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Kanye West's The Life of Pablo becomes UK's first gold album from streaming alone

Reuters Kanye WestReuters

Kanye West's The Life of Pablo album is the first to be certified gold in the UK from streaming alone.

It means each song on the record has been streamed, on average, 10.5 million times, equating to 100,000 album sales, according to Official Charts data.

The album was only released on JAY-Z's Tidal service to start with.

Streaming was first used to make up the UK charts in 2015 with Kanye's gold certification awarded by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

The Life of Pablo entered the Official Albums Chart in May last year at number 30 and has spent 47 weeks in the Top 100.

The album is Kanye's eighth Top 40 in the UK and followed 2013's chart-topping Yeezus. 2007's Graduation also hit the top spot.

Reuters Models present creations at Kanye West's Yeezy Season 3 Collection presentation and listening party for the The Life of Pablo album during New York FashionReuters
Models helped launch The Life of Pablo during New York Fashion Week in February 2016

In April, The Life of Pablo became the first album to go platinum in America based on listens through streaming-only services with more than 1.5 billion US streams.

It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and became Kanye's seventh consecutive number one album on the American chart.

The Life of Pablo was nominated for best rap album at the Grammys but lost out to Chance the Rapper's Coloring Book, which became the first streaming-only album to win a prize at the ceremony.

TLOP singles Ultralight Beam and Famous were nominated for best rap/sung performance and best rap song but missed out to Drake's Hotline Bling in both categories.

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