NEW YORK, NEW YORK – DECEMBER 31: BTS performs during Times Square New Years Eve 2020 … [+]
Billboard It rocked the music industry on Monday when it announced that it will no longer count merchandise and ticket packages on the Billboard 200, Hot 100 and other album and song charts.
According to yesterday’s report, the company “has decided to completely eliminate the practice of counting bundled albums with merchandise and concert tickets in its album and song lists.” Under these new rules, “All albums included with merchandise or concert tickets must be promoted as a supplement to those purchases in order for them to be considered in the charts.” Albums that are “baked[to]”The cost of an undisclosed ticket or package of freight will no longer count.
Further, Billboard You will no longer allow albums or physical singles included with digital downloads to be reported as digital sales. The album or physical single must be submitted before it can be counted on the charts.
In January, Billboard announced that it would require the albums included with the merchandise to be available on the same website for individual purchase, and the packages should cost at least $ 3.49 more than the standalone album. Billboard Now he says those changes “have not met the intended goal of accurately reflecting consumer intent.” The company has yet to announce a start date for its new rules.
The implications of these new ticket / merchandising package policies are broad and necessary. Apparently, they will prevent artists from accumulating “album sales” by combining their album with a ticket to a concert that, at best, will not realistically occur for another six months or a year. Labels should also be discouraged from pumping a large number of vinyl records and CDs on a Thursday afternoon, the last day of the chart-tracking week, which will not ship for three months in a final effort to sell juice. Similarly, artists will no longer be able to scale the graphics of the strength of branded lip balm, pans, bug spray, bottle openers, waist trainers, lava lamps, or condoms.
Had Billboard Having implemented these rules in early 2020, the charts would likely look very different during the first half of the year. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of artists who got number 1 albums or singles with the most help from packs in 2020 only: Lady Gaga, Kenny Chesney, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, 6ix9ine, Nicki Minaj, and The Weeknd. The latter currently has the biggest album debut of 2020 (at least for a few more days) with After hours, which moved 444,000 album equivalents in its first week, bolstered by a ticket package and more than 80-80! – different packages of merchandise.
You don’t have to look far to see that BillboardThe new merchandise and ticket package rules will devastate many pop stars who top the charts. BTS is not one of them.
The latest album by the Korean pop septet, Soul Map: 7, topped the Billboard 200 in February with 422,000 album-equivalent units. To date, BTS claims the second-biggest debut of 2020, and they did so without any tickets or freight packages. They also got 82% of their first-week sum of traditional sales, an almost unprecedented figure in an era when streaming is king. Yes BillboardThe new grouping rules were applied in January, BTS would surely claim the biggest album debut of 2020 right now.
Bts done Soul Map: 7 Available in four elaborate CD editions, each with different conceptual photos of the group. These CDs represented 330,000 of the 347,000 traditional sales in the first week of the album. Some critics have tried to compare this marketing strategy to the ticket / merchandise package or suggest that it is a bogus way to increase album sales. But since the happy days of vinyl, artists have encouraged people to buy their albums through elaborate packaging, selling LPs that were opened to include artwork, notes, song lyrics, and photos.
That same principle drives the various collectible editions of BTS from Soul Map: 7 and his previous albums. They don’t hide their music behind an expensive pair of sweatpants for fear that no one else will buy it. They are rewarding fans who would have already bought their album, probably multiple times, by making each version unique. Taylor Swift employed the same collectible CD strategy (along with merchandising packages) for her latest album, Lover, which debuted with 867,000 album-equivalent units. BTS Love yourself: tear He even received a nomination at the 2019 Grammys for Best Recording Package, recognizing the artists who went to great lengths for the visual appeal of their albums.. (The Recording Academy didn’t repeat the courtesy in 2020, but that’s a conversation for a different day.)
The key distinction between BTS selling different CD versions of Soul Map: 7 and other artists that exploit ticket / merchandising packages to sell albums is that BTS is explicitly changing its music in a collector’s item, without detracting from its value by packing it with lots of souvenirs. Superfans by any artist will routinely buy or download multiple versions of an album or single to upload to the charts. If BTS fans buy multiple versions of the same album, they will essentially buy different puzzle pieces that will enhance their understanding of the album’s overall themes, and there will be no confusion as to what they are paying for.
The principle behind BTS’s complex album packaging, and what makes them immune to BillboardPolitics changes: it’s an unwavering focus on music, rather than small knickknacks or tickets to distant concerts. It’s a principle that other pop stars topping the charts should be his priority. Otherwise, they will have a rude awakening when BillboardThe new policies take effect.
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