Bundle Up: How Music Charts in the Streaming Era
By Elliot Sang

March 3, 2020

Bundle Up: How Music Charts in the Streaming Era

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the Internet has changed the music industry forever.

A Twitter account called @chartdata has become extraordinarily popular in recent years. Its premise as an account which tweets out factoids about artist sales and streams has given it an air of reputable reliability that fan accounts, in the space we know as Stan Twitter, flock to in droves for updates on their faves. A tweet about Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” reaching 800 million Spotify streams is greeted with Swiftie boasts.

Fans are deeply in touch with the numbers that dictate the success of artists. These numbers (as tweeted by @chartdata, citing the Recording Industry Association of America) are not at all composed the way they used to be. At the start of the 2010s, physical sales made up 52% of the market, and digital downloads made up 38%—combined for 90% of the market. But by the end of the decade, physical sales and digital downloads combined for 18% of the market—a fifth of what it had been nine years prior. Streaming, on the other hand, made up 80%.

The past decade has been filled with discourse about how the music industry should respond. Streams are notoriously low-paying for artists; and when considering how much record labels are subject to take from even those small royalties, it’s apparent that artists must figure out new ways to make a profit for themselves.

This is one of many reasons artists have advocated largely for independence, years after Prince’s notorious struggles for independence beginning in the 90s. In today’s landscape, Prince wouldn’t have to bounce from label to label and go through his much-maligned name changes. Artists have more feasible resources than ever, thanks to numerous Internet tools: social media networking, content creation with unlimited potential for virality, and services like DistroKid that give artists distribution on every relevant streaming service and music-buying site.

“Starting off independent, you see more money from the music you make via streaming,” says TRACE, a Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter. “But signing to a label, you get monetary assistance and that allows you to essentially have music as your career consistently.”

In the past, assistance from record labels often did not extend far past distribution and, in theory, some form of marketing and touring assistance. Now, record labels are finding new resources to offer—and, most importantly, ways to make bank. In come the bundles.

On November 26, after months on end of pleas from fans and numerous controversies, including public DJ Khaled breakdowns and Nicki Minaj beefs, Billboard finally released new rules regarding “bundles,” a term referring to the pairing of album sales with artist merchandise and concert tickets with the effect of hiking sales numbers while also offering fans additional, more vaunted items.

Bundling and Streaming Increasingly Dictate How Songs Reach Number One #

“Moving forward, in order for an album sale to be counted as part of a merchandise/album bundle, all the items in the bundle must also be available for purchase concurrently and individually on the same website,” the Billboard rules state. “In addition, the merchandise item sold on its own will have to be priced lower than the bundle which includes both the merchandise and the album.”

Discourse about the need for new Billboard rules raged throughout 2019, with notable coverage including a piece by Ben Sisario for The New York Times. In the article, where he describes Billboard’s charts as being “widely accepted as the last word in measuring the popularity of songs and albums,” Sisario recounts bundle instances from Travis Scott (whose status as a streetwear influencer helped him secure a Billboard No. 1 by bundling "Astroworld" with keychains and hats, among other things) to Taylor Swift (who began selling advance orders for her eventual album release as bundles with new hoodies, t-shirts, and smartphone stands).

The tactic is hardly new. Prince set a prototype of it in motion in 2004, when dealing copies of his new record "Musicology"* *to every ticket purchaser attending his subsequent tour. As outlined in Sisario’s piece, Swift had previously bundled her 2012 album "Red" with sales of Papa John’s pizzas. Jay-Z, himself a business magnate as much as an artist, sold 1 million copies of his 2013 album "Magna Carta Holy Grail"—to Samsung, as part of a deal in which Samsung Galaxy users would receive the album for free. The savvy marketing deal was lauded by the RIAA, who certified the album platinum for its million first-day Samsung sales, but said sales did not count for Billboard—which saw the album reach No. 1 anyway through pure sales.

The commonality of the bundle, as well as the bitterness with which they leave fans and artists competing for charting, reached an all-time high this past year. In early October, American R&B upstart Summer Walker found her debut record "Over It" at the number 2 spot behind K-pop supergroup SuperM’s self-titled debut EP. "SuperM - The 1st EP" reached 164,000 “album-equivalent units” (a term referring to the reality that album sales numbers are now an amalgam of numerous different types of sales and streams) as opposed to "Over It’s" 134,000.

"Over It" was the highest-streamed R&B album by a female artist since Beyoncé’s "Lemonade"* *including a megahit single in “Girls Need Love,” which brought it to over 150 million streams after its release—a stark contrast from SuperM’s 4.9 million streams in the same period.

The difference was made by bundles; SuperM, backed by bigshot Korean label SM Entertainment, released over 60 different types of bundles for their EP, including eight different physical packaging variations for each member of the group which stans were explicitly implored to collect, repeatedly, often via text message. Summer Walker responded publicly with more bundles of her own; the notably anxious and industry-jaded singer tweeted a video of herself signing merch, paired with a rallying caption.

“It was a bundle competition,” says one pop stan who will henceforth be referred to as “N.” N wishes to remain anonymous to protect from potential harassment. “Her streams were way stronger, but in the end, the bundles beat her. It makes you wonder if we should call this ‘the streaming era.’”

The advantage gained by bundles is in the marketing of chart position; while Travis Scott can already rake in cash simply by selling merch independently, as can other artists who have utilized social media to become active influencers outside of their art, the buzz and visibility of having a top album is undeniable. It impacts radio play, TV spots and press coverage in general; it’s an accolade that officially signifies one’s arrival. Despite any controversy, SM and SuperM’s loyal fans celebrated their achievement proudly; after all, a number one is a number one.

Even with these new rules, perception of this vaunted accolade may fade over time. The chart which had been the most reliable indicator of “sales” no longer charts sales; it charts based on “album-equivalent units,” which are subjective measurements for Billboard to determine and for fans to scrutinize.

“Tour bundles are okay in my eyes, because at the end of the day, it remains about the music, and someone who wants to go to a concert supports the music,” says N. “But bundling merch items is already ridiculous and then continuously releasing new ones proves the artist is selling merch at that point, not music.”

One artist that remains selling music is BTS, who charted their comeback single, “ON,” at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 thanks 86,000 pure sales—and practically zero radio play or bundles. Otherwise—where fans aren’t mobilized to fight the Western music industry establishment—songs and albums themselves are seemingly no longer feasible products. Why pay for a song when you can listen to it on YouTube, where it counts as a stream anyway?

Instead, music is a branding tool that builds a relationship with potential consumers to spend money on feasible products. Music is content much the same as a YouTuber’s videos build them an audience which they can monetize through more feasible products like sponsorships and merch.

These products are targeted towards young people’s interests; and as always, but especially now through social media, young people are interested in sharing experiences, opinions, and perhaps most of all, things that make them cooler than other people. It’s not to say kids don’t care about music, but anyone can stream a song for free. A limited edition Kids See Ghosts hoodie, however? That can be flexed.

The streaming market allows for consumers to listen to just about every song they want, while only paying for the service; the bundle market incentivizes consumers to buy merchandise and tickets and get a free album on the side. The music industry is ostensibly based on selling music; but in 2020, most everything is selling around the music.