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A BUNDLE OF TROUBLE

So how do labels earn big chart debuts for titles outside the streaming/hip-hop sweet spot—established pop, rock and country acts, typically with upper-demo audiences? For any act that’s a substantial live draw, it’s the ticket or merch bundle to the rescue. Ticket or D2C bundles can give even a floundering release enough extra traction to score big first-week numbers.

The antiquated Nielsen rules governing ticket bundles have some loopholes, but the ones surrounding merch are infinitely murkier and subject to much greater exploitation. Unlike ticket bundles, merch bundles don’t require redemptions—an arbitrary and inconsistent distinction that opens up huge opportunities for abuse. (What’s permitted from D2C and what’s tossed out, meanwhile, is often incredibly subjective.) What kind of abuse? Insiders say that in some cases there are bundles for posters and T-shirts that are never printed, “purchased” by phony email accounts that have been bought in bulk—no redemptions needed—and that anyone with a checkbook can hire a call center to drive the whole sham enterprise. We’re shocked. Shocked, we tell you.

You can’t blame the players for playing according to the existing ground rules, but even those who are winning the game week to week agree that the situation has gotten out of hand. As one insider put it, “They don’t even make it hard to cheat.” It used to be that Billboard could point to its charts as the last vestige of its otherwise shredded credibility, but the widespread gaming going on nowadays puts even that in jeopardy.

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