rihanna’s joint tour.
The song remains internationally popular. This week, New Zealand recognised 150,000 units moved in the country by updating the song’s Platinum status to the fifth tier.
By now, “The Monster” has already earned 11× Platinum in Australia and Diamond status in Brazil, along many other accolades internationally.
Reportedly, in the US, “The Monster” has also reached the Diamond level. But the paperwork has not been updated since March 2022, when the RIAA gave it 8x Platinum.
Other Eminem records are in a similar position.
Operation Recovery
In Eminem’s catalogue, Recovery is a remarkable album. Not just because of the quality of his production, powerful arrangements that drew heavily from rock and pop sensibilities, or sharp rhymes. All this together came as a vessel for Marshall’s main intention: to reinvent himself without losing touch with his core values and beliefs. Slim was not killed back then, it would come later, on Em’s most recent album, The Death of Slim Shady. But Em’s sarcastic alter ego was cast aside for a moment, revealing the face of a man who has been to hell and back, and was there to stay.
So, in 2010, Eminem, who had to learn again how to rap after getting clean and sober, came to reclaim his status as a rap icon. Quite successfully, we have to say. Recovery became the best selling album of the year. Moreover, it became the best selling album of that year in the whole world. Both the domestic and international markets reacted enthusiastically to Em’s drop. And now, 16 years later, the album is still in rotation across all continents, adding to sales numbers country by country. Except for the US.
A Price Tag for Success
Earlier this month, Denmark, a country with a population of 6 million, registered 80 million units sold by Recovery since its release and was awarded its fourth platinum plaque. We get this kind of news regularly from around the world. People stream and buy Marshall’s music, a special body counts sales and issues a certification to an artist. A national body of the IFPI, or a local authority such as the BPI in the UK, does not wait for a reminder or a special application. They just keep count. This is how the procedure is set around the globe. Notably, things work differently in the United States.
Meanwhile, in the US, an artist or a label must request a sales audit, which would result in certification. The RIAA changed its pricing in February 2002, so now one certification costs $350 for RIAA member companies. For those who do not pay membership fees, the price tah is different. They would need to add another hundred dollars. If the audit finds that a song does not meet the eligibility criteria, the applicant must pay anyway. Also, the RIAA offers discounts for bulk certifications, down to $125 each for a bulk of ten. Oh, and if you want a plaque framed and ready to hang on your office wall, you pay extra.
Undocumented Growth
Now, we all remember that 2002 mass certification, when Eminem’s team updated his catalogue records for 73.5 million new certifications, bringing his total to 227.5 million sales in the US. Marshall has been declared the most certified artist in history, put the paperwork for his six diamond records into his back pocket, and disappeared again. Mind you, back then in March 2002, we celebrated Em’s streaming milestone – 31 billion plays on Spotify. Since then, this number has almost doubled to 61.9 billion.
We are not going to do any math now to convert it into possible gold and platinum certificates. Especially considering that the RIAA formula 150 streams = 1 unit applies only to US domestic streams, and Spotify does not make this breakdown easily available. However, the general idea is clear: Eminem can receive certification updates in the US just as frequently as he does globally.
While the cost of running updates does not look prohibitive for a star of Eminem’s scale, the whole procedure that makes the sales count the responsibility of an artist and or their label creates the situation where somebody as indifferent to fame as Marshall would just go without updates for years.
Is It Time for a New US Update?
The previous update happened after Eminem hit the Super Bowl Halftime stage, and his streams spiked enormously. At the same time, January that year marked the “Music to Be Murdered By” second anniversary. Was there any connection? Who knows. For now, almost two years after the release of “The Death of Slim Shady,” we are going on four years without any official updates from the US market.
Don’t you think it’s time for Interscope to submit some audit requests to the RIAA?
