Billboard gives in -- catalog sales now to appear on the top 200

I kinda figured they were eventually going to do this. (Another Idolator fail -- I learned from Maura on Twitter rather than through her dronebot replacements.)

Nice.

Didn't they used to do this before Soundscan? I would have sworn stuff like Darkside of the Moon was on the charts for like a dozen years.

They did, yeah, so it's a return to past practice -- just now with SoundScan's imprimatur. ("See, people really DO like the Beatles!")

I know they went to Soundscan to prevent retailers from reporting false sales in return for favors from labels and wholesalers, but I never did get the logic of dropping catalog to their own chart in the process.

For what it's worth via Wikipedia:

In 1960, Billboard began concurrently publishing album charts which ranked sales of older or mid-priced titles. These Essential Inventory charts were divided by stereo and mono albums, and featured titles that had already appeared on the main stereo and mono album charts. Mono albums were moved to the Essential Inventory—Mono chart (25 positions) after spending forty weeks on the Mono Action Chart, and stereo albums were moved to the Essential Inventory—Stereo chart (20 positions) after twenty weeks on the Stereo Action Chart.
In January 1961, the Action Charts became Action Albums—Monophonic (24 positions), and Action Albums—Stereophonic (15 positions). Albums appeared on either chart for up to nine weeks, then were moved to an Essential Inventory list of approximately 200 titles, with no numerical ranking. This list continued to be published until the consolidated Top LPs chart debuted in 1963.
In 1982, Billboard began publishing a Midline Albums chart which ranked older or mid-priced titles. The chart held fifty positions and was published on a bi-weekly (and later tri-weekly) basis.
On March 25, 1991 Billboard premiered the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart. Current criteria for this chart are albums that are more than eighteen months old and have fallen below position 100 on the Billboard 200.[3] An album need not have charted on the Billboard 200 at all to qualify for catalog status. A similar chart, Top Comprehensive Albums, combines both catalog and current product.

Does anyone have access to Billboard.biz? I'd love to see the top 200 from the week preceding the creation of the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart; it would be interesting to see what moved from one to the other over those two weeks.

A friend and I discussed this last night, and, considering the state of the biz, it makes sense. If Dark Side of the Moon is the 13th best selling album of the week, it should chart on the regular list.

Thanks for reminding me. I need to buy a couple more copies of Dark Side of the Moon this week ;)

So you're the guy.

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/11/12/top-200-chart-changes-rule-to-allow-for-jackson-beatles/

If last week’s Top 200 had reflected this change, Michael Jackson’s Number Ones would have placed at Number 13 and a handful of Jackson and Jackson 5-related releases would have also charted. With less than two months remaining in 2009, Michael Jackson’s Number Ones remains on pace to be the year’s second-best-selling album, behind Taylor Swift’s Fearless.

Forty years after its release in 1969, the Beatles’ Abbey Road, which was digitally remastered along with the rest of the Fab Four’s catalog, would have entered the Billboard Top 200 at Number Three following its September 9th release had it been eligible for that chart. This new ruling is also expected to bring an influx of perennially successful greatest hits compilations back onto the Top 200.

Daniel Kreps