Billboard changes charts Rules
Billboard has announced some changes in their charting rules stopping the practice of counting albums bundled with merchandise and concert tickets including instant digital sales attached to purchases for physical albums delivered at a later date.
On the announcement released to the internet, billboard said this pratice has fallen short of the intended goal of accurately reflecting consumer intent.all albums bundled with either merch or concert tickets must be promoted as an add-on to those purchases in order to be counted on the charts.
Albums or singles that are bundled with digital downloads to be reported as digital sales, which will eliminate the practice of non-manufactured items being used to inflate first-week chart rankings will no longer be allowed on billboard according to their new rules.
Billboard called out artist like Travis Scott, Tekashi 69, Ariana grande and Justin beiber for selling vinyl, CDs, and other physical releases that won’t be delivered until weeks later while offering instant digital downloads as a quick strategy to top the chart.
“Billboard is implementing these changes to address widespread concerns that an accurate measure of consumer intent — which has been the basis of the Billboard charts since their inception — is being undermined by increasingly-common bundling practices,” says the company. “The new guidelines will better ensure that Billboard chart rankings more accurately reflect the conscious purchasing decisions of consumers and level the playing field for all artists.”
