THE BIBLE'S BUNDLE "FIX": ANOTHER TURKEY

Our phones are blowing up in the wake of a Wall Street Journal piece on Billboard’s latest poor attempt to repair the bundling problem—and the music execs on the other end of the line are laughing at the Bible crew.

This new “fix” is a nothingburger, another failure of the chart cabal; the majors will continue to game the system, the indies will continue to get the short end of the stick and rock and country acts, in particular, will continue to suffer. The clueless civilian leadership at the once-respected publication, meanwhile, will continue to be hustled by the industry pros making the decisions. It’s hardly a contest of equals when it comes to matters of the charts. Do any real music people who understand the business remain in the Bible ranks, or is it just a group of digital execs (whose CVs are filled with disastrous media plays) chumming for clickbait and putting up paywalls?

All is not lost, however. We look forward to portentous eblasts about the battle to rule the new merchandise chart—who will sell more keychains this week? Best of all, the new Billboard merch store features sought-after tchotchkes like the Deanna Brown chart-abacus-and-gravy-boat combo package for the holidays.