Articles — RIAA awards

Recorded in 1978-79 and released on November 21, 1980, Gaucho stands as one of the most meticulously crafted albums in popular music history. Created by Steely Dan—the studio-focused partnership of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker—the record represents both the peak of their perfectionism and a turning point in music production technology. At the center of its story is an unlikely “musician”: A custom-built drum machine named Wendel, invented by late recording engineer Roger Nichols (1944-2011), which would go on to receive its very own RIAA Platinum Album award. Roger Nichols and Wendel's RIAA Awards for Steely Dan's Gaucho album, along with...

Check out this list of the top 10 highest prices attained by RIAA awards in the marketplace. These pieces of music memorabilia have clearly become very popular with collectors.

Note: This article has been updated to indicate sold items as of 10-1-25  MusicGoldmine recently acquired a stellar collection of rare RIAA "white matte" record awards. For those not familiar, this type of RIAA awards are the rarest and most valuable of all RIAA awards. They were made from 1964 through 1974 in quite limited numbers for each title by only one company, the New York Frame & Picture Co. Also worth noting is that artist-presented awards are always the most valuable*, when they are genuine. Fortunately, all of these awards are genuine. If you'd like to know how we...

Want to sort out the myths from reality? While there are many more than ten myths about RIAA awards, we've covered some of them here: 1. Myth: On an album award, if the number of tracks on the record disc do not match up with the album being recognized by the award, the award is fake. Reality: It was most common for record labels to send any record they had available, and not the one being recognized, to the RIAA award manufacturer for an award. Rarely, exceptions to this occur. Here's one example of an exception with a real metal mother...

On March 16, 1999 the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the organization that issues music product sales awards, launched the RIAA Diamond Award program. It was created to recognize albums which have achieved the impressive milestone of selling 10 million copies or more in the U.S.  The award was designed by renowned crystal designer Peter Yenawine. Yenawine was a (continued below...) ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Check out this YouTube™ video telling the story of the RIAA Diamond Award and its' 1999 launch (Also, subscribe to our MusicGoldmine YouTube channel here for more content about music and collectibles): ______________________________________________________________________________________________ master designer at Steuben Glass—and...