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Attention Everyone: Please Stop Reporting Chart Data That Isn’t Backed Up By Hard Numbers, Because Doing So Makes You Look Dumb

susan-boyle-pic-itv-1132578801jpeg“Susan Boyle tops US charts before her album even released. Whitney Houston probably less than thrilled,” screeched the UK gossip site 3am today, causing many credulous observers to fall in line. As it turns out, that “chart” is the Amazon albums chart, where the Britain’s Got Talent-bred singing star’s I Dreamed A Dream—which doesn’t come out until Nov. 24—is in fact No. 1. But overall? Said statistic is actually pretty meaningless, and certainly no indication that Whitney Houston’s just-released I Look To You isn’t selling well, as the Brits’ headline indicates. The reasons why, after the jump.

Who’s going to mailorder an album that’s in stores already? I Dreamed A Dream doesn’t come out until Nov. 24; Whitney’s I Look To You has already been available for instant acquisition (whether through a digital download or at a store) for five days. Why wait to get the album when you can feel instant gratification? (From the look of things, Amazon’s “music” charts and MP3 charts are separate; Look is the MP3 store’s No. 6 at the moment, although it’s worth noting that the five albums ahead of it have all been deeply discounted at points this week. I bought that Black Crowes album for $3.99 the other day!)

The bar to top the charts on Amazon? Is actually pretty low. Let’s take as an example the chart week ending March 1 (which is the most recent full SoundScan report I have, alas). The No. 1 album on SoundScan’s “Internet” chart, which measures non-digital sales from online outlets, was Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks Live, which sold about 6,000 copies. No. 2 was Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand, which sold more than 3,000 copies*. Those numbers are still pretty small even for this sales-bereft era.

Is Boyle’s album likely to blow up when it’s released here? Sure; her YouTube-spurred fame had quite a far reach, thanks to the savvy of Simon Cowell. (The Oprah episode featuring her even had a rerun this week!) But pitting her against Whitney in some sort of ersatz Battle Of The Divas just results in another story about the music business based on bad numbers. And the credulity with which they’re spread doesn’t really help anyone’s case—except those people who are trying to constantly point out that most writers don’t really understand how the music industry works and are more interested in a cheap hook that’ll get search engines whirring than anything resembling the truth.

A more interesting story? Why so many people seem hell-bent on ruining Houston’s redemptive story arc. She’s kind of having a bad week, press-wise!

Susan Boyle tops US charts before her album even released. Whitney Houston probably less than thrilled [3am]
* This number would be a bit more specific were it not for a nicely worded e-mail that I received from the SoundScan folks noting that all SoundScan totals had to have three zeroes at the end. Wonder if the increased frequency of charting four-digit sales totals will make them rethink that policy?

 
By Maura at 12:00 PM on Fri Sep 4 2009
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  • "But isn’t it a fact, that at least at Amazon US, that Susan Boyle has already sold more CD’s in 2 days than Whitney Huston has the whole time hers have been available there?"

    No. Amazon's charts aren't cumulative; in fact, it says "Updated hourly." right at the top of the rundown. So she's been outselling Whitney in the time that the two have been available simultaneously, i.e., since Wednesday. Is it impressive? Well sure. Does it mean anything in a greater sense? Not really, for the reasons outlined above.
  • Marty
    Ok, I see your point, and the stories are a bit misleading.
    But isn't it a fact, that at least at Amazon US, that Susan Boyle has already sold more CD's in 2 days than Whitney Huston has the whole time hers have been available there?
    Maybe I'm wrong, but it does sound like a pretty impressive start.
    I'd expect Whitney to sell a lot more CD's in the near future since she's promoting it now, but as the time gets closer to Susan's release date, her sales should go way up too.
    They really shouldn't make this out to be some sort of competition, I hope they both do really good.
  • chachwitablog
    Perez is such a f*cking dirtbag idiot.

    More on topic, though, can you please run a different picture for your Susan Boyle stories from now on? That one is really hard to look at.
  • barnok
    "Because Doing So Makes You Look Dumb" . . . . so right! PerezHilton.com just ran the same story. MEGADUMB Mario Lavandeira!
  • barnok
    Hi Maura!
    It's not only the charts that get distorted/misrepresented in these articles that you are mentioning but the truth about almost anything. Many of these so-called "journalists" online are irresponsible and are spreading lies, largely so that they can further whatever agenda they have. I've come to like reading your posts here because your articles are responsible and are not based on fiction. I get hurt sometimes when I see that you kinda have something negative to say about my favorite artists, but I always step back and look at your article, and grudgingly agree to most of it. One notorious site that publishes rubbish online is Examiner.com. This is joke of a website. There's almost no truth in any of their articles published and no one is policing them. A lot of their stuff . . . you get on the first page of the Google search engine. That angers me . . . for people to have to read about these lies. Ugh!
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