Recording Industry of South Africa (RISA) is a

trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. An industry trade association partic ...

representing the interests of major and independent record labels of South Africa. Located in

Randburg Randburg is an area located in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Formerly a separate municipality, its administration devolved to the newly created City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, along with neighbouring Sandton and Roodepoort, ...

, RISA is responsible for running the annual

South African Music Awards The South African Music Awards (often simply the SAMAs) are the Recording Industry of South Africa's music industry awards, established in 1995. The ceremony is held annually, usually in late April or May, with the judging process starting in ...

(SAMAs) and for

music recording certification Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

in South Africa. It also runs

The Official South African Charts The Official South African Charts (TOSAC) is the music industry standard record chart in South Africa launched by RISA for local and international songs. Chart rankings are based on digital sales and online streaming in South Africa through iT ...

(TOSAC).

Anti-piracy

RISA is the body that represents musicians and publishers when it comes to

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...

. The South African Copyright Act of 1978 states: "You may not make a copy of a sound recording without the permission of the author." This has been interpreted to mean that it is illegal to convert a CD to

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

in South Africa.

RiSA certifications

Like the levels in most countries, RiSA certification levels were adjusted over the years to adjust for the changing music market. Until August 2006, albums were required to sell 25,000 units for gold certificate and 50,000 for platinum. For albums released since August 2006, the levels for albums were lowered to 20,000 copies for gold and 40,000 for platinum. These requirements were further adjusted for albums released from 1 December 2015, requiring 15,000 for gold and 30,000 for platinum. Digital sales are also accepted from August 2006, with 30 mastertone or ringback tone or 10 full track downloads equalling one album. The levels were adjusted in August 2018 to 220 master tones or ringback tones equalling one album. Streams were introduced in December 2018, with 1200 streams equalling one album. The levels for singles were rather stable, 10,000 for gold and 25,000 for platinum, and remained the same at least until June 2013, the last

IFPI The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 1 ...

International Certification Award levels report. With the introduction of a new RiSA website in August 2016, the level for platinum was 20,000. Digital sales for singles appeared in August 2018, with 22 master tones or ringback tones being equal to selling one single. Streams were added in December 2018 with 120 streams equally one single. Other certification include multi-box audio sets (3 or more units per box) which are certified at 12,500 for gold and 25,000 for platinum, music videos at 5,000/10,000 and DVDs at 10,000/20,000.

Album chart

A weekly top 20 album chart is aired every Saturday by Radio Sonder Grense, based on CD sales figures compiled by RiSA.

Streaming charts

On 2 September 2021, RISA announced the launch of

(TOSAC), which includes a top 100

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...

chart for tracks by South African artists or that have at least one South African artist featured on them, as well as a combined top 100 streaming chart that includes all international and local songs. The streaming data is collected from

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active use ...

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Appl ...

and

Deezer Deezer is a French online music streaming service. It allows users to listen to music content from record labels, as well as podcasts on various devices online or offline. Created in Paris, Deezer currently has 90 million licensed tracks in ...

References

External links