How does Billboard track record sales?

[jokerone]

Does anybody know how Billboard tracks record sales?
Is it by querying the top distributors or retailers or major recording labels?
I guess what I’m trying to figure out is if the local independent record store ever gets on their radar screen or is it just what Best Buy and Walmart sell that counts?

Thanks in advance.

 

[aaronaycox]

If I remember right it is basically a census of the songs requested by radio listeners.

 

[jokerone]

If I remember right it is basically a census of the songs requested by radio listeners.

Really? How accurate can that be? I mean do radio stations actually keep track of that? It would seem to be there is no monetary incentive for them to, and worst case they could fudge the numbers in some sort of payola type scam.

 

[Capt Hair]

If I remember right it is basically a census of the songs requested by radio listeners.

not at all.

Man, you just made me go digging through my notes lol, couldn't remember the exact name of it. We had covered this a while back in a music business class. Billboards and the charts are done through what is called Nielsen SoundScan, just SoundScan for short, it's a tracking system. Data is collected every single week and the new results are out every wednesday. Basically every time a sale is made, whether it be in store, online, whatever it gets recorded. For it to work though, who ever is selling it must have some sort of technological way of monitoring all POS's "point of sale's" and the product must have a UPC "universal product codes" so it can be used and accepted as correct data, and then that recorded data from the database is sent to SoundScan where the billboards are made.

You have to register with soundscan in order to be able to put on the billboards, if your not or you sponsoring label isn't you can't be included.

 

[jokerone]

not at all.

Man, you just made me go digging through my notes lol, couldn't remember the exact name of it. We had covered this a while back in a music business class. Billboards and the charts are done through what is called Nielsen SoundScan, just SoundScan for short, it's a tracking system. Data is collected every single week and the new results are out every wednesday. Basically every time a sale is made, whether it be in store, online, whatever it gets recorded. For it to work though, who ever is selling it must have some sort of technological way of monitoring all POS's "point of sale's" and the product must have a UPC "universal product codes" so it can be used and accepted as correct data, and then that recorded data from the database is sent to SoundScan where the billboards are made.

You have to register with soundscan in order to be able to put on the billboards, if your not or you sponsoring label isn't you can't be included.

Hi,

In general UPCs are great for a store knowing when to re-order because their "on-hand" inventory is below a set amount. Assuming its a chain store, they order from the warehouse. However, In my Hypothetical world, would an independent music store that uses a scanner / UPC system provide Soundscan with any sort of information?

So lets say I have a CD, and its only sold at Joe’s Music store in Cleveland. However there is an unending line of customers out the door and around the block all queued up to buy only my CD. Joe’s sells 100,000 of my CDs a week, and I deliver a tractor trailer load of CDs to his store everyday.
How does soundscan get this information if its in a “closed loop” between Joe and myself?
That is I guess the point of my question. Its in SoundScan’s best interest to be tapped into Walmart, Best Buy, Target, K-mart, Amazon.com, etc. but what about Joe’s Music store?
If you don’t know that’s fine. I’m just wondering if anyone has this information.

thanks

 

[Capt Hair]

Hi,

In general UPCs are great for a store knowing when to re-order because their "on-hand" inventory is below a set amount. Assuming its a chain store, they order from the warehouse. However, In my Hypothetical world, would an independent music store that uses a scanner / UPC system provide Soundscan with any sort of information?

So lets say I have a CD, and its only sold at Joe’s Music store in Cleveland. However there is an unending line of customers out the door and around the block all queued up to buy only my CD. Joe’s sells 100,000 of my CDs a week, and I deliver a tractor trailer load of CDs to his store everyday.
How does soundscan get this information if its in a “closed loop” between Joe and myself?
That is I guess the point of my question. Its in SoundScan’s best interest to be tapped into Walmart, Best Buy, Target, K-mart, Amazon.com, etc. but what about Joe’s Music store?
If you don’t know that’s fine. I’m just wondering if anyone has this information.

thanks

Nielsen SoundScan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This wiki may clear some things up^^^

Does a good job of explaining it.

Under "how nielsen soundscan tracks scales" it lists "distributers" near the bottom. This is where what you said comes into play, it's not a closed loop. Those sales can be tracked from the distribution point as well.

And remember if your representative/distributer isn't registered with them and they're selling your cd, it doesn't matter, it doesn't get tracked. You can't and never will be listed on the billboards if you are a completely independent artist with no ties to soundscan.

If your just mass producing your own cd's and taking them to be sold at a local store it just doesn't matter as far as billboards go, even if you sold a million copies, impressive yes, but you won't be listed unless your registered with soundscan.

 

[jokerone]

thanks.

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Hi,

In general UPCs are great for a store knowing when to re-order because their "on-hand" inventory is below a set amount. Assuming its a chain store, they order from the warehouse. However, In my Hypothetical world, would an independent music store that uses a scanner / UPC system provide Soundscan with any sort of information?

So lets say I have a CD, and its only sold at Joe’s Music store in Cleveland. However there is an unending line of customers out the door and around the block all queued up to buy only my CD. Joe’s sells 100,000 of my CDs a week, and I deliver a tractor trailer load of CDs to his store everyday.
How does soundscan get this information if its in a “closed loop” between Joe and myself?
That is I guess the point of my question. Its in SoundScan’s best interest to be tapped into Walmart, Best Buy, Target, K-mart, Amazon.com, etc. but what about Joe’s Music store?
If you don’t know that’s fine. I’m just wondering if anyone has this information.

thanks

Joe's music store is actually supposed to report their sales figures to Soundscan. Joe registers his business with SS, and they'll give him an ID number and documentation on the report format. Then he's responsible for sending in the weekly reports.

Which, of course, means that there's not a lot of incentive for Joe to do it. Unless something legally forces his hand, it's a giant waste of his time.

 

[jokerone]

Joe's music store is actually supposed to report their sales figures to Soundscan. Joe registers his business with SS, and they'll give him an ID number and documentation on the report format. Then he's responsible for sending in the weekly reports.

Which, of course, means that there's not a lot of incentive for Joe to do it. Unless something legally forces his hand, it's a giant waste of his time.

thanks, thats sort of what I was wondering. So self-distribution of CDs to indie record stores may or may not get you on Billboard's radar screen?

thanks

 

[Capt Hair]

thanks, thats sort of what I was wondering. So self-distribution of CDs to indie record stores may or may not get you on Billboard's radar screen?

thanks

Just can't be done, you may get noticed if you have a lot of other publicity and they may request you to join them or get recognized by RIAA, but you still have to register with them.

You have to register a product to be tracked by SS.

 

[jokerone]

Just can't be done, you may get noticed if you have a lot of other publicity and they may request you to join them or get recognized by RIAA, but you still have to register with them.

You have to register a product to be tracked by SS.

I understand you have to have the product registered, but even with that if Joe's indie record store isn't dumping its data to Soundscan then you won't end up on their radar screen correct?

thanks

 

[Capt Hair]

Well they're not dumping all of their data to SS, think how much that would be to sift through especially from a huge retailer like walmart or target, it's just that of registered products. So if you don't have a registered product, it doesn't even get sent, you don't exist in their eyes.

And again, Joe's indie store is so small and an individual entity it may not even be involved anyway and SS is getting their info from the distributor based on how many albums are shipped.

 

[aaronaycox]

OK, that answers how an Album is tracked, but I haven't seen an answer yet that explains how a single song is tracked. How does one song out of 12 on a CD end up at number 1? How about the same Album that has various songs that make their way to the charts?

 

[Capt Hair]

OK, that answers how an Album is tracked, but I haven't seen an answer yet that explains how a single song is tracked. How does one song out of 12 on a CD end up at number 1? How about the same Album that has various songs that make their way to the charts?

Also tracked by the Neilsen company in the same matter. Singles do have a small portion of radio air play tied it, but it's not the main contributing factor, it's still sales of the single and more recently, downloads. Same thing applies as before, if you or your distributer or somebody who owns/using your music is not registered with the Neilsen company, you don't exist.

the Original Post asked about "records" or albums, not singles. Just saying

 

[VomitHatSteve]

SS collects 3 reports on downloads. (I just had to program our company's report generation. That's a party!)

 

[jokerone]

SS collects 3 reports on downloads. (I just had to program our company's report generation. That's a party!)

Just wondering what is the financial gain for your company in reporting this information to SoundScan? My point is, it costs your company to pay you to do this, and a smaller company wouldn’t either have the resources or consider it a priority if there was no monetary gain for them correct?

 

[VomitHatSteve]

Our direct customers are bands, and they see direct benefit from having their sales in the SS database, so SS reporting is a useful service we can offer our paying customers.

That, plus contractual obligations.

 

[jokerone]

Our direct customers are bands, and they see direct benefit from having their sales in the SS database, so SS reporting is a useful service we can offer our paying customers.

That, plus contractual obligations.

I see. Cool, then there is hope for the little guy making a big footprint on Billboard's radar screen, even if the odds are against it.

thanks