Eyebrows were raised when Rick Ross sold 200,000 units of his 2nd studio CD Trilla. His feat led many in the industry to ask, how could Rick Ross sell more units than Janet Jackson or Snoop Dogg?
Does the problem lie with Soundscan’s tracking system or is the problem within the labels? Are the labels unfairly inflating sales figures by buying and selling back CDs to record distributors?
This is a practice that labels such as Def Jam have been accused of for years. For instance, it’s common knowledge that some mainstream labels have been paying off record stores to double and triple scan CDs in order to inflate sales.
According to this online report:
A few years ago, some record labels paid third-party firms to ship boxes of free CDs to independent retailers, who then scanned the CDs as bogus sales. Because it was a weighted store, each scan counted as a multiple “sale.” The labels did not profit financially from the scam, but they got to boast of their artists’ hefty weekly sales.
The writer goes on to say when an artist does an instore, the CDs purchased there are usually double and triple scanned. But why isn’t there a safeguard in place to prevent this type of widespread cheating in the first place?
Critics argue that Soundscan has placed an emphasis on “new” artists with “instant hits” like Souljah Boy. Most of these new artists don’t have chart longevity. “The weekly numbers allow labels to see which artists are showing strong sales, and thus, which artists are worth promoting for the long-term.” Established artists who don’t show strong weekly numbers see less support from their labels.
Because of this, artists such as Bobby Valentino, are turning to online distributors like iTunes to promote their own CDs. Did Def Jam kill the radio star?
