About A2IM Certifications

About

Launched in June 2025, the A2IM Star Certification is a first-of-its-kind sales recognition program created specifically for the independent music sector. Developed in partnership with Luminate, an industry-leading music analytics platform that tracks sales and streaming data globally, A2IM introduces three tiers of certification to honor independent albums that achieve meaningful sales benchmarks, including One Star for 50,000 album sales, Two Star for 100,000 album sales, and Three Star for 300,000 album sales.

Built for the independent music ecosystem, the A2IM Star Certification offers official recognition of success across all genres, based on album equivalent activity. The certification not only celebrates the vibrancy and breadth of independent music but also provides key markers for success within the industry, allowing independent artists to celebrate important milestones in their career.

A2IM Star Certification Criteria

A2IM introduces three tiers of certification to honor independent albums that achieve meaningful sales benchmarks. The metric used for A2IM award certification combines album sales, song sales, and on-demand audio streaming.

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One Star Certification recognizing 50,000 album sales

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Two Star Certification recognizing 100,000 album sales

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Three Star Certification recognizing 300,000 album sales

About A2IM

A2IM is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit trade organization headquartered in New York City that exists to support and strengthen the independent recorded music sector. Membership currently includes a broad coalition of over 700 independently-owned American music labels. A2IM represents these independently owned small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) interests in the marketplace, in the media, on Capitol Hill, and as part of the global music community. In doing so, it supports a key segment of America's creative class that represents America's diverse musical and cultural heritage. Billboard Magazine identified the Independent music label sector as 37.32 percent of the music industry's U.S. recorded music sales market in 2016 based on copyright ownership, making Independent labels collectively the largest recorded music industry sector.

About Luminate

Luminate is the entertainment industry’s most trusted data partner, unleashing access to the most essential, objective, and trustworthy information across music, film and television, with data compiled from hundreds of verified sources. Today, the company maintains its more than 30-year legacy of accurate storytelling by powering the iconic Billboard music charts, while also acting as the premiere database for the television and film industries, which includes fueling Variety’s Streaming Originals Charts. Working closely with record labels, artists, studios, production companies, networks, tech companies, and more, Luminate offers the most valued source of comprehensive, independent, and foundational entertainment data that drives industry forward. Luminate is an independently operated company and a subsidiary of PME TopCo., a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge.

Luminate's CONNECT platform is the music industry standard for measurement, aggregating data from over 500 verified streaming, retail and airplay sources and tracking millions of artists, albums and songs globally.