This leads to why all of this is so important. This is why it’s crucial to register for these codes prior to registering with SoundScan, which is usually provided by your digital music distributor.
The information is heavily protected with military-grade security and zero-tolerance information sharing policies.Īt its root, tracking each sale is done through the Universal Product Code (UPC) and International Standard Recording Code (ISRC). The raw data is also intellectual property owned by Nielsen and requires individual subscriptions for access. These metrics are used to determine music trends and find out who’s hot or not in the moment, often leading to buzz gathering around first-week sales and the Billboard Top 100 overall or in any given niche. These are necessary for deeper research purposes. Nielsen Connect is a separate subscription service that tracks those numbers, although SoundScan is still powering the sales charts in Connect and has historical records that predate it. One thing SoundScan doesn’t track is streams. This sales data is tracked across both brick-and-mortar stores (like Best Buy and Walmart) and ecommerce like iTunes and Amazon, along with ticketing companies and venues. Music can be purchased in a variety of platforms, such as a physical compact disc or vinyl, digital downloads, or music videos on DVD or Blu-Ray.
Basically, you don’t exist in this industry.ģ Important Factors to Help You License Your Music and Land More Placements How Does SoundScan Work? If you don’t register your music releases with SoundScan, your sales figures don’t count.
The only requirement is the product requires a UPC or ISRC to track sales, and registration is a simple online process you can access here. Modern SoundScan numbers are released to subscribers every Wednesday and are crucial to providing an artist’s chart clout and revenue.Īccess to the raw data is a subscription-based service whose clients include everyone from indie and major labels to distribution companies, artists, managers, booking agents, promoters, venue owners, streaming services, ecommerce, and more. It has since grown into the largest music sales source, fueling the Billboard charts and more, although it’s not used to issue RIAA sales certification plaques. SoundScan was created in May 1991 by Mike Shalett and Mike Fine and was released for albums every Sunday and singles every Monday.
These datasets are routinely cited by the world’s leading media outlets and analysts, and SoundScan is its specific platform for tracking music sales. It regularly tracks ratings and sales for TV, internet, mobile devices, radio, and more. That’s how foundational this company truly is. If you’ve ever heard the term “market share,” it was coined by the company’s founder Arthur C. Its data analytics and measurements are trusted across industries and geographic borders, and its revenues make this century-old company a component of the S&P 500. Nielsen is a global marketing research firm founded in 1923 and one of the most respected sources of information.