Charts sales

[Amitio]

With the recent sucess of the abnd KOOPA from Colchester being the first unsigned band to get into the top 40 i was wondering,

How much would they have to sell to get in the chart?

Just intrugied!

[velvetkevorkian]

Depends on the time of year. Just before Christmas (traditionally the biggest time of year for sales) I think its about 500,000 in a week for a big song. Just after (which is generally quiet) less than a tenth of that, if I remember rightly.

[Peter Squire]

Just be aware that it isn't at all dependant on how many copies of their product they SELL, it's all about how many units they SHIFT - big difference.

For example, if the latest Britney CD shifts 500,000 units, that means that the CD shops have ordered that many. Problem is that it may not sell very many at all, and most end up in the sale bins. The CD will still be counted as shifting 500,000 units, even though it might only sell 3.

[velvetkevorkian]

However, the singles chart in the UK was recently changed so any song bought from an online download store is now elegible for the chart, hence bands like Koopa getting in the chart without selling or shifting ANY physical product- solely on legal downloads.

[Peter Squire]

Yep. and there was a promo on a UK radio show recently where the announcer got everyone to download Billie's "Honey for the Bees" which is about 6 or 7 years old now. The idea was to show how easily a download chart could be manipulated.

Sure enough, the song showed up in the charts a week later.

[velvetkevorkian]

Its alright, I lost faith in the charts a long time before you could manipulate them like that

[Peter Squire]

I never began with faith in the charts. I used to work for a record store in my first job, and we were required to write down each time we sold an album or single that was either on the chart or an upcoming hit.

Problem was, the resulting charts never seemed to be anything like the sales I was recording....