Celebrating some major hardware.
The past year has been nothing short of a whirlwind for Koe Wetzel. Beyond releasing his most commercially successful album to date in 2024 with 9 Lives and scoring his first-career #1 hit on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart with “High Road” featuring Jessie Murph, the “Good Die Young” singer would also welcome his first child, Woods Madison Wetzel, with longtime girlfriend, Bailey Fisher, back on May 23.
Couple becoming a father with experiencing more success than ever both on the road and in the studio, touring extensively with HARDY over the summer on his JIM BOB Tour and preparing for a new album with the release of both “Surrounded” and last week’s new track, “Werewolf,” and it’s been nothing short of an incredibly busy year for the Texas native.
As we inch closer to the end of the year, Wetzel took to Instagram today to reflect on his career accomplishments in the form of the 15 gold and platinum certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) he’s procured over the course of his career.
Celebrating his RIAA certifications, Wetzel would thank fans in the Instagram caption while simultaneously noting how excited he is to share new music he’s been working on. Additionally, Wetzel would celebrate reaching a staggering 3.5 billion streams to date across all platforms in the post.
“To the day ones, new fans and everybody in between.. thank y’all. Excited to share this next chapter we’ve been working on. I think y’all are gonna dig it..”
While all of this sounds great, the RIAA (and its subsequent certification process) can be a bit confusing, so let me explain how it all works.
Starting with their background, the RIAA is a trade organization consisting of major record labels and distributors that aims to “support and promote the creative and commercial vitality of music labels in the United States.” With that being said, however, their primary feature, in terms of public discussion of music, is undoubtedly their tracking of artists’ sales.
These sales, of course, are tracked in terms of “gold,” “platinum,” and “diamond” certifications once a song or album hits the required criteria.
RIAA Criteria
When a single or album has sold at least 500,000 units, it is then eligible for a Gold certification; when it hits 1 million, it is eligible for Platinum certification. And finally, a song or record must sell 10 million units for it to be certified Diamond. There’s only been 13 Diamond-Certified songs in country music history. And keep in mind that the RIAA doesn’t just keep a running tab on these awards and hand out plaques; an artist’s label will actively pursue certification by applying, submitting statistics, and paying a few hundred dollars to undergo an audit to verify the sales. And then… You must purchase a plaque for each person involved. Well, only if you want to…
As for what constitutes a “unit,” there are distinctions between sales regarding both singles and albums. Starting with singles, one paid download or 150 on-demand streams constitutes a unit. Albums, on the other hand, are a bit different. Given how popular streaming is in today’s age, there are three different ways an album can sell a single unit: 1) a permanent digital album or physical album sale, which basically means someone bought the record; 2) 10 permanent track downloads from the album, which laughably wouldn’t even be 1/3 of a Morgan Wallen album these days; or 3) 1,500 on-demand audio and/or video streams from the album. Of course, streaming is how a bulk of the units are earned these days.
For Wetzel specifically, he owns five separate platinum singles, eight gold singles and two gold albums for 2024’s 9 Lives and 2020’s Sellout. Unsurprisingly, his aforementioned first-career #1 hit with Jessie Murph, “High Road,” is his highest certified song to date with a 3x platinum status. Past hits such as “Good Die Young,” “Sweet Dreams,” “Something to Talk About” and “Drunk Driving” round out the list of Wetzel’s platinum tracks.
A full list of Wetzel’s certified gold/platinum songs is as follows:
- “High Road” feat. Jessie Murph (3x Platinum)
- “Good Die Young” (Platinum)
- “Sweet Dreams” (Platinum)
- “Something to Talk About” (Platinum)
- “Drunk Driving” (Platinum)
- 9 Lives (Gold)
- “That’s Why We Fight” (w/Ella Langley) [Gold]
- Sellout (Gold)
- “Damn Near Normal” (Gold)
- “Ragweed” (Gold)
- “Kuntry & Wistern” (Gold)
- “Creeps” (Gold)
- “Love” feat. Parker McCollum (Gold)
- “Cabo” (Gold)
- “February 28, 2016” (Gold)
“High Road” (feat. Jessie Murph)
“Good Die Young”
“Drunk Driving”
Koe Wetzel Tour Dates
December 5 – Columbus, Ohio – WCOL Winter Wonder Jam
May 15 – Albuquerque, New Mexico – Boots in the Park
May 30 – Panama City, Florida – Gulf Coast Jam 2026
July 16 – Eau Claire, Wisconsin – Country Jam USA 2026
