On Second Thought, SoundScan Claims Mos Def T-Shirt Doesn't Count As An Album Sale

from the that's-pretty-silly dept

Mon, Jun 22nd 2009 4:37pm — Mike Masnick

On Friday, we thought that Mos Def's experiment with selling an album via a t-shirt (whereby if you bought the t-shirt, you got to download the album) was a pretty cool idea. What seemed even cooler was the claim that Nielsen Soundscan would count each t-shirt sale as an album sale. However, Soundscan has come out claiming this simply is not true:

"Nielsen Soundscan knows nothing about this and without knowing more, we have no intention of counting units triggered by the sale of a t-shirt."

The company offering up the t-shirts tried to explain, saying:

Instead of directly reporting retail sales through his company, Invisible DJ, Wineberg plans to relay the information back to the label. The label, in turn, can then submit the sale to Soundscan.

Hmm. That's not quite the same thing as saying Soundscan will count the t-shirt sales? And, it may be even worse, as Soundscan said it may count those sales submitted by the label, but only after "a discussion and negotiation." In other words, there's no real deal here at all, and nothing to suggest that the t-shirts will be counted as album sales.

Of course, that's ridiculous. In this era when the "music" is getting people to buy other stuff, the specific number of "album" sales is meaningless. We've seen artists who embrace these unique models making a lot more money from them, but they don't appear as top sellers because Soundscan only wants to count one (increasingly smaller) part of the ecosystem? That sort of thinking reinforces the misguided focus on the "album."

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Filed Under: business models, mos def, soundscan, t-shirts
Companies: nielsen

18 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jun 2009 @ 4:53pm

Soundscan: A buggy whip counting company.
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Chargone, 22 Jun 2009 @ 6:08pm

Re:
the fun thing about that analogy is it makes them sound even More useless ^_^
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jun 2009 @ 6:14pm

"That sort of thinking reinforces the misguided focus on the "album." "

Actually, that sort of thinking reinforces the (missing) focus on the "music".

it's too bad that we are down to having to be circus freaks to be able to get people to buy music, tricking them into it.
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CleverName, 22 Jun 2009 @ 6:21pm

Re:
I agree, the labels are circus freaks

Music occurs when someone creates it.
What you are referring to is a copy of that music.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jun 2009 @ 6:41pm

Soundscan is selling information
Soundscan's product is information -- comparative album sales. When it decides to make that information less accurate, it greatly devalues its own product's usefulness.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jun 2009 @ 7:50pm

Re: Soundscan is selling information
Except that Mos Def ain't selling albums, he is selling t-shirts.

Maybe he should check ShirtScan for more info on his sales.
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bob, 22 Jun 2009 @ 7:59pm

I wonder how it happened in the first place
Sound scan is an industry whore, I expected this.

Sell the T shirt for $20 and I might buy it.
But not for $60.
Go ask Marvin what he thinks.
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Ilfar, 22 Jun 2009 @ 8:23pm

Now when something like NY Times does this...
In all fairness, had NY Times reported this and then had to say the information was wrong, someone would be jumping all over this as further proof that paid journalists aren't necessarily any better than blog-type fellows... ;)

That out of the way, I think that, if you're buying the shirt for the album, then shouldn't it count as an album sale? I don't see anyone buying the shirt purely as a shirt and not at least partly for the album. There are albums out there that have come with free shirts, aren't there? Do they get counted?
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Felix Pleşoianu, 22 Jun 2009 @ 9:21pm

"We've seen artists who embrace these unique models making a lot more money from them"

And you expect the dinosaurs clinging on the old, obsolete models to record data that supports the new models? Why do you think the big media have a problem with facts in general? Precisely because facts tend to speak against them.
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Anonymous Coward, 22 Jun 2009 @ 9:24pm

Re: I wonder how it happened in the first place
It's part of what makes this all so funny. $60 t-shirt? Who are we trying to fool here? This isn't a unique new model, it's just greed. $10 t-shirt plus $10 of music = $60? The public is stupid,but they WILL figure it out.
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Mike Masnick (profile), 22 Jun 2009 @ 10:59pm

Re: Now when something like NY Times does this...
In all fairness, had NY Times reported this and then had to say the information was wrong, someone would be jumping all over this as further proof that paid journalists aren't necessarily any better than blog-type fellows...

Hmm. Actually it was Billboard -- a pro publication -- that reported it, and it was a blog that found it was wrong.

What's your point now?
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No Imagination (profile), 23 Jun 2009 @ 7:22am

Assuming I understand exactly what SoundScan does (provide information about record sales), then yes, of course it us something they have to really think about (counting the T-Shirt as a sale).

I mean, what if I sold 20,000 pens on ebay, and threw in a copy of my latest 'album' for download... I don't think that makes me a successful musician. Think this is simply an aspect of the industry (Soundscan) catching up with the changes in the market.

At least they are willing to consider the issue.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jun 2009 @ 7:59am

Re:
It is sort of the "tie a porkchop around your neck so the dog will play with you".

You could become the "best selling" musician just by giving away your music at McDonalds - every big mac is a free CD. Billions and Billions served - but you won't make a cent, it will cost you like crazy to get MickeyDs to do the work, but damn, you will be the top selling artist.

That's why they won't count T-shirt sales, because it is meaningless. If people aren't buying the album for the album, there is no music sale.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jun 2009 @ 8:15am

Re: Re:
...except the T-shirt sales actually make money for the artist?

"I sold $1 million worth of CD's!"
"I sold $3 million worth of T-shirts!"
"But how much did you make off of CD's?"
"Nothing."
"Haha, I'm better than you."
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Jun 2009 @ 4:25pm

Re: Re: Re:
Only if the public is stupid enough to pay $60 for a t-shirt.

Ask Mos Def a year from now how many new sales, when the stores won't carry his over priced t-shirts.
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Hephaestus (profile), 25 Jun 2009 @ 11:13am

Re: Now when something like NY Times does this...
Just rephrase it ..... you are getting free Merchandise (a tee shirt) for buying the album....

I dont get the difference between ...

"buy the tee shirt get the album free"
"buy the album get the tee shirt free"

.... must be something in the water out in California ....
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Jun 2009 @ 12:25pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Oh yes, because heaven forbid that anyone dare to change their marketing scheme when the current one starts declining in sales. Flexibility and innovation = poor business, after all.
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