Kanye West is the first artist to go platinum on streams only with The Life Of Pablo
Kanye West has just achieved something that has never been done before, with last years album The Life Of Pablo going platinum entirely through streams.
Kanye West released The Life Of Pablo, his latest critically acclaimed album, last February only on streaming services, his first studio album without a physical release. West was confident enough in his popularity to feel he didn’t need to release it outside of digital services, and it turns out he was more right than we could’ve ever thought.
In just over a year since it’s release TLOP has been streamed over 3 billion times, with half of those listens in the US alone. With the current streaming conversion rate this means that The Life Of Pablo has become RIAA-certified platinum thanks just to streaming. Whilst West also sold the album for download on his website, download sales in it’s first week of release made up just 0.7 of units.
Despite this massive achievement West just missed out on being the first streaming only album to make it into the Billboard Top 100 charts, beaten by Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book album later in the year. This is an incredible milestone for West, the industry, and particularly music streaming as it shows music sales aren’t restricted by streaming services lower revenue stream.