This is unbelievably confusing............haha.

As far as we can tell the OCC are (suddenly) saying that they CAN distinguish between those copies of the Bowie single "sold" and those copies that are downloaded as part of the "album preorder" so it is eligible, or I should say the 99p single version is. The versions on the i-tunes chart at No 1 and No 75 BOTH count as one relates to the song from the deluxe version of the album and the other the standard. HOWEVER what is still not clear is the breakdown that makes up the No 1 position for Bowie on i-tunes- in other words- is it only No 1 because the pre orders (which are still ineligible) are included in the mix.

Who would have thought David Bowie getting a #1 this week, no one saw this coming, someone needs to clear up the confusion first.

 

"buys"

This is a quote from the MW article: "the Official Charts Company has since said that sales of the single track do count towards the official Top 40, meaning 'Where Are We Now?' will enter if it achieves enough sales."

 

Does this mean they will count only the second entry for this song on iTunes (currently at #75), which I assume is the standard single version, not the version related to his album promotion?

:hithead:

*buys*

This is a quote from the MW article: "the Official Charts Company has since said that sales of the single track do count towards the official Top 40, meaning 'Where Are We Now?' will enter if it achieves enough sales."

 

Does this mean they will count only the second entry for this song on iTunes (currently at #75), which I assume is the standard single version, not the version related to his album promotion?

 

Both tracks are from the album - one is deluxe and one is standard. So they must have a way of telling who has bought the song individually and they've been lying all the time.

 

No sign of Bowie in the midweeks though, maybe the occ are still making up their minds

Can you get the song as single-only or do you have to pre-order the album and then get 99p took off the price?

You can buy the song for 99p. If you go onto the album you can buy 'Where Are We Now?' for 99p, the rest of the songs are 'Album Only' and greyed out.

Their statement completely contradicts what they are saying on Twitter.

 

"Owing to chart rules which are agreed in partnership with UK record companies and retailers, data relating to the David Bowie single Where Are We Now? cannot currently be counted towards the official singles charts, as the release is linked to an album pre-order promotion and it is not possible to distinguish album sales from track sales from the retail data received. Should it become possible in the future for regular track sales to be distinguished from album pre-order incentive purchases, then these sales can be counted towards the chart."

 

@alexispetridis It hasn't been discounted,Alexis. It's only Wednesday, the Official Singles Chart is published on Sunday. Keep 'em peeled!

 

@Popjustice Sales of the single track do count, and we're happy to count them, just some Ts to cross and lowercase Js to dot before Sunday

 

 

Am I being thick? They either can't distinguish between sales and free instant gratification downloads, or they can. It can't be both. :blink:

You can buy the song for 99p. If you go onto the album you can buy 'Where Are We Now?' for 99p, the rest of the songs are 'Album Only' and greyed out.

 

Let me get this straight then, basically both versions are put together and if they are bought as a 99p single they can be counted in the chart, but not if they were bought through the "pre-order album" option?

 

If that's right then it can't be that hard for iTunes to distinguish between people hitting the "99p" button and people hitting the "pre-order" button, then iTunes telling the OCC that so they can shove it in somewhere like #32 in the midweeks?

So the next question then is, how many people have paid 99p for the track and how many have got it free pre-ordering the album? Will it be enough to keep Will.I.Am/Britney from #1?

Edited January 9, 201313 yr by MrGaGa

Let me get this straight then, basically both versions are put together and if they are bought as a 99p single they can be counted in the chart, but not if they were bought through the "pre-order album" option?

 

If that's right then it can't be that hard for iTunes to distinguish between people hitting the "99p" button and people hitting the "pre-order" button, then iTunes telling the OCC that so they can shove it in somewhere like #32 in the midweeks?

You'd have thought so, though it would be slightly more complicated. If I want the song individually I pay 99p and the song downloads, if you pre-order the album the song will download anyway and will also take 99p out of your account, but you'll only pay £8.00 for the album when it's release and not £8.99.

 

I guess iTunes would look at that and see they've received £1.98 and two people have downloaded the song, it would be difficult to see which is which from that but they must surely know how many people have downloaded the track in total and how many album pre-orders there have been, it's simply a case of taking one total of another. It's hard to believe it could be that hard and they just couldn't be bothered in previous cases because no one has really cared about it and it would never have had such a large effect as this week.

You'd have thought so, though it would be slightly more complicated. If I want the song individually I pay 99p and the song downloads, if you pre-order the album the song will download anyway and will also take 99p out of your account, but you'll only pay £8.00 for the album when it's release and not £8.99.

 

That's interesting. Perhaps that means when you download the song it counts as 1 purchase, but then because you essentially did the "Complete My Album" feature it loses that sale so counts as nothing?

 

This is a rather weird chart situation. I hope the legitimate sales are counted and "free" sales not counted. I think that would be fair.

It's going to have to change as the whole iTunes pre-order albums is likely to become more of the norm as years go by. This week it's just David Bowie. Five months down the line, the same could happen again only with U2, Kings Of Leon and Katy B all putting their albums onto iTunes to pre-order alongside 1 track that people can buy as an individual track. Say Katy B, U2 and Kings Of Leon's pre-order tracks were iTunes top 3 biggest selling tracks for the week, how could the OCC not amend the chart rules to allow them to chart officially? It'd seem daft if the fourth biggest selling single of the week was the official #1 by default.

 

The chances of this ever happening are slim but you just never know how things will change over a long period of time.

I don't see how it could be fair to count all of Bowie's sales. I've just received an iTunes promo email saying "pre-order album and get new song now". Surely that gives the song an unfair advantage? They should absolutely count songs bought individually for 99p, but not those as part of an album pre-order -and I would think they have the facility to do this if they want to. Perhaps they are just trying to drum up a bit of controversy/suspense, which is always good PR and at the last minute they will make the song eligible.

Edited January 9, 201313 yr by J-S-Q

In that case I hope the track is made eligible to chart on Sunday. At least that way we'll have a better idea of how many of its sales were genuine 99p purchases, and how many were pre-ordering the album too.

*Buys* David Bs new track. Oh how exciting. I hope he gets to number one :D :P

Even though i dont like the David Bowie song i really hope that it will be eligible for the official chart this Sunday. It would be fun and interesting to see where it would enter.

I don't see how it could be fair to count all of Bowie's sales. I've just received an iTunes promo email saying "pre-order album and get new song now". Surely that gives the song an unfair advantage? They should absolutely count songs bought individually for 99p, but not those as part of an album pre-order -and I would think they have the facility to do this if they want to. Perhaps they are just trying to drum up a bit of controversy/suspense, which is always good PR and at the last minute they will make the song eligible.

That's why the sales connected to pre-ordering the album don't count. People are effectivle buying the al bum, paying in two instalments and receivi ng it in two parts.

 

iTunes must know how many people have bought the song using each method. After all, how else are they going to send the right people the rest of the album?