MUMBAI: Billboard has announced new rules for its “Billboard 200” and “Hot 100” charts as part of an ongoing effort to ensure fair rankings that are “accurately reflecting consumer intent.”

These changes are the latest in a series of rules that were instituted to rectify sales for the Billboard Charts, specifically regarding bundles. Billboard defines “bundles” as digitals sales that are bundled with physical album sales, and albums that are bundled with concert tickets and/or merchandise. The first set of rule changes, implemented in January, allowed bundles to count for Billboard‘s song and album charts, so long as they adhered to Billboard‘s restrictions.

The new rules are as follows:

·  Merch and tickets must now be promoted as add-ons for the albums they are bundled with. If not, the album’s sales in that bundle won’t count for the charts.

·  If the bundles are single-priced, meaning that the individual costs of the album, merch, and tickets are disclosed, the sales won’t count. If albums are priced separately within the bundles, the sales will count.

·  Sales of physical albums and singles that are bundled with digital downloads will no longer count as digital sales for the digital song/album charts.

Despite the latest rule changes on album bundling, Billboard will continue to work with the industry to reflect merchandise sales within existing charts such as the Artist 100, as well as potential merchandise-specific charts down the line.