Many of our South African artists have found themselves achieving their dream of reaching the milestone mark of selling 20,000 copies of their album. iFani and AKA are just some of the few artists to hold such bragging rights this year.

Selling 20,000 copies of your album is quite a huge deal to our South African artists. However, online radio station beinne.net begs to differ. In their effort to raise the stakes within the local music industry, the online radio station has appealed to South African artists to raise the bar and strive to sell 100,000 copies of their albums, rather than a measly 20,000, as a means to reach the sought-after gold status.

The local online radio station sent out numerous tweets to artists including DJ duo Vetkuk & Mahoota, informing them that the 20,000 gold status was overrated.

@djhummerous @culoedesong @djkentsa @oskidoibelieve @uhuru_sa @vetkukvsmahoota Gold is overrated make 20k to 100k, then we celebrate!

— New Gold is 100k (@being_net) June 27, 2015

@vetkukvsmahoota SA has 52million people, lets just raise the bar!! 20k is not enough for artist to celebrate, finance Baba.

— New Gold is 100k (@being_net) June 27, 2015

Vetkuk & Mahoota didn’t take this remark lightly, and urged the online radio station to respect other people's hustle.

@being_net where do u get off telling artists when to celebrate? Do you even have the 100k you talking about? Respect another persons hustle

— VetkukvsMahoota (@VetkukvsMahoota) June 27, 2015

Before the tweets turned into a heated debate that could've turned ugly, the online radio station raised the white flag and made it clear that they were not trying to stir any controversy, but instead were pleading for our artists to raise the bar.

@vetkukvsmahoota lets make music not war!! All we are saying is its not good enough! Raising the bar my brother!!

— New Gold is 100k (@being_net) June 27, 2015

@vetkukvsmahoota Looking at yo succes dont u think 100k is possible? Think hard my brother.

— New Gold is 100k (@being_net) June 27, 2015

The DJ duo also then raised a valid point about the music industry and the state of our economy:

@being_net there's so many things that goes into this music business. There's poverty in this country not all 52Mil can afford to buy music.

— VetkukvsMahoota (@VetkukvsMahoota) June 27, 2015

@being_net our success didn't come over night. it's because of hard work & respecting the people that put us there and give them our best.

— VetkukvsMahoota (@VetkukvsMahoota) June 27, 2015

According to Recording Industry South Africa, the music certification before 2007 looked like this:

Gold

25,000 copies

Platinum

50,000 copies

Double Platinum

100,000 copies

However, after 2007, the numbers spiralled down to these figures:

Gold

20,000 copies

Platinum

40,000 copies

Double Platinum

80,000 copies

Multiple Platinum

80,000+ copies in multiples of 40,000