Taylor Receives Top RIAA Honors for Gold & Platinum Sales Certifications
NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 23 -- Triple-platinum-selling
recording artist and internet sensation Taylor Swift reached another online
milestone this weekend, surpassing the 50 MILLION mark for music streams on
MySpace, where she is consistently ranked Country's #1 artist. Taylor, who
averages over 5 million MySpace streams each month, was nominated just last
week for a 2008 Teen Choice Award for Breakthrough Artist.
This week, the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA)
announced that Taylor was awarded the highest Gold & Platinum certification
of any artist in any genre in the month of May. Taylor Swift received 3x
Multi-Platinum prestige to commemorate sales exceeding 3 million since its
2006 release. Additionally, Taylor gained Gold Mastertone certification for
filling more than 500,000 phones with her hit single 'Our Song.' In
addition, Taylor has been awarded two Digital Platinum certifications (1
million downloads) and two Digital Gold certifications (500,000 downloads).
Also this week, Taylor's self-titled debut CD, released on Big Machine
Records an amazing 86 weeks ago, continues to pick up steam in stores,
spending its 20th week at #1 atop Billboard's Country CD Sales chart. This
accomplishment places Taylor in an elite group-the only other country
artists this decade to hold the #1 sales position for 20 weeks or more are
the Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood.
Widely hailed as the first bonafide country superstar of the MySpace
generation, 18-year-old Taylor Swift currently has singles climbing both
the country and pop radio charts. At the age of 17, Taylor became the
youngest person to single-handedly write and sing a number-one country
single entirely on her own ("Our Song" spent 6 consecutive weeks at #1 atop
Billboard's Country Singles Chart), and she is the first female solo artist
in country music history to write or co-write every song on a
platinum-selling debut CD. At 14, she signed a publishing deal with
Sony/ATV Music, and in 2006 released her self-titled debut CD on Big
Machine Records. Taylor Swift has reached Triple-Platinum (3 million sales)
status. Taylor was named Country Music's Hottest Female Artist of 2007 by
AOL Music and Best New Artist of 2007 by the editors of iTunes.
Taylor was named this year's Top New Female Vocalist by the Academy of
Country Music, and won 2008 CMT Music Awards for Video of the Year and
Female Video of the Year. She was recently named Superstar of Tomorrow at
the 10th Annual Young Hollywood Awards, making her the first musician to
ever receive this prestigious award. She is the reigning CMA Horizon Award
winner, as well as the Nashville Songwriters Association International's
Songwriter / Artist of the Year. Taylor is featured on the covers of the
June, 2008 issues of Seventeen and Southwest Airlines Spirit magazines, and
has also recently appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone, Billboard,
Blender, and USA Weekend. Taylor was named one of People magazine's 100
Most Beautiful People of 2008, and is featured on Maxim's current Hot 100
list. She is on tour this year with Rascal Flatts, and has also toured with
George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw & Faith Hill and Brad Paisley.
To hear music from Taylor Swift, log on to: http://www.taylorswift.com or
http://www.myspace.com/taylorswift
For downloadable photos of Taylor Swift, log on to
http://www.bigmachinerecords.com and click the media tab.
For more information, please contact:
Natalie Kilgore Paula Erickson
Big Machine Records Erickson Public Relations
615.324.7769 615.665.5950
Natalie.kilgore@bigmachinemail.com paula@ericksonpr.com
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