I was just curious, and I didnt know if I should come here or to chit chat, but has the recording industry adjusted the way they calculate album sales recently? I'm just wondering how iTunes and all of the other pay-per-song stores are accounted for when you hear the term "2 million records sold"

Did the artist really sell 2 million cd's or were there 2 million versions of their hit #1 single sold?

9/15/2009 1:37:19 PM

Quote :

"Nielsen SoundScan is an information system that tracks sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada. Sales data from point-of-sale cash registers is collected weekly from over 14,000 retail, mass merchant and non-traditional (on-line stores, venues, etc.) outlets. Weekly data is compiled and made available every Wednesday. Nielsen SoundScan is the sales source for the Billboard music charts."

http://home.soundscan.com/about.html

There is also RIAA certification (gold, platinum, etc) for albums, singles, and digital sales. The distinction between the song and the album would be made in the certification. So if a song sells x it may be a gold single, but the album may not go gold. I think that's the way it works.
http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinum.php?content_selector=certification

So I'd say 2 million records means 2 million cds or full album downloads but without further clarification you wouldn't know if that is 2 million end user sales or 2 million sales to distributers.

9/15/2009 1:58:52 PM

The music industry will put forth whatever sales numbers accommodate their particular marketing goal of the moment. The RIAA lawsuits have shown that when it comes to real and verifiable data that the music industry will do everything in its power to keep from releasing the data. They've ignored multiple subpoenas to date.

9/15/2009 3:21:45 PM

yeah i'd take any information with a grain of salt.

and to you and me, record = album.... but at least as far as thing like the Grammy's are concerned, it's a song. which is why you have Album of the Year and Record of the Year (and Song of the Year so figure that one out).

9/15/2009 4:59:06 PM

is song of the year about radio airplay and record of the year about single sales?

[Edited on September 15, 2009 at 5:01 PM. Reason : .]

9/15/2009 5:01:04 PM

the Grammy's are voted upon in the same way as the Oscars, correct?

9/15/2009 5:12:24 PM

Quote :

"# Record of the Year is awarded to the performer and the production team of a single song. # Album of the Year is awarded to the performer and the production team of a full album. # Song of the Year is awarded to the writer(s)/composer(s) of a single song."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award

9/15/2009 5:42:00 PM

A song is words and music on a piece of paper. A record is a recording of said song.

9/15/2009 6:24:58 PM

So how can an artist's record go platinum, if everyone goes to iTunes and downloads the two songs that have been released to radio, but no one purchases the entire album?

I guess this would be the same as buying singles in the stores, but people don't really go that route anymore.

9/15/2009 8:00:07 PM

Quote :

"So how can an artist's record go platinum, if everyone goes to iTunes and downloads the two songs that have been released to radio, but no one purchases the entire album?"

Um, because a million people did purchase the entire album?

I'm sure there's a formula for turning the sales of individual tracks into compensated full album sales, just like pro sports franchises consider two half-season tickets to be one full-season ticket for their public ticket sales reports.

9/16/2009 3:01:33 AM

^There is actually a RIAA digital certification... so a single could go Platinum in the digital single category and only Gold or nothing in the single category:
http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinum.php?content_selector=digital_sales_award


Also of interest:

Quote :

"Prior to Nielsen SoundScan, RIAA certification was the only audited and verifiable system for tracking music sales in the U.S.; it is still the only system capable of tracking 100% of sales (albeit as shipments less returns, not actual sales like Nielsen SoundScan). This system has allowed, at times, for record labels to promote an album as gold or platinum simply based on large shipments. For instance, in 1978 the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band soundtrack shipped platinum but was a sales bust, with two million returns.[2] Similarly, all four solo albums by the members of Kiss simultaneously shipped platinum that same year but none of them even managed to crack the top 20 of the Billboard 200 album chart. The following year, the RIAA began requiring 120 days from the release date before recordings were eligible for certification, although that requirement has been reduced over the years and currently stands at 30 days. More recently, Sony was roundly criticized in 1995 for hyping Michael Jackson's double album HIStory as five times platinum, based on shipments of 2.5 million and using the RIAA's recently adopted practice of counting each disc toward certification, while SoundScan was reporting only 1.3 million copies sold. [3] A similar discrepancy between shipments and sales was reported with The Lion King soundtrack. [4]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_certification

[Edited on September 16, 2009 at 10:41 AM. Reason : ]

Theoretically you could have a Gold/Platinum album certification and a single person never buy your cd (as long as wal-mart, amazon, etc didn't return enough albums before 30 days). But I guess in theory if they weren't selling, they'd get returned in mass numbers before the 30 day grace period.

[Edited on September 16, 2009 at 10:48 AM. Reason : ]

9/16/2009 10:40:08 AM

in any case,

YOUR MUSIC SUCKS AND MINE IS AWESOME.

9/16/2009 11:04:23 AM