The emergence of new technologies and marketing strategies has brought about a lot of changes to the music industry in recent years. One practice that artists have adopted to help them sell more albums is to include their music alongside items like merch and concert tickets. Late last year, Billboard announced changes to its rules on how these sales would be reflected on its charts. Now, they have once again changed the rules: Albums bundled with merch and tickets will no longer be counted towards chart placement.
The publication made the announcement in a post on their website, writing, “Billboard — in an acknowledgement that [the previous rule changes] have fallen short of the intended goal of accurately reflecting consumer intent — has decided to eliminate the practice of counting albums bundled with merchandise and concert tickets on its album and song charts altogether.”
Billboard notes that beginning at a start date to be announced, “all albums bundled with either merchandise or concert tickets must be promoted as an add-on to those purchases in order to be counted on the charts. Those included as part of a baked-in, single-price option (along with the merchandise or ticket), with the album cost undisclosed to the consumer, will no longer be counted. It is Billboard‘s belief that the resulting charts will more accurately reflect consumer choice.”
Additionally, “sales of physical albums or singles that are bundled with digital downloads” will no longer be able to be reported as digital sales, “thereby eliminating the practice of ‘spontaneous’ non-manufactured items being used to influence first-week chart rankings.” The physical item would only be counted in Billboard‘s tallies when it is shipped.
Billboard went on to cite Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and Tekashi 69 as artists who have handled recent releases in that way: “The practice of selling vinyl, CDs and other physical releases that won’t be manufactured and shipped to consumers for weeks or months — while offering a digital download that can be redeemed instantly — has become widespread as of late, with artists including Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and 6ix9ine all recently using the tactic to boost their chart positions. The latest rule changes will render that tactic ineffectual.”
The publication concluded:
“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. 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. […] Despite the latest rule changes on album bundling, Billboard will continue to work with the industry to reflect merchandise sales within existing charts such as the Artist 100, as well as potential merchandise-specific charts down the line.”
Read Billboard‘s full post here.