Each week, Nielsen Soundscan counts the number of units sold for digital singles, digital albums, CDs, vinyl, and video singles.
In order for Topspin to report a sale to Nielsen Soundscan, three initial requirements need to be met:
- The sale must take place in USD.
- The billing address of the sale must be in the US or Canada.
- The artist account must an Enterprise level account
A sale with a US billing address will scan to the US Soundscan charts, and a sale with a Canadian billing address will scan to the Canadian Soundscan charts.
If your title has a different UPC for Canadian sales than it does for US sales, you MUST create two different products and offers. Do NOT allow sales in Canada for the US offers (you can use the geographic restrictions in the offer to disable sales to Canada). Set up two different products within your Products tab and include two different UPCs for the United States and Canada, and make sure the two offers are only available in the correct country.
If you accidentally use one US-registered product for both the US and Canada offers when there is a Canadian-specific UPC in existence, we will not be allowed to report the sales to Soundscan. They will be rejected by Nielsen. If you are unsure if your product(s) has different UPCs for Canada, please double check with Nielsen and/or your label.
Soundscan Eligibility
Because of additional eligibility criteria set out by Nielsen, not all sales will necessarily qualify for reporting. As a general guide, the rules state:
- Only the following product types are reportable: digital single, digital album, CD, vinyl, and video single.
- All albums that sell for at least $3.49, regardless of the MSRP, are eligible for Soundscan Reporting. You may not report one album multiple times within one bundle. 'CD/Vinyl + Digital' bundles will earn one scan.
- If a product does not have an ISRC (digital single, video single) or a UPC (digital album, CD, vinyl), then it is not reportable.
UPC stands for Universal Product Code.
ISRC stands for International Standard Recording Code.
MSRP stands for Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price.
Please note that all UPCs and ISRCs to be entered on your Topspin account must FIRST be submitted to the NielsenSoundscan database - otherwise those scans will be flagged and rejected by Nielsen.
No. Please refer to Soundscan's page about registration for the necessary forms to register your UPC for reporting. Please note that Soundscan recommends a three to four week lead time.