How Billboard Sales Reporting Works
Single reports your music sales in accordance with guidelines set by both Billboard and their data partner, Luminate.
Sales are submitted to Luminate daily at 10 am ET, representing the previous day's sales
Music + Merchandise
There are 2 ways that music can be sold together with merchandise and count towards the Billboard charts:
Fan Packs (Luminate Rules)
Contact Luminate via the method in the above document
Luminate requires approval 7 days ahead of on-sale date
Once Luminate approves your offering, the Single team will need to enable fan pack reporting for your store
Boxed Sets (Luminate Rules)
Boxed sets must be submitted to Billboard 4 weeks ahead of release date
Submit approval request here
Deadlines for Billboard Sales Reporting
Your sales reporting deadline depends on the type of record:
Physical Records: Orders must be marked fulfilled in Shopify by Monday at midnight ET following release. Additionally, sales must be scanned by the postal carrier before Wednesday at midnight ET
Digital Records: Digital sales sold, delivered and redeemed by fans ahead of Thursday at midnight ET following release will be reported
For a clearer picture and a handy calendar of these deadlines, take a look at Luminate's help center.
Minimum Pricing & Digital Variant Limitations
Luminate has instituted the following new pricing minimums for all album formats:
CD Albums: $7.99
Vinyl Albums: $15.99
Cassette Albums: $7.99
Digital Albums: $7.99
And the following new minimums for physical singles:
CD Singles: $2.99
Vinyl Singles: $6.99
Cassette Singles: $6.99
Additionally, there are new restrictions on Digital d2c album variants:
Each album title, for the life of its release, for Billboard chart-eligibility, is allowed up to four (4) digital download albums, by UPC, exclusively sold on a direct-to-consumer webstore, with a maximum of one (1) variant released for sale per Luminate tracking week.
Pre-orders of up to four variants would count for first-week sales, but also against the cap for that initial sales tracking week.
D2C-exclusive digital album editions must be registered and noted as D2C Exclusive with Luminate in advance of offer going live for pre-order or in advance of on-sale, whichever comes first.
Miscellaneous Luminate Reporting Requirements
The Shopify risk assessment for each order must be lower than “High Risk.”
Tracking numbers must be included for all reported physical sales.
Orders placed via a proxy or VPN (physical and digital) will be excluded.
A digital sale only counts if the fan clicks the download link in their digital delivery email and downloads the file. If the fan does not redeem their download, the sale will not be reported to Luminate.
Emails on physical and digital album orders will be validated through a 3rd party.
Luminate will only accept d2c sales from Official Artist, Label & Distributor storefronts. All unauthorized stores must be reviewed and approved by Luminate no less than 14 days from reporting sales.
Stores reporting through Single must remain active throughout the entirety of any reporting week for the sales in that period to be accepted by Luminate.
Luminate will only accept sales made via a consumer credit card - sales made via a business card will be excluded
Important: As of 2/21/25, Luminate has stated the "burden of proof" that sales are authentic now falls on data providers like Single, at the risk of losing reporting eligibility platform-wide. Therefore Single retains the right to exclude sales for any reason if we believe they are inorganic.
Please note: If a resubmission of reports is required due to a setup mistake or other error by the store, the storefront will be billed a $500 fee.