Slate is reporting from Billboard's new "digital download chart." People are sure to focus (as the article does) on requiring only 1500 sales to hit #1, but I prefer to focus on another paragraph:
Billboard says that Apple, the most aggressive player in this market so far, is selling an average of 500,000 tracks a week. If that's true, and it takes just 1,500 sales to be No. 1, then the variety of tracks that people are downloading must be extremely broad—particularly compared with, say, the variety of tracks that make up a typical Top 40 station's play list.
Wow, a chart that reflects the reality of what real people really want to hear? This could be something...
Article comments
1 - Al Barger
The number of downloads involved in their chart will surely escalate tenfold over the next few months.
One thing that will be interesting will be seeing how Billboard factors in the issue of pricing. There will doubtless be much more differentiation there than has generally been the case with hard copies, as the unit cost is pretty near zero. There might be a dollar or two difference in pricing a $15 album vs another on the shelves. How will they factor in $1 downloads versus nickel and dime downloads for oldies and promotional items?
2 - mike
All I know, I wish this had come along sooner. I just got five years in prison for downloading that one Jewel song off Kazaa. One dollar and I'd be a free man.....