PewDiePie may be a controversial YouTube celebrity but his influence on the web is undeniable. From his thousands of dollars raised for charity, to his news shows, to his shocking inability to co-ordinate handshakes correctly, PewDiePie is arguably the first celebrity to come from YouTube, and he’s just going from strength to strength.
PDP is known for having the most subscribers of any YT channel ever (actually he just hit 89 million thanks to the subs war with T-Series), but it looks like he’s now going to be in the history books for another reason – he’s now a platinum recording artist thank to his diss track, B*tch Lasagna. Well…he kind of is.
Sharing the news on Reddit’s r/pewdiepie subreddit, one PDP fan shared an image with the news: “‘B*tch lasgana [sic]’ has crossed 150 million views on YouTube. Now it is officially a PLATINUM RECORD and Felix has become a Platinum Record Artist.
“Most probably pewds is unaware that that he has to file an application to RIAA to receive his PLATINUM PLAQUE.”
Although this is obviously great news for PDP and his legions of fans, but it’s not as clear-cut as it seems…
Pewds may have hit the elusive 150 million mark on YouTube, but he hasn’t sold that many digital copies of the song. Although he’s gotten the views, he hasn’t necessarily got the sales.
Over on the subreddit, fans are calculating whether or not the win counts, and there’s mixed opinion.
“Thought you had to sell cds/records to become platinum?,” writes one user. “Source kid Rock: ‘I’m goin platinum sellin rhymes. I went platinum seven times.’
“Edit: heres the math from RIAA –
“Album Award formula of 1,500 on-demand audio and/or video song streams = 10 track sales = 1 album sale. Also effective today, RIAA’s Digital Single Award ratio will be updated from 100 on-demand streams = 1 download to 150 on-demand streams = 1 download to reflect streaming’s enormous growth in the two plus years since that ratio was set.
“Album= (1500 watches = 1 sale, so
“1,500,000,000 watches = 1 platinum)
“Singles = 150mill = platinum.”
Another user disputed the math, saying: “In [the[ UK, youtube views don’t count towards sales, that rule is only in US & hasn’t been applied fully to UK yet
“Pewdiepie unfortunately is in UK. If he was in US he would’ve gone platinum a long time ago around the 100 mill mark.”
Maybe there needs to be a new category of Platinum for YouTube artists to clear up the confusion…
Featured Image Credit: PewDiePie/Razer