Album-equivalent unit
The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent,
The usage of the album-equivalent units revolutionized the charts from the "best-selling albums" ranking into the "most popular albums" ranking.[7] The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) have used album-equivalent unit to measure their Global Recording Artist of the Year since 2013.[8]
Terminology
The term album-equivalent unit had been used by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) long before the streaming era began. Between 1994 and 2005, the IFPI counted three physical singles as an equivalent of one album unit in their annual Recording Industry in Numbers (RIN) report.[9] The term was reintroduced by the IFPI in 2013 to measure their Global Recording Artist of the Year.[8] By this point, the album-equivalent units had already included music downloads and streams.[10] An alternative term of album equivalent unit is sales plus streaming (SPS) unit, which was introduced by Hits magazine.[11]
Use on record charts and certifications
United States
Beginning with the December 13, 2014 issue, the
Similarly the Recording Industry Association of America, which had previously certified albums based on units sold to retail stores, began factoring streaming for their certifications in February 2016.[14]
- Vinyl
- Cassette
- CD
- Download
- Others
In July 2018, Billboard and Nielsen revised the ratios used for streaming equivalent album units to account for the relative value of streams on paid music services like Apple Music or Amazon Music Unlimited versus ad-supported music and video platforms such as Spotify's free tier and YouTube. Under the updated album equivalent ratios, 1,250 premium audio streams, 3,750 ad-supported streams, or 3,750 video streams are equal to one album unit.[16]
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the
Germany
In Germany, streaming began to be included on the albums chart since February 2016. Nevertheless, the
Australia
The Australian Recording Industry Association, which issues the ARIA Charts, began incorporating streaming into its singles chart beginning on November 24, 2014,[22] and its albums chart beginning on May 13, 2017.[23] ARIA changes the conversion rate regularly, and as of July 2023[update], one sale is equivalent to 170 streams on a paid subscription service, or 420 streams on an ad-supported service.[24]
Responses and criticism
According to Silvio Pietroluongo, vice president of charts and data development at Billboard, album equivalent units methodology "reflects album popularity in today's world, where music is accessible on so many platforms [and] has become the accepted measure of album success."[25] Physical albums have mostly turned into collectors' items as noted by a 2016 poll by ICM Research, which found that nearly half of the surveyed people did not listen to the record they bought.[26]
In
Rolling Stone columnist Tim Ingham observed the figures of Drake's Scorpion and found that 63% of the album's streams on Spotify came from just three songs off the 25-track album. Additionally, only six songs accounted for 82% of the album's total stream, meaning that only a quarter of the songs determined the overall success of the album in terms of album-equivalent units.[29][30] Cherie Hu from NPR felt that album equivalent units often do not reflect the actual album because they put further weight on an album's biggest single(s) rather than on all the project's tracks as a whole.[31]
See also
- Album sales
References
- ^ "Standards". Indian Music Industry. Retrieved August 27, 2022.
- ^ a b Caulfield, Keith (December 3, 2014). "Taylor Swift's '1989' Returns to No. 1 on Revamped Billboard 200". Billboard. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
- ^ a b Trust, Gary (November 20, 2014). "Billboard 200 Makeover: Album Chart to Incorporate Streams & Track Sales". Billboard. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
- ^ "Why Album Sales Are Down". Speeli. April 2021.
- ^ McIntyre, Hugh (October 16, 2014). "Not One Artist's Album Has Gone Platinum In 2014". Forbes.
- ^ Sanders, Sam (November 5, 2014). "Taylor Swift, Platinum Party of One". NPR.
- ^ Caulfield, Keith (May 22, 2016). "Drake's 'Views' Rules at No. 1 for Fifth Week on Billboard 200 Chart". Billboard. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
- ^ a b "Global Recording Artist of the Year". International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Archived from the original on March 5, 2014. Retrieved November 11, 2017.
- ISBN 9781789382556– via Google Books.
- ^ "One Direction are officially the biggest global recording artists of 2013". March 5, 2014. Archived from the original on March 5, 2014.
- ^ "Rumor Mill - SALES PLUS STREAMING (SPS): THE TOP 25 ALBUMS YTD". HITS Daily Double.
- ^ Molanphy, Chris (December 10, 2014). "Why Is Taylor Swift Still #1?". pitchfork.com. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
- ^ Book, Ryan (February 12, 2015). "Now 53 Outsells Taylor Swift, Becomes First Record to Top Albums Chart but Not Billboard 200; Kid Ink Cracks Top 10". The Music Times. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
- ^ Tsioulcas, Anastasia (February 1, 2016). "Forget Selling Albums — Artists Can Now Go Platinum Via Streaming". NPR. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
- ^ "U.S. Sales Database". RIAA.
- ^ Sisario, Ben (July 9, 2018). "The Music Industry's Math Changes, but the Outcome Doesn't: Drake Is No. 1". The New York Times. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
- ^ a b Sexton, Paul (March 2, 2015). "Sam Smith's 'In the Lonely Hour' Tops Historic U.K. Albums Chart". Billboard. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
- The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
- ^ Butler, Sarah (January 3, 2018). "Digital streaming behind biggest rise in UK music sales for two decades". The Guardian – via www.theguardian.com.
- ^ Potzel, Andreas (February 1, 2016). "Deutsche Album-Charts integrieren Premium-Streaming" [German album charts integrate premium streaming] (in German). Musikmarkt.de. Archived from the original on February 1, 2016. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
- ^ Briegleb, Volker (February 1, 2016). "Deutsche Album-Charts jetzt auch mit Streaming-Zahlen" [German album charts now with streaming numbers]. heise online (in German). Retrieved July 1, 2016.
- ^ White, Dominic (November 5, 2014). "ARIA to include streaming in charts". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
- ^ "Audio streams to be integrated into ARIA Albums Chart". Australian Recording Industry Association. May 4, 2017. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
- ^ Briggs, Casey (July 9, 2023). "The number of Australian musicians in the local charts has plummeted. Why?". ABC News. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
- ^ "Billboard's Genre Album Charts Will Now Incorporate Streams & Track Sales". Billboard.
- ^ "Music streaming boosts sales of vinyl". BBC News. April 14, 2016.
- ^ McIntyre, Hugh (August 17, 2017). "How Longer Albums And Streaming Giants Are Manipulating The Charts". Forbes. Archived from the original on July 5, 2018. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
- ^ Josephs, Brian (May 2, 2017). "Why Does Chris Brown's New Album Have 40 Songs?". Spin. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
- ^ Ingham, Tim (November 9, 2018). "The Album Is in Deep Trouble - and the Music Business Probably Can't Save it". Rolling Stone.
- ^ "Is the album format irrelevant in the digital age?". March 1, 2019.
- ^ Hu, Cherie (January 14, 2020). "The Past Year, And Decade, In Music Listening: Video Rules, The Boy's Club Remains". NPR.org.