SoundScan sales will no longer include instant grat tracks

[Duca]

iTunes Reporting Methodology Change Impacting Nielsen SoundScan U.S. & Canada

Effective Friday, October 10th, iTunes sales reported to Nielsen SoundScan will no longer include instant gratification tracks delivered prior to the release of an album when the consumer purchases the entire album. The purchase of the album, as an individual transaction, will be counted when the complete project has been delivered upon album release. Individual tracks purchases will still be counted at the time of purchase and returned at the time the consumer decides to “Complete My Album”.

Finally.

[renfield75]

That's great news

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Nielsen SoundScan will no longer include instant gratification tracks delivered prior to the release of an album when the consumer purchases the entire album.

Wow. So for example that would mean a big chunk of Taylor Swift's first week sales for SOI wouldn't have counted if people chose to pre-order the album (which was what Big Machine had intended)

[Duca]

Sept 18, 2014 14:02:53 GMT -5 YourFaveIsAFlop said:

Nielsen SoundScan will no longer include instant gratification tracks delivered prior to the release of an album when the consumer purchases the entire album.

Wow. So for example that would mean a big chunk of Taylor Swift's first week sales for SOI wouldn't have counted if people chose to pre-order the album (which was what Big Machine had intended)

Yes. '1989' likely has lots of pre-orders so this sucks for her since she would've easily gotten a bunch of top 5 hits with her upcoming promo singles.

[trebor]

If I am not totally mistaken the current rule is that when the full album goes on sale, the advance gratification single gets the album equivalent amount of minus sales until the single download sales for that specific track are balanced. Can anybody confirm this? 

[KeepDeanWeird]

Long over due. It's basically double counting. As far as Taylor is concerned, I doubt this will change the strategy - the preview tracks are not for chart purposes, but to sell albums.

[Fancy]

thank god.

[Green Baron]

Thank jesus!

[#LisaRinna]

Can someone break it down for me?

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

That's good news. Though I don't think the track should count as "returned" when someone completes the album weeks later. It's like they can't go back in time to take away the sale of the single so they do it with the latest chart and it just throws it off.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Sept 18, 2014 15:59:16 GMT -5 #LisaRinna said:

Can someone break it down for me?

The days of promo album tracks charting for week are coming to an end

[#LisaRinna]

Sept 18, 2014 17:07:10 GMT -5 YourFaveIsAFlop said:

Sept 18, 2014 15:59:16 GMT -5 #LisaRinna said:

Can someone break it down for me?

The days of promo album tracks charting for week are coming to an end

Oh okay. But they'll still count as sales, right?

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Sept 18, 2014 17:10:21 GMT -5 #LisaRinna said:

Sept 18, 2014 17:07:10 GMT -5 YourFaveIsAFlop said:

The days of promo album tracks charting for week are coming to an end

Oh okay. But they'll still count as sales, right?

Not instant grats. Consumer has to actively download for it it count

[badrobot]

If I'm following, that means:

-If you buy a pre-release track but don't pre-order the album, that WILL count as a song sale for the Hot 100
-If you pre-order an album, and then get pre-release tracks, those will not count as song sales and thus have no Hot 100 impact

So, if fans want to be maximize chart impact, they should not pre-order and should just buy each song as it becomes available and then do "complete my album" when the full album is finally released.

Right?

[KeepDeanWeird]

Sept 19, 2014 9:19:11 GMT -5 badrobot said:

If I'm following, that means:

-If you buy a pre-release track but don't pre-order the album, that WILL count as a song sale for the Hot 100
-If you pre-order an album, and then get pre-release tracks, those will not count as song sales and thus have no Hot 100 impact

So, if fans want to be maximize chart impact, they should not pre-order and should just buy each song as it becomes available and then do "complete my album" when the full album is finally released.

Right?

That is my interpretation. Fortunately with the streaming element added in, the pre-release tracks haven't been cluttering the Top 10 or 20 as frequently. What was even more ridiculous was when Billboard changed the chart rule to count the "raw" total during release week (even though because of CMA sales dropped significantly). This should fix that.

[Au$tin]

I'm glad this is finally happening. I understand why they counted to begin with, but IMO those sales are coming from purchases of the album, so they likewise should count as that only, not sales of the album AND single sales.

[HolidayGuy]

I think the number of fans who choose their purchase options to drive/impact the charts is minimal, overall. So I'd think that big fans of acts will continue to pre-order the album.

[badrobot]

^I don't know -- some of the major artists with teen followings have some pretty savvy internet fans.

I've never really understood the idea of pre-ordering a digital album. It's not like they're going to sell out and you won't be able to get it if you don't pre-order.

[trebor]

Sept 19, 2014 9:19:11 GMT -5 badrobot said:

...
So, if fans want to be maximize chart impact, they should not pre-order and should just buy each song as it becomes available and then do "complete my album" when the full album is finally released.
...

My understanding is that this will get one album sales count and at the same time all previously purchased single downloads will get a minus sale for that week.

[HolidayGuy]

br- perhaps the price goes up once the pre-orders stop? I haven't really kept track of past trends.

Look at those "download days"- they have negligible impact on the charts. So, in a case like this, I'd think the same. It's hard to believe, but a good amount of the general population isn't as invested in how their favorite acts fare on the charts.

It's weird that this new rule takes effect on a Friday, though.

[jenglisbe]

Sept 20, 2014 12:40:06 GMT -5 trebor said:

Sept 19, 2014 9:19:11 GMT -5 badrobot said:

...
So, if fans want to be maximize chart impact, they should not pre-order and should just buy each song as it becomes available and then do "complete my album" when the full album is finally released.
...

My understanding is that this will get one album sales count and at the same time all previously purchased single downloads will get a minus sale for that week.

That's the same as the old rule for pre-orders, which makes sense as Soundscan can't know if someone will complete the album or not when they buy the single.

I don't know why those pre-orders ever counted as a single sale anyway. The bad news is this ultimately probably hurts album sales even moer because now labels may not use hype singles to promote the pre-orders (though they may not care since it wasn't ever about getting a chart hit with the hype singles anyway).

[KeepDeanWeird]

Sept 21, 2014 8:41:01 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

Sept 20, 2014 12:40:06 GMT -5 trebor said:

My understanding is that this will get one album sales count and at the same time all previously purchased single downloads will get a minus sale for that week.

That's the same as the old rule for pre-orders, which makes sense as Soundscan can't know if someone will complete the album or not when they buy the single.

I don't know why those pre-orders ever counted as a single sale anyway. The bad news is this ultimately probably hurts album sales even moer because now labels may not use hype singles to promote the pre-orders (though they may not care since it wasn't ever about getting a chart hit with the hype singles anyway).

They definitely will not care about a low chart placement on H100. Preview singles are here to stay and it's a great strategy, especially for artists with diverse musical styles.

[maine]

About damn time.

Is this going to affect the iTunes rankings also? Or is it just the reports to SoundScan?

[Mr. Thonk Eyes]

Sept 23, 2014 20:03:47 GMT -5 maine said:

About damn time.

Is this going to affect the iTunes rankings also? Or is it just the reports to SoundScan?

Hopefully it does affect the iTunes position. I'm really tired of instant grats going to the top on iTunes so I'll be grateful if also affects the iTunes rankings

[maine]

Sept 23, 2014 20:10:50 GMT -5 Mr. Thonk Eyes said:

Sept 23, 2014 20:03:47 GMT -5 maine said:

About damn time.

Is this going to affect the iTunes rankings also? Or is it just the reports to SoundScan?

Hopefully it does affect the iTunes position. I'm really tired of instant grats going to the top on iTunes so I'll be grateful if also affects the iTunes rankings

Same. Sometimes I like it when it is my favorite artist. But for the most part it is annoying. 

[Mr. Thonk Eyes]

Sept 23, 2014 20:12:04 GMT -5 maine said:

Sept 23, 2014 20:10:50 GMT -5 Mr. Thonk Eyes said:

Hopefully it does affect the iTunes position. I'm really tired of instant grats going to the top on iTunes so I'll be grateful if also affects the iTunes rankings

Same. Sometimes I like it when it is my favorite artist. But for the most part it is annoying. 

Yeah lol it's annoying as fuck but SIO is kind of a grat track so I'm cool with that one having been number one

[Kinney]

Just wondering, was there any confirmation of this beyond this article? From SoundScan, iTunes, Billboard etc.