iTUNES TAKES PREORDERS OUT OF THE CHART

Beginning today, preorders are no longer counted toward chart position on the iTunes charts as preorders will occupy their own row on the iTunes Store home page.

When the preorders are redeemed, usually during the first week of release, those redemptions will now be counted along with new sales to determine the rankings.

Previously, when an album was preordered, it would be ranked along with the currently available titles based on the number of albums preordered. Then, upon release, only the new sales would contribute to chart position.

This resulted in several occasions where an album with a strong preorder would be outranked by another new release, even if that new release would finish the week with a much lower number.

The new way of doing things gives new releases precedence over ones with a long preorder period, prioritizing albums that are either available now or will be soon over ones that are weeks or months away.

There is a new "Pre-Orders" slider about one-third of the way down the iTunes homepage with the currently available preorders. These will be ranked in order of best sellers and refreshed several times daily to reflect the most up to date status.