Charting Education: Buying
Why Buy?
Buying an artist’s music, whether digitally or physically, is a great way to support the artist you enjoy, both financially and for supports sake. Also, buying music helps the artists chart domestically and internationally which can bring them honors, potential awards, and allows for more exposure in many different ways.
Digital vs. Physical
There’s no right or wrong when it comes to purchasing music digitally or physically. In either aspect, you’re supporting the artist and helping them chart around the world. Physical music still pleases audiophiles, due to the high quality of the audio, and is appealing to collectors, due to aesthetics of the album or offerings that come with it. For example, BTS normally provides not only the album, but also a photo book, lyric book, mini book, photocard, poster, and sometimes more (like stickers, lenticulars, coloring paper, etc.). Each album can come in multiple versions, too. Each version has the same music, but different offerings to entice more people. Digital music provides convenience, especially in today’s digital world. You can visit a digital music provider site, purchase music, and listen to it anywhere, at any time, as long as you have access to that service provider or have downloaded it for offline listening.
How to Buy
Physical Albums
You can purchase BTS’ physical albums at many retailers. For the purchase to count toward U.S., domestic charts you must buy the album from one of the following:
Amazon*
Barnes & Noble
BTS US Store
FYE
Hot Topic
Target
Wal-Mart
Weverse Shop US**
* When purchasing from Amazon, use only the link Hybe / BigHit provides as other sellers may not count on Billboard 200.
**Make sure you are set to the U.S. option for the Weverse Shop.
All sales are tracked from Friday to Thursday. Also, keep in mind for charting in the United States: do not buy albums from the Global Weverse Shop and do not buy more than 4 albums at a time. Anything over 4 is considered a bulk purchase and does not count.
Digital Albums & Singles
When you’re buying an album digitally: 10 Singles Downloaded = 1 Album Sold or 1 fully downloaded album = 1 Album Sold.
Only 1 purchase per customer will count for Billboard Charting.
Where can you purchase digital albums & singles that would count for U.S. charting?
*For iTunes, you will see the “Complete My Album” option after purchasing an individual song. If you are considering using that option:
(1) Wait until the next sales tracking week, so you don’t remove the single sale from counting towards counting toward the Hot 100.
(2) See how many tracks are on the album. If there are more than 10 tracks, purchase each song individually instead because it will help the album on the Billboard 200 chart.
Also, keep in mind that using the “Gift to Others” option in iTunes does not count towards any Billboard chart as a sale. So, make sure to purchase each track on the album one-by-one!
Additionally, remember that 1 song purchase = 150 streams for RIAA certification, so if it is more convenient for you to purchase for impact and you are able, please do!