HW: For sale

[Si Halley]

Subject: Re: HW: For sale


> Anybody know how many records you have to sell to get a platinum disc?

from BPI site http://www.bpi.co.uk :

-----------------------------
HISTORY OF BPI CERTIFIED AWARDS
BPI certified awards were introduced in April 1973 to measure the
performance of individual records based on sales to the trade each week.
Qualification for albums was initially on the basis of revenue received by
manufacturers.

With effect from January 1978 the BPI council decided to abolish the old
monetary system for albums and replace it with a unit system. This brought
album awards into line with singles and also with other countries where
qualification levels are based on unit sales.

Multi-platinum awards were introduced in February 1987 and are any multiple
of the platinum level eg quadruple platinum status for an album = 1.2m.

Awards are only available to BPI members and the qualifying unit levels are
as follows:

Albums*/ Singles

Silver 60,000 /Silver 200,000
Gold 100,000 /Gold 400,000
Platinum 300,000 /Platinum 600,000
*(LPs and cassettes with a dealer price £3.70+ or £6+ for CDs)

The following eligibility rules apply:

1. Only firm, invoiced sales to the trade qualify for awards.
2. Sales of all formats can be added for all awards.
3. Sales for export do not apply.
4. One "unit" is one package, regardless of how many discs or cassettes are
included.
5. Awards can only be made to the record company/label concerned and to the
artist, manager or producer.
6. Published dealer prices are those used for chart qualifying levels.
-----------------

Doing a search on the BPI site shows the HW albums/singles that the BPI say
have received rewards. Note that the dates are all after the change of
awards sytem mentioned above and so are for units sold not revenue received.
Also, I believe that someone has to actually apply for an album to be
certified. From work researching another artists awards (under US rules
mainly), it appears that unless the band/manager/record company apply to the
BPI to have something certified, they won`t be done as the BPI don`t check
unless asked. I also think someone has to pay for it as well.

HAWKWIND , WARRIOR ON THE EDGE OF TIME , Silver , Wed Oct 25 1978
HAWKWIND , HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN GRILL , Silver , Wed Oct 25 1978
HAWKWIND , SPACE RITUAL ALIVE , Silver , Mon Jan 1 1979
HAWKWIND , ROAD HAWKS , Silver , Thu Sep 11 1980
HAWKWIND , IN SEARCH OF SPACE , Gold , Thu Sep 2 1982
HAWKWIND , IN SEARCH OF SPACE , Silver , Thu Sep 2 1982


So the one on ebay is very probably a fake if it`s a UK award. Another
thing, I always understood that the awards were made out to specific people,
not just a general "to recognise..." thing but I could be wrong. Certainly
I`ve got pictures of bands each holding their own version of the award.

Hope that helps

Si