The Recording Industry Association of America is expanding its gold and platinum certification program to include song streams on the Internet.

The first round of 56 combined digital single awards counting both downloads and streams go to artists like Eminem, Adele, Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen.

The RIAA is the latest to recognize the popularity of streaming music over the Internet. Billboard also recently changed its chart system to include streams. The gold and platinum certifications will be based on data from on-demand streaming services like Spotify and Rhapsody and video streaming services like YouTube and Yahoo! Previously, only song sales had been recognized.

The RIAA says in a Thursday news release that 27 artists will receive multi-platinum certification, 18 platinum and 11 gold.

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Online:

http://riaa.com