Race Jones
gangster. grace. alchemy
The Life of Pablo, released in February of last year, has been streamed over 3 billion times worldwide, and has just hit 1.5 billion streams in the US — making it the first album to be RIAA-certified platinum from streaming alone. The album was also available for sale on West’s website, but downloads contributed only 0.7 percent of its first-week units, according to Billboard and TLOP meets the “platinum” condition without those numbers.
The certification was first reported by Pitchfork, and confirmed to The Verge in an email from Kanye West’s management.
The Life of Pablo continues to make history for streaming, though its tiny number of actual album sales disqualified it from some records that Chance the Rapper’s May 2016 release Coloring Book then snatched up — like the first streaming-only album to chart in the Billboard Top 200 and the first streaming-only album to be nominated for or win a Grammy.