Gifting Strategies: With multiple sales, AVOID being tagged as an “Anomaly”

UPDATE Friday, Aug 22nd (6 days after this original posting):

Just to let you know, fellow Archies that multiple downloads of a single song from AMAZON.COM is acceptable!!! even if it is just a single account that is purchasing 800 downloads of CRUSH, these 800 downloads are considered as 800 sales, instead of one!!! -Amazona

:: end of update ::

anomaly  ( anom·a·ly )

Function: noun

• deviation from the common rule : irregularity

Thank you ’thinkofmearchie’ for documenting this perspective:

This is what I found on the mutiple sales issue.. from the sound of it… you’d have to have some severe ODD to not make your purchase count… I am concerned about teamarchie though.. but they are using several people to purchase.

BUY, BUY, BUY

Hey Fred,

I always enjoy reading your Chart Beat Chat column. I’ve been following it for some time now. I don’t remember seeing an answer to this question I have concerning iTunes purchases, but I could be mistaken.

Do multiple purchases on iTunes count toward sales figures? I know iTunes has something in place to prevent you from making the mistake of purchasing the same album/single twice or multiple times. However, if you do end up buying an item multiple times, do all of your purchases count and are they figured into the sales figures? For example, if I bought a single two or three times, would every purchase count or would they only count the first purchase from my account? Thanks in advance!

Dan Aupperle
New Jersey

Dear Dan,

Buying a track two times would count as two sales. There could be a number of reasons you would want to buy the same song twice (maybe you want to have it on 10 different computers). However, if you were to buy a track, let’s say, oh, 800 times, that would be considered an anomaly and would not count. So it’s not possible to rig the charts by buying the same track an exorbitant amount of times. The same has always been true of physical records as well.

I know someone who purchased several hundred copies of the same CD single a few years ago to give out as gifts, and was surprised to find out that sale was not counted for the charts. I explained to her later that her sale must have been considered an anomaly, and possible chart-rigging, although that wasn’t her intent. Perhaps if she had purchased 10 singles each at 80 different stores she would have made an impact on the charts, but I don’t think she had the time or energy.

SOURCE: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/chart_beat/chat_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003657899&inp=true

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