Acknowledging the increased distribution power of the digital age, Musicane, an e-commerce retailer that enables artists and labels to sell downloads directly from their own web sites, has brokered a deal with Nielsen SoundScan that will greatly benefit all artists who do significant self-generated download business. Under the terms of their new working relationship, all sales processed through Musicane will be reported to Nielsen, who will then include those sales figures in their SoundScan digital sales data and Billboard charts.

"With artists developing and managing their own fan bases now, and with full featured artist digital stores enabled by services like Musicane, there is every reason for them to strive to reach the pinnacle of their fame and fortune, " said Rob Sisco, President of Nielsen Music. No doubt, Musicane agrees. "Charting from one's own web site has never been available to independent artists before," said Michelle Robertson, Musicane's CEO. "This partnership with Nielsen SoundScan is the first of many initiatives to empower artists in an increasingly complex and crowded marketplace."

The new arrangement between Musicane and Nielsen removes numerous obstacles for unsigned acts to score a hit single and for established ones to obtain increased recognition for their online activity. Bands like Big Head Todd & The Monsters have already explored the distributive power of their web sites, utilizing their wide coverage to cut out the middleman and supply new music directly to their fans.

However, for those who think it might be easy to gerrymander a hit single by self-purchasing enough downloads, the story of the The Modern's disqualification from the UK singles chart provides a cautionary tale. On March 9, synth popsters The Modern expected to see their new single "Industry" debut on the UK charts at # 13. Instead, the band learned that their downloaded sales were being disqualified under suspicion of chart rigging due to abnormal sales patterns. Once believed to the result of over-enthusiastic fans, The Modern learned shortly thereafter that the disparate sales activity originated innocently from a proud parent. Keyboardist Chi Tudor Hart announced earlier this week that his father caused the problem, purchasing 141 copies of the song to distribute to friends and family.

At least the RIAA will be happy that Hart's father didn't download one copy and offer it for free over the Internet.

Labels: Big Head Todd and The Monsters