Miranda Lambert’s album The Weight Of These Wings certified Platinum

MIRANDA LAMBERT’S ALBUM  
‘THE WEIGHT OF THESE WINGS’  
CERTIFIED PLATINUM BY RIAA

THE AMBITIOUS 24 SONG ALBUM
CERTIFIED PLATINUM BY RIAA
 

Updated: 13 July 2017

Nashville, TN -- Vanner Records/RCA Records Nashville GRAMMY Award-winner Miranda Lambert’s sixth studio album The Weight of These Wings is now certified PLATINUM (1-million units) by the RIAA.

Released on November 18, The Weight Of These Wings arrived at No.1 on the Billboard Country Albums Chart with 121,766 copies sold and No.3 on the Billboard Top 200 all genre Chart with 133,000 total consumption. Now, 33 weeks after its release, The Weight of These Wings is PLATINUM.

* NOTE * Platinum = 1-million units

Gold = 500,000 units

Note: For ALBUM certifications, the RIAA base their figures on the number of units SHIPPED together with, track sales and on demand audio/ video stream units and NOT based purely on traditional retail sales.

1,500 on-demand audio and/or video song streams = 10 track sales = 1 album sale.

150 on-demand streams = 1 track download

On the latest Billboard Top Country Albums chart THE WEIGHT OF THESE WINGS (Vanner/ RCA Nashville/Sony Music Nashville) rose 21-20 (144-135 Billboard 200 all genres) selling 2,082 copies (down 9%). It actually has sold 366,282 in pure retail sales in its first 32-weeks.

Double Albums Double Weighted and some!

The USA RIAA certification process counts a Double Album sales as two albums sold (Two discs in the same package)

Double albums are counted twice as the consumer is buying 2 discs.

Technically a double album only needs 500,000 units (based on units actually sold + units shipped (unsold) + track sales and on demand audio/ video stream units). Miranda’s “Vice” >> Vevo video has reached nearly 26 million streams.

WEIGHT OF THESE WINGS is counted as two units for certification because it's a double album over 90 minutes long so it has shipped 500,000 copies thus earning a platinum certification

However, an album project rarely costs twice that of a single CD these days. The Weight of These Wings physical 2-CD is currently priced at $15.88 in US Amazon.com / £11.99 in UK Amazon UK, and £10.99 on iTunes so can hardly be considered twice as difficult to sell with a higher price!

Billboard: Double Trouble: Miranda Lambert Has the 'Nerve' to Release Two-Disc Album

Extract: “A double album 10 or 20 years ago most times was kind of ridiculous,” said producer Frank Liddell. “These days, EPs are even too long, and here we got a double record in 2016.”… It’s in that context that Lambert’s album will be evaluated. It’s an hour and 40 minutes long, a major commitment for a listener in an era when attention spans are notably short. “People are very focused on singles and streaming, so it was a very big creative risk that she took,” said John Osborne of Brothers Osborne, who toured with Lambert in 2016. “But if you know Miranda Lambert at all, she’s not afraid to take big creative risks.” In fact, the creativity — not the size of the project — was the driving force behind The Weight of These Wings…. She reportedly wrote about 60 songs, then recorded more than 30 during a period of a year. From that pool, they removed anything that didn’t seem to fit, then settled on the two dozen that appear on discs titled “The Nerve” and “The Heart,” images derived from the hook of the final song on disc one: “I don’t have the nerve to use my heart.” The “Heart” songs, says Liddell, reflect her core being, while the “Nerve” tracks are more about the outer shell she has created for herself…. In fact, where rock artists recorded plenty of double-disc albums, most multiple-disc country releases — such as George Strait’s Strait Out of the Box or George Jones’ Anniversary: 10 Years of Hits — have been compilations.

Multiple-disc studio albums of new material have included Garth Brooks’ covers project Blame It All on My Roots: Five Decades of Influences, Vince Gill’s Grammy-nominated four-disc set THESE DAYS and three volumes of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band series WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN, featuring a stream of guest artists. Jim Lauderdale fashioned a two-disc Americana effort, SOUL SEARCHING, and Marty Stuart built SATURDAY NIGHT/SUNDAY MORNING. There are certainly others, but they’re few and far between, and with good reason. “That’s a lot of songs to have to live up to a certain standard,” says Cassadee Pope. “But if there’s one person that can do it, it’s Miranda.”….(SOURCE: Read More)

OF NOTE: Vince Gill's 4-CD Box set THESE DAYS was released by MCA Nashville on October 17, 2006 and debuted at #17 on the Billboard 200 selling 42,187 copies in its first week (chart dated Nov 4, 2006). It was certified GOLD on Nov 21, 2006 and then certified PLATINUM on Dec 11, 2006 for 1 Million units. On the US Billboard Charts (dated Jan 6, 2007) it was placed at #88 having sold 40,984 with a 10-week pure sales total of 214,274. (214K + units shipped x 4 = 1 million)

Jamey Johnson released a double album THE GUITAR SONG (Mercury Nashville) on Sept 14, 2010 which opened at #1 on Top Country Albums and No.4 on the Billboard 200 selling 62,778 copies (chart dated Oct 2, 2010). The album was divided into two parts; a 12-track CD; titled "Black Album" and a 13-track CD titled "White Album".

On Nov 17, 2010 is was certified GOLD (0.5 Million units) for albums sold plus shipped to retail. In its 9th chart week (dated Nov 27, 2010) it was #72 on the Billboard 200 with actual total sales of 182,026.  As of the chart dated Feb 19, 2011, the album had sold 263,000 copies in the US. 

The Weight of These Wings which has been praised by critics from NPR, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Associated Press, The New Yorker, Billboard, The Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly to name a few and was awarded the ALBUM OF THE YEAR at the Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards this past April.

In addition, the first song released from the now PLATINUM album, “Vice,” hit the Country Radio airwaves almost a year ago to date, when it released on July 18, 2016. The debut single was just an early taste from what fans would eventually come to know as The Weight Of These Wings also received multiple GRAMMY and ACM Award nominations on its own.

The Weight Of These Wings features 24 songs and was produced by Frank Liddell, Glenn Worf, and Eric Masse.

Miranda earned her first No.1 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart (BB200) with the debut of PLATINUM (RCA Nashville/Sony Music Nashville; released June 3, 2014). The set, her fifth release sold 179,646 copies in the week ending June 8, 2014 according to Nielsen SoundScan. "Platinum" also easily scored Lambert a fifth straight No.1 debut on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.

That sum was Miranda’s best sales week to date and the largest for an album from a female country artist since the week ending Dec. 30, 2012. That week, Taylor Swift's RED sold 241,202 copies in 10th chart week (3x Platinum; Total 3,107,249), nine weeks after it debuted at No.1 with 1,208,290 copies million. By September 2016, PLATINUM had sold 850,000 copies in the US.

Lambert was only the 11th female country artist to top the Billboard 200, which became a regularly published list in 1956.

Each of Lambert's albums had started with successively larger debut weeks:

KEROSENE (released March 15, 2005, bowed at No.18 on the Billboard 200 in 2005 with 40,000.

CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND released May 1, 2007 (Billboard 200 No.6 debut with 53,000),

REVOLUTION released Sept 29, 2009 released (Billboard 200 No.8 debut with 65,875 copies; chart Oct 17, 2009) As of the chart dated January 28, 2012, the REVOLUTION had sold 1,598,987 copies in the US
FOUR THE RECORD released November 1, 2011 (Billboard 200 No.3 debut with 133,223 copies). The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on January 10, 2014, and by September 2014, it had sold 1,014,000 copies in the US.

About Miranda Lambert: 

Miranda Lambert
Photo Credit: Daniela Federici

Vanner Records/RCA Records Nashville singer/songwriter Miranda Lambert is the reigning ACM Female Vocalist of the Year, having been bestowed this honor for eight consecutive years. Her accolades include 2 Grammy Awards, 12 (CMA) Country Music Associations Awards, and 28 (ACM) Academy of Country Music Awards as well as many other honors, including the prestigious Harmony Award from the Nashville Symphony.

The Texas native released her most recent effort, a double album titled The Weight of These Wings in November 2016, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Albums chart. 

She touts six studio albums to her repertoire; Kerosene (2005), Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2007), Revolution (2009), Four The Record (2011) and Platinum (2014), the latter earning Lambert a GRAMMY Award for Best Country Album, in addition to her previous GRAMMY win for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 2010 for “The House That Built Me.”  
The first song released from The Weight Of These Wings, “Vice,” received multiple Grammy and ACM Award nominations. Her third single, “Tin Man”, is currently at Country Radio. 

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