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"Merch Madness" is dead
Curated music and industry analysis | 7.21.20
š» Hi, thanks for tuning in to Arpeggio.
The focus of Arpeggio is to provide fresh, curated music from rising artists because in a world dominated by streaming companies there are independent musicians who deserve the spotlight. I also touch on the latest data, trends, insights, and analytics as the music biz continues to evolve.
In todayās newsletter, Iām looking at the end of āmerch madness,ā why this is great for the music industry, and why Juice WRLDās posthumous album Legends Never Die is arguably bigger than Travis Scottās 2018 release of Astroworld. As always, music first.
š§ Recording Industry
Hereās what Iām listening to this week.
Above are three singles by Lianne La Havas ahead of her full-length album, which released this Friday. Take a listen here!
āBeautifulā was released by the singer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Milosh in June.
Juice WRLDās posthumous album charted as the highest first week in 2020.
Juice WRLD - Legends Never Die will go No. 1 with 508k (according to ChartData)
Highest 1st week in 2020 (all genres)
Highest Hip-Hop 1st Week since Travis Scott - ASTROWORLD in August 2018 (537k)
6th highest in Hip-Hop since 2015Juice really was up next... RIP
ā Hip Hop By The Numbers (@HipHopNumbers)
8:52 PM ā¢ Jul 17, 2020
šļø Music Business
For years, artists had a clear incentive to bundle anything and everything they wanted on their official ecommerce shops. The reason for this is if you were to loop in attractive merchandise or ticket sales with your physical and digital recordings, the bundle-driven sales could take your album up to the top of the charts.
Billboard published an article last year, naming the strategy āMerch Madness.ā Bundling in and of itself isnāt bad. As album sales have decreased by over 10% for the last few years, itās proved to be a solid revenue maximization strategy. It becomes a problem when generic items like food and beverages are bundled and the Billboard charts start to inaccurately reflect whose music is topping the charts.
Travis Scottās Astroworldās first week of sales leaned heavily into bundling the merchandise with the physical and digital recordings on Shopify. And this year, Taylor Swift had over 35 bundles in her store for her album Folklore.
Under the new rules, which will be implemented at a start date to be announced, all albums bundled with either merchandise or concert tickets must be promoted as an Ć la carte add-on to those purchases in order to be counted on the charts (i.e. a separate item added to a shopping cart on its own). Those included as part of a baked-in, single-price option (along with the merchandise or ticket), with the album cost undisclosed to the consumer, will no longer be counted. It is Billboardās belief that the resulting charts will more accurately reflect consumer choice.
In addition, Billboard will no longer allow sales of physical albums or singles that are bundled with digital downloads to be reported as digital sales, thereby eliminating the practice of āspontaneousā non-manufactured items being used to influence first-week chart rankings. Only when the physical item -- ostensibly what the consumer is buying -- is shipped, will it be counted in Billboardās official tallies.
Billboard is implementing these changes to address widespread concerns that an accurate measure of consumer intent -- which has been the basis of the Billboard charts since their inception -- is being undermined by increasingly-common bundling practices. The new guidelines will better ensure that Billboard chart rankings more accurately reflect the conscious purchasing decisions of consumers and level the playing field for all artists.
ā Billboard
The strategy to maximize revenue has been used for decades and has drawn more criticism recently. Last year DJ Khaled had a clear path to a #1 album with Father of Ashad featuring everyone from 070 Shake to SZA to Lil Wayne, but the album fell short behind Tyler the Creatorās album Igor when Billboard determined that the marketing promotion for bulk sales of energy drinks had crossed the line.
It makes sense to stop a project from gaming the charts with something as generic as bulk energy drinks, and Iām happy to see the rule change.
These articles below illustrate the concern around bundling.
š„ Podcast: How Music Charts by Chartmetric
This awesome series features interviews and analysis from music industry professionals bridging data and creativity in the music business every day.
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ā Jimmy Seykot