Billboard- No More Merch & Ticket Bundles

[jacs vs looser 2,719]

21 minutes ago, mr.peter said:

This means we won’t be getting all those vinyls and cassettes no more  the music collectors where in heaven again. That sucks. 
I thought it was a cool way for artist to make money again 

Those are actual records being sold tho, what won't count anymore are thongs and jockstraps

[Adelita 3,177]

Hopefully they'll make it official before Smile's release. Katy Perry, your karma is just beginning. 

[Madame Goo Goo 3,373]

Well, looks like Madonna isn't getting a #1 album again

[Musicisfreedom 5,837]

37 minutes ago, mr.peter said:

This means we won’t be getting all those vinyls and cassettes no more  the music collectors where in heaven again. That sucks. 
I thought it was a cool way for artist to make money again 

That is still physical music tho. I think we'll be seeing even more of those probably. Merch and ticket bundles are what won't be allowed

[Nuggets 14,136]

11 minutes ago, Adelita said:

Hopefully they'll make it official before Smile's release. Katy Perry, your karma is just beginning. 

The rules are going to change this fall so I think she's good 

[RAMROD 96,175]

28 minutes ago, Xoxo Adriana said:

i bought multiple chromatica merch and had like several digital copies of chromatica with it 

 

 

You can choose merch without those digital download. As it was the rules before this new one happen, that artists must have separate merch that is not part of bundle for sale alongside the bundles. I definitely did purchased non bundles on some of my Chromatica order.

[Adelita 3,177]

8 minutes ago, Nuggets said:

The rules are going to change this fall so I think she's good 

It looks like they will start applying the rule (for ticket bundle) in early October. They didn't say when they will change the merch rule (since Katy didn't announce tour). Anyway, she won't be able to do the cheating she did with the ticker bundle of the Witness Tour, where out of nowhere Witness comes out of the grave to high positions and in the following week it collapses like an avalanche.

[Xoxo Adriana 15,040]

6 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

 

You can choose merch without those digital download. As it was the rules before this new one happen, that artists must have separate merch that is not part of bundle for sale alongside the bundles. I definitely did purchased non bundles on some of my Chromatica order.

i had no idea of this but regardless the big misconception here from everyone is we are not getting merch anymore which isn’t true. the merch bundles were basically cheating the sales so i don’t really blame billboard tbh 

[Gui Guerra 17]

For those who didn’t get it, just stole this from ATRL:

Bundles for individual songs/singles:

Previously artists would do dozens of different CD singles, Vinyl singles, and Cassette singles for a song the week it was released. They'd let fans buy them up and they wouldn't ship for 3+ months. They were counted as sales the week of because they would attach a digital copy for customers to download so it counted as a digital sale that week.

 

The new rules state that is no longer allowed. Songs being sold as physical product cannot count as a sale until the physical product is shipped, so if it didn't ship for 12 weeks, it wouldn't count as a sale until 12 weeks later. This largely stops first week bundles now because a label would have to prepare the physical product weeks in advance to ship it the same week, which would also put the song at risk of leaking early.

Bundles for albums:

Previously artists automatically sent links to redeem copies of albums via e-mail with ticket receipts for anyone who purchased a concert ticket. Their argument was that the price of the album was already factored into the ticket. Billboard now rules they have to have an option where the customer can buy the ticket without an album priced in, and if they want an album they have to "opt-in" and pay additional money at checkout.

[Gui Guerra 17]

2 minutes ago, Gui Guerra said:

For those who didn’t get it, just stole this from ATRL:

Bundles for individual songs/singles:

Previously artists would do dozens of different CD singles, Vinyl singles, and Cassette singles for a song the week it was released. They'd let fans buy them up and they wouldn't ship for 3+ months. They were counted as sales the week of because they would attach a digital copy for customers to download so it counted as a digital sale that week.

 

The new rules state that is no longer allowed. Songs being sold as physical product cannot count as a sale until the physical product is shipped, so if it didn't ship for 12 weeks, it wouldn't count as a sale until 12 weeks later. This largely stops first week bundles now because a label would have to prepare the physical product weeks in advance to ship it the same week, which would also put the song at risk of leaking early.

Bundles for albums:

Previously artists automatically sent links to redeem copies of albums via e-mail with ticket receipts for anyone who purchased a concert ticket. Their argument was that the price of the album was already factored into the ticket. Billboard now rules they have to have an option where the customer can buy the ticket without an album priced in, and if they want an album they have to "opt-in" and pay additional money at checkout.

So I think the impact is gonna be bigger for the songs first week.

[Lion Heart 15,041]

So I guess Scooter Braun can't buy #1 spots with 4 credit cards anymore

[Nuggets 14,136]

30 minutes ago, Adelita said:

It looks like they will start applying the rule (for ticket bundle) in early October. They didn't say when they will change the merch rule.

I don't know why they would change the merch rule earlier than the ticket one but who knows, maybe they will? We'll see! 

 

[Nuggets 14,136]

59 minutes ago, Adelita said:

It looks like they will start applying the rule (for ticket bundle) in early October. They didn't say when they will change the merch rule.

Wait, I just checked again and they did say it 

[bluemonkey 635]

1 hour ago, Xoxo Adriana said:

this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. they’re not saying no merch PERIOD. this will just mean you’re getting the merch only but no copy for the corresponding single/album. this has become a huge problem in the music industry bc everytime fans want to purchase one piece of merch they’re also getting a copy of the album. i bought multiple chromatica merch and had like several digital copies of chromatica with it 

it’s a sneaky thing all artists are doing, they’re cancelling it because it’s considered cheating. if fans want to buy many items from the official store they shouldn’t be swamped with several album copies that’ll contibute to the artist’s sales. if stans wish to do this, just buy multiple physical/digital copies manually. this isn’t just gaga’s fault (as many haters will blame her) because literally every artist does this, and it’s not like they’re in charge of their merch anyway. 

this will basically mean no madame x album/tour bundle messes anymore. who remembers?

I agree, I love that they came out with wider variety of merch but tacking on the album is cheating.

I do hope this doesn’t deter artists from not making more merch 

[ArtpopAct2 2,672]

1 hour ago, Judas Society said:

they should change the way streaming is counted while they're at it. I always think streaming should be much less because although a song is streamed, it doesn't mean people genuinely wants to or choose to listen to it. Much like a playlist, you can play it, but half the time you don't know what the songs are. More weightage should be put on single clicks of the song. So if anyone wants to cheat, they'll have to sit whole day and click play on a song or album to get it counted.

Yeah, I don’t think they should remove streams, but more accurate thing may be tracking song downloads and custom playlist adds. Since it shows people want the song