Billboard Pricing Policy, Effective November 21, 2011
November 15, 2011
By Billboard staff
Unit sales for Albums priced below $3.49 during their first four weeks of release will not be eligible for inclusion on the Billboard album charts and will not count towards sales data presented by Nielsen SoundScan.
*The rule also applies to reissued titles.
*New Holiday/Seasonal titles must meet the minimum threshold through the final week of the calendar year.
*Unit sales for albums or EPs with 8 or less tracks will not be eligible for charting if the retail price is less than the sum of the tracks on the release, multiplied by $0.39.
*Minimum pricing for a multi-disc album (not a single disc with extra tracks), where the extra disc is audio content, will be $3.49 times the amount of discs being made available.
*For digital-only deluxe editions, any extra content exceeding nine tracks would be considered the equivalent of an extra disc. Each additional 10 tracks thereafter would be the equivalent of an additional disc.
Unit sales for Digital Tracks priced below $0.39 during their first three months of release will not be eligible for inclusion on Billboard's digital songs charts.
If a retailer offering a title for less than the above stated prices is a daily reporter to Nielsen SoundScan, units will be removed for charting purposes solely for the dates in which the title was priced less than the minimum.
*If a title was priced under the minimum during a portion of the day, all sales for that title on that day will not count towards the Billboard charts unless accurate transaction data for that title during the specific sales hours can be provided to Nielsen SoundScan for verification.
If a retailer offering a title for less than the above stated prices is a weekly reporter to Nielsen SoundScan, all units for that title sold by the retailer in the week will be removed for charting purposes unless accurate transaction data for that title on the sale date(s) can be provided to Nielsen SoundScan for verification .
Please note that the minimum pricing rule would not apply to any store-wide music liquidation sales.
Cheaters never prosper.
Billboard Defends Controversy
On May 26, 2011, Billboard wrote an article titled “Editor’s Note: Why Billboard Isn’t Revising Chart Policies for Lady Gaga’s Amazon Deal.” In the article, author Bill Werde tried to deflect the controversy on Britney Spears fans. However, many in the industry accused Billboard of siding with record company executives rather than representing the music buying public.
The very next week, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way took a historic drop of 84 percent in sales. It wasn’t seen as a coincidence that the album fell after the 99 cent discount ended. Despite heavy promotion, Born This Way continued to drop in sales and is now out of the top 40. Billboard became silent about the controversy, until this week.
