When it comes to moving units and securing top spots on Billboard charts, one of the best tools to help you is by bundling. Rather it’s merch, tour tickets, or anything else, your top artists like Kanye West, Ariana Grande, and Travis Scott has all used bundles to help out their numbers. Now there will be an adjustment to how those figures are tallied.
Billboard announced the edit to the bundling process, stating after January 3, 2020, the rules for bundling albums will change. Bundle packages will now abide by the new rules, even if the bundles went on sale before the music is available.
When bundling music with additional items, a download of the album would be provided for real, which increases a project’s sales numbers. The adjustment will now require the merch/album bundle to cost at least $3.49 more than the merchandise alone. That price is developed due to most bodies of work carrying a minimum price of $3.49 to qualify for a chart.
Taking it a little bit further, bundles also have to “be available for purchase concurrently and individually on the same website.” The bundle must have to live on the direct-to-consumer web store from the artist and no longer by the aid of another site.
You can read the full details of the new rules here.
