Billboard Removes All Physical Sales Data from Market Watch After Recent Vinyl Tracking Changes
Billboard has removed all physical sales data, including CDs and other formats, from its weekly Market Watch breakdown that compiles Luminate data.
Store CD display on shelves
This change follows earlier controversy when Luminate modified its sales calculation methodology in early 2024, which led to:
- Strong pushback from independent retailers
- Creation of a rival indie-sales chart
- Removal of vinyl figures from Market Watch
- Discrepancies between Billboard and RIAA data
The "Album Consumption Units by Format" section, which previously included CD, vinyl, track-equivalent, audio-on-demand-equivalent, digital, and "other" data, has been completely removed from the October 24th Market Watch report.
Billboard acknowledges that "the new modeled methodology more accurately represents the independent retail market" but states there isn't enough "comparable historical data to provide an accurate year-over-year trend regarding physical sales."
This situation suggests two possibilities:
- Previous sales statistics may have been inflated due to methodology issues
- The market might be experiencing an actual decline in physical format sales
Businessman checking phone with charts
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