An error in this
week’s Nielsen SoundScan sales numbers reflected inaccurate sales figures, resulting
in misleading numbers for artists like Lupe Fiasco, Chingy, and Fergie of the
Black Eyed Peas.SoundScan
subscribers were advised that there "may be anomalies in the data for the
week ending 9/24/06, after a system failure at a "major chain," reportedly
Best Buy, which touts itself as the "largest specialty retailer of consumer
electronics, personal computers and related goods in North America." Fiasco
was originally reported to have sold 58,000 copies of his debut Food & Liquor,
but the actual number is over 80,000 units sold, landing the rapper at #1 on Billboard’s
Top Rap Albums chart. The
error also boosted sales of Chingy’s latest release Hoodstar from 70,000 to over
77,000 units sold. While
the error diluted sales data, the top six albums on Billboard’s Top 200 album
chart remained in the same as the order of the chart’s original version. However,
there were changes made in rank to various charts and Billboard will reflect the
changes in next week’s list. An
updated version of the affected Billboard charts will be available at Billboard.com
today.Fiasco
expressed excitement upon hearing about the SoundScan error. "Hi
my peoples…actually this week’s Billboards numbers are off because of an error!!!…Best
Buy hadn’t [sic] turned in their sales…I must remind I was the number #1 seller
at Best Buy this week," the rapper posted on the message board for Atlantic
Records, his recording home. "The numbers without Best Buy stand at 57,000…the
new numbers will be out this Friday after they turn in…hahahahaha…GOD IS GREAT!!!!"
The
processing error didn’t only affect Hip-Hop acts. Megaforce
Records expressed discontent for paying $26,000 a year for SoundScan, only to
have one of its acts to seemingly move 12,183 units: "Shouldn’t it be SoundScan’s
job to report the actual sales numbers, not a guessing game?" Other
tracking companys reported that the act sold more than twice that number.
