Billboard changing its main album chart, will count streaming services

[PicklePower 1,649]

1 track equivalent album unit (TEA) = 10 tracks sold = 1 "album" sold

1 stream equivalent album unit (SEA) = 1,500 streams = 1 "album" sold, but this depends on the "average blended per-stream rate for audio and music videos", according to Billboard. That varies depending on the pay rate. 

 

Here's more about the two - http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/record-labels/6150181/soundscan-mid-year-albums-down-stream-equivalents-nearly

 

Thank you! So a TEA is easier to get than an SEA?

[Mills 446]

Thank you! So a TEA is easier to get than an SEA?

Yes, it's faster. Never been a fan of these two, especially TEA, since they just inflate album sales. 

[PicklePower 1,649]

Yes, it's faster. Never been a fan of these two, especially TEA, since they just inflate album sales. 

 

So if somebody bought 10 songs off PRISM or streamed 1,500 songs off PRISM, that would count as an album sale?

[Mills 446]

So if somebody bought 10 songs off PRISM or streamed 1,500 songs off PRISM, that would count as an album sale?

With this new rule, yes, as long as they're US-based. But as of now, they're still separating the equivalent albums with the actual albums sold, which means they still publishes how much are the actual album sales and how much are the TEAs. And I hope they still do once this new rule on the BB 200 kicks off. And I believe they will. 

[PicklePower 1,649]

With this new rule, yes, as long as they're US-based. But as of now, they're still separating the equivalent albums with the actual albums sold, which means they still publishes how much are the actual album sales and how much are the TEAs. And I hope they still do once this new rule on the BB 200 kicks off. And I believe they will. 

 

Okay! Thanks so much!

[Redstreak 6,653]

Yes, it's faster. Never been a fan of these two, especially TEA, since they just inflate album sales. 

So wait, does an individual have to stream a song 1500 times to equal an album, or does the song just have to be streamed 1500 times total to equal an album?

[PicklePower 1,649]

So wait, does an individual have to stream a song 1500 times to equal an album, or does the song just have to be streamed 1500 times total to equal an album?

 

I dunno. Halp us Mills.

[Mills 446]

So wait, does an individual have to stream a song 1500 times to equal an album, or does the song just have to be streamed 1500 times total to equal an album?

Based on my understanding, both could do, as long as the minimum streams are met. If I'm not mistaken, TEAs are calculated that way too. They get the digital track sales, convert them to TEAs, and that's regardless if one individual bought it or a thousand. Hope Billboard clarifies soon. SEAs are trickier (and messier) than TEAs. 

[PicklePower 1,649]

Based on my understanding, both could do, as long as the minimum streams are met. If I'm not mistaken, TEAs are calculated that way too. They get the digital track sales, convert them to TEAs, and that's regardless if one individual bought it or a thousand. Hope Billboard clarifies soon. SEAs are trickier (and messier) than TEAs. 

 

How do you know all of this?

[Travis 543]

My queen Nicki is about to very well. Bring on The Pinkprint. 

 

My first thought exactly

[Mills 446]

How do you know all of this?

The TEAs? From Billboard. They're basically just a conversion (of the aggregated sales) for labels to show how much of the individual downloads of songs from one album could've been an actual album sale, assuming the standard that 1 album is comprised of 10 songs at least. An individual can download one song on iTunes, and nine more other songs, and that person's 10 downloads would then comprise one TEA unit. He/she can download one song on iTunes, and the same song elsewhere, and that'd constitute 2 downloads = 2 digital track sales, even though he/she just bought the same song twice, but through different retailers. If that person's buying on iTunes and on Amazon for the same five songs, that'd still constitute 10 downloads, which would translate into 10 digital track sales, and therefore, technically, would be considered as one TEA unit. 

 

To further show how TEAs are computed towards overall album sales, here's the actual mid-year report of SoundScan for 2014:

 

120.9 million albums were sold. And by albums, it means CDs, cassettes, LPs, and digital albums. For the same time period, 593.6 million digital tracks were sold, including singles. And since 1 TEA = 10 tracks, SoundScan divided the total digital track sales, which is 593.6M, by 10, which resulted to 59.36 million TEAs. SoundScan then just added the actual albums sold + the TEAs, and that's why they came up with 180.2 million as the overall album sales by the middle of 2014. Here's the report - http://www.scoopmarketing.com/2014/07/nielsen-entertainment-mid-year-report/

[HANZ 4,380]

gaga better release another SMASH hit like Born this way, bad romance or poker face next time, otherwise her album could barely make it to the top 10

 

with these new rules it's definitely more important to be a single artist than an album artist these days :reductive:

[ChasingTables 0]

So basically it is meaningless, good to know.

[Mills 446]

Billboard made their own announcement, and they'll still have an album chart purely based on actual sales, and not equivalents. It'll be called the Top Album Sales Chart. 

 

 

While the Billboard 200 will be taking on a whole new look, Billboard will continue to publish a pure album sales chart, called Top Album Sales, that will maintain the traditional Billboard 200 methodology, comprising Nielsen's sales data exclusively. Existing genre album charts (Country, R&B/Hip-Hop, etc.) will also remain sale-based for the time being.

 

So yeah, we'd still get an album chart based on actual sales much like the current BB 200. That's fair enough. 

[Retep 0]

Billboard made their own announcement, and they'll still have an album chart purely based on actual sales, and not equivalents. It'll be called the Top Album Sales Chart. 

 

 

So yeah, we'd still get an album chart based on actual sales much like the current BB 200. That's fair enough. 

 

While this is still great I'd rather have the streaming addition be a new and separate chart and let the BB 200 remain as is, every past accomplishment made by other artists just seems less important with this addition and it cheapens the chart with its historical significance and the artists who were given a shot going #1 and launching their career off. I just don't see the benefit long term really. 

 

Edit: Just thought of something, a lot of top albums are going to embarrassingly not even make gold or platinum with ARIA certification at this point and yet remain top 20  chart toppers; that is unless ARIA decides for some reason to convert over streams which I can't see happening.