There is a new controversy in the USA this week over who has the most accurate chart. Hits Daily Double has Paramore at number 1. Billboard gives the top spot to Barbra Streisand.
According to Hits, Paramore ‘Brand New Eyes’ outsold Barbra Streisand ‘Love Is The Answer’ by 7884 units while Billboard has Streisand ahead of Paramore by 5000 units.Billboard claims the Streisand album sold 180,000. Hits says 176,663.
Billboard credits Paramore with 175,000 sales. Hits says 184,547.
So who is right? The answer is neither. Neither Billboard nor Hits has access to 100% of sales figures. Not all stores report their sales. Nots of artists release independently and the figures are not tracked. However, the discrepancy this week between the Hits chart and the Billboard chart is a unique one.
Hits starts to release early sales figures a week out with one-day sales, then its building chart. The final Hits chart is available 24 hours before the Billboard information is made public but I cannot recall the number one position differing by this much ever before.
The sales figures for both are weighted figures meaning that if X amount of sales are reported from Y stores and Y stores equals Z% of the total amount of retail then the figure must be a calculation based on that formula.
The industry standard is the Billboard chart but that doesn’t make Billboard any more accurate. Hits has a long history of accuracy when compared to the Billboard chart so clearly both formulas and the results have cred.
History will record Barbra Streisand ‘Love Is the Answer’ as the week’s winner but Paramore can rest comfortably knowing that it could be either way.
Real sales cannot ever really be calculated unless every retailer contributes. But with the CD also becoming common merch at gigs these days and often unreported for chart sales, no one ever really knows.
So congrats to Barbra Streisand and congrats to Paramore. It was a great week for both.
