iTunes Exclusive Track Breaks Billboard Top 10

[MacRumors]

Macworld notes that for the first time ever, an iTunes Exclusive song has debuted into the Billboard Top 10.

The track (iTunes Link) was "I'll Stand By You" performed by Carrie Underwood during last week's American Idol "Idol Gives Back" charity episode. Macworld reports that the song has been purchased over 100,000 times in less than a week.

Of course, while most of the boost in sales reflects the cross promotion from a popular television show, it still represents a notable shift towards digital music sales.

 

[BiikeMike]

Wow, Thats amazing!

and kind of sad. Too bad for the actual "media" people!

 

[Max Payne]

Waaaaaaaaah

That's a lot of downloading.

 

[Chaszmyr]

On one hand, it's pretty impressive. iTunes has really made an impact on the music industry. On the other hand, I don't think I've so much as considered buying music anywhere other than iTunes for a year or two, and it's hard to believe how many CDs are still sold!

 

[Rocketman]

I have occasionally complained about iPod and iTunes news on a "Mac" site, which I have adjusted to. THIS is big, ie not only online world, news.

Rocketman

 

[asterizk]

On one hand, it's pretty impressive. iTunes has really made an impact on the music industry. On the other hand, I don't think I've so much as considered buying music anywhere other than iTunes for a year or two, and it's hard to believe how many CDs are still sold!

Yeah, it is pretty impressive... though it would be more impressive if I knew how the rankings were determined. Is it strictly sales of singles?

 

[twoodcc]

pretty good that's a lot of downloads in one week

 

[samh004]

It's a shame that such singles were made available on American and Canadian stores, but no other international stores, as I wanted the song Jack Black sung... although I searched for it on the Canadian store and it wasn't there, so heh...

Bottom line, they could of raise more money as lots of people watched that "Idol Gives Back" episode around the world...

 

[RRK]

The union of two pop culture leviathans. American Idol + iPod = Woh.

 

[bigandy]

I wish I had Apple's bandwidth

 

[Stewie]

I wish I had Apple's bandwidth

You can get it from the same place apple does, akamai.com.

 

[belovedmonster]

Over a year ago here in the UK we had a song that went to number 1 in the charts exclusively from online sales. Even if it was sold on stores besides iTunes we can assume that iTunes was a huge chunk of that.... and this was to go to number one, not just get into the chart like this story reports.

So yeah, I say America is behind the times!

 

[MacGuffin]

Apple and American Idol?

LOL. The crapification continues!

 

[elgruga]

I have occasionally complained about iPod and iTunes news on a "Mac" site, which I have adjusted to. THIS is big, ie not only online world, news.

Rocketman

Nice of you to give this your stamp of approval.
The world was unsure about this news until your post.
By any chance are you still running OS9?

 

[phillipjfry]

...it still represents a notable shift towards digital music sales.

And yet, the RIAA will still push for non-digital media and do what is possible to not accept that iTunes and online stores are the way to go.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

I bought it twice.

I bought both the video and the audio track. (I don't have a video capable iPod, so I needed something that would transfer; but I really wanted the video.)

 

[mkrishnan]

Over a year ago here in the UK we had a song that went to number 1 in the charts exclusively from online sales.

What was the song?

EDIT: Anyway, add me to the 100,000. It's a great cover of this song, and it has a happy place in my collection next to the original.

 

[joepunk]

Quite an impressive sale record but also I am sad that it was pretty much all thanks to the cr*p american idol show.

I will still purchased CDs from the local awsome bands such as The Trucks that play around the Seattle area. I love to look at and flip through the CD artwork done by designers.

 

[localoid]

It's a shame that such singles were made available on American and Canadian stores, but no other international stores, as I wanted the song Jack Black sung... although I searched for it on the Canadian store and it wasn't there, so heh...

Bottom line, they could of raise more money as lots of people watched that "Idol Gives Back" episode around the world...

I thought Paypal could be used as a workaround to this... (?)

 

[Anonymous Freak]

I thought {removed} could be used as a workaround to this[/URL]... (?)

Sorry, but discussing ways to violate Apple's license terms (the agreement you clicked when you installed iTunes,) is against the MR rules.

And, from what I can find, the Jack Black song isn't even on the U.S. store.

 

[audiored]

Sorry, but discussing ways to violate Apple's license terms (the agreement you clicked when you installed iTunes,) is against the MR rules.

O for christ sake could you be more anal?

 

[johnee]

I guess I don't see anything special about this. Is it really that big of a deal? iTunes sells millions of songs, so one of them is popular. I understand that it's only available on iTunes, but ...

 

[mkrishnan]

I guess I don't see anything special about this. Is it really that big of a deal? iTunes sells millions of songs, so one of them is popular. I understand that it's only available on iTunes, but ...

Erm... okay, so Billboard has a top ten list of singles, right? That list has *always*, as far as I know, consisted solely of music sold on hard formats -- vinyl, tapes, CDs, etc. It has never contained a song sold online. Granted this apparently happened in the UK before. But this is the strongest evidence yet that online electronic music sales are a viable delivery mechanism.

 

[Doctor Q]

Because printed newspaper subscriptions and sales are down, newspapers are starting to insist that online traffic at their websites be considered part of their "circulation" measurement.

In the same way, tracking of music sales has had to adapt to the online-centric model of the future. Look for the top sales lists to include more and more music from online sales.

 

[localoid]

Erm... okay, so Billboard has a top ten list of singles, right? That list has *always*, as far as I know, consisted solely of music sold on hard formats -- vinyl, tapes, CDs, etc. It has never contained a song sold online. Granted this apparently happened in the UK before. But this is the strongest evidence yet that online electronic music sales are a viable delivery mechanism.

How does Billboard chart the hits?

Data for Billboard's sales charts -- which include all of our album charts -- are compiled by Nielsen SoundScan from a universe of merchants that represents more than 90% of the U.S. music retail market. The sample includes not only music stores and the music departments at electronics and department stores, but also direct-to-consumer transactions and Internet sales (both physical albums via Internet, and ones bought via digital downloads). A limited array of verifiable sales from concert venues is also tabulated.