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Billboard Announces New Chart Rules: No More Merch & Ticket Bundles

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Melody Bot, Jul 14, 2020.

  1. Melody Bot Jul 14, 2020
    Melody Bot

    Your friendly little forum bot. Staff Member

    This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

    Chris Eggertsen, writing for Billboard:

    Billboard is changing the rules to its Billboard 200, Hot 100 and other album and song charts. The announcement comes in an effort to rectify how sales are counted with respect to album bundles with merchandise and concert tickets, as well as instant digital sales attached to purchases for physical albums delivered at a later date. […]

    Now, Billboard — in an acknowledgement that those measures 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.

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  2. fredwordsmith Jul 14, 2020
    fredwordsmith

    Trusted Supporter

    Good? I mean, I think this can only help smaller artists who otherwise have no shot to get on the charts.
     
  3. tyramail Jul 14, 2020
    tyramail

    Trusted Supporter

    Wow. I wonder if this means artists like The Weeknd won’t have such massive vinyl delays anymore.
     
  4. heymattrick Jul 14, 2020
    heymattrick

    Sending my love

    I think this is fair. So many major artists abused this system by basically making all merch items in their store "album bundles". Not to mention including the album with the concert tickets. So if you buy 2 tickets, you can get two CDs for free and they count as an album sale. Then when the rule changed a couple years ago that the merch items had to be offered separately at a lower price without the included album, it became even clearer how many were trying to game the system. For example, before NOACF by The 1975 came out, everything on the website (even older merch items) became the album "bundles". For example, a shirt would be $35 with the album bundle, or if you dug a little deeper on the website, you could find the same shirt (by itself, without a digital download) for $31.50. So you're buying the album for $3.50, and the way the items are listed on the website, it almost "forces" you to buy the album.
     
    zachmacD likes this.
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  6. TerrancePryor Jul 14, 2020
    TerrancePryor

    https://mp3sandnpcs.com/ Prestigious

    A lot of smaller acts rely on these bundles to get on the Billboard charts, so this is going to hurt them.
     
    falafelmywaffle likes this.
  7. fredwordsmith Jul 14, 2020
    fredwordsmith

    Trusted Supporter

    I guess I don’t see many bands in this scene who are still charting, even with these things going on. Whereas someone like The Weeknd or Maroon 5 goose their numbers by undercutting the album price and selling $30-40 shirts.

    I’m all for whatever is good for the artists. Even the above artists.
     
  8. heymattrick Jul 14, 2020
    heymattrick

    Sending my love

    But they are also getting completely overpowered by all the major artists taking advantage of the album bundles
     
  9. Piercalicious Jul 14, 2020
    Piercalicious

    Regular

    Based on the article, the requirement is just that the customer has to add the actual album as an a la carte option with two separate prices - but it doesn't seem like there's any limitation on discounting. Feel like we're just going to get a lot of up-priced merch bundles that let you add-on the album for a $1 or whatever the nominal price has to be.