The Voice counts purchases as votes

THE $1.29 VOTING BLOC: As well as offfering viewers the conventional voting methods dialing in and going online, The Voice is also counting every purchase of the contestants’ weekly offerings as an actual vote toward the contestant, a first for American musical reality competitions, Pop & Hiss noted. Two Voice contestants broke into the iTunes Top 100 this week: Dia Frampton’s version of Kanye West’s “Heartless” is now at #31, while Xenia’s “Price Tag” is #75. NBC’s Paul Telegdy said in a statement that the new voting “reflects the reality of music lovers who vote everyday for their favorite artists by downloading and purchasing their music." In another innovation, the show also allows voting through iPad apps. (6/10a)