How can I find out how much music has sold?

February 27, 2006 3:41 AM

How can I find updated cd/download sale reports online?

I'm a numbers nut, and love to check out daily box office numbers at box office mojo. I always want to know which musical artists are selling and which aren't. Is there a similar website to check out weekly or daily sales of CDs and downloads?

PS. I've googled for this, I can't find any sites that are quick enough with the numbers, or actually give numbers at all (just popularity charts, so I know something is #23, but don't know how many CDs it actually sold).

posted by visual mechanic to media & arts (4 comments total)

I believe the industry standard for tracking CD sales is SoundScan, but it isn't available freely.
posted by ludwig_van at 4:51 AM on February 27, 2006

Billboard has the "official" US music charts (sales figures compiled by Nielsen Soundscan). The Billboard Top 200 album chart is updated weekly, with actual sales figures. But only the Top 50 is available free. For the complete top 200 list you must subscribe to Billboard.biz.


The "official" UK music charts are here.

iTunes Music Store has a daily download chart, but they don't say how many times each track or album has been downloaded.

Amazon also has a daily chart, but that too is a popularity chart without actual sales figures.

If you are interested in historic music chart facts, you may like this British site.
posted by iviken at 5:17 AM on February 27, 2006

iviken: the Official UK Chart Company refuses to release the actual sales figures of any music in the chart.
posted by patricio at 5:21 AM on February 27, 2006

http://www.hitsdailydouble.com/ has weekly estimates.
posted by softlord at 6:23 AM on February 27, 2006