Music sales through Bandzoogle Pro accounts are reported to Luminate (formerly SoundScan), the company that powers the Billboard charts. This can generate buzz for your career and get you media and industry attention.
This Help article includes the following:
- What is Luminate?
- Information about ISRC and UPC codes
- How to report digital music sales
- How to report physical music sales
- How bundles are reported
- Reporting requirements
- International reporting
What is Luminate?
Luminate is a tracking system that measures music sales throughout the United States and Canada. Data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and every Monday (for songs sales) to subscribers, which include record companies, publishing firms, music retailers, independent promoters, film and TV companies, and artist managers. The Nielsen SoundScan is the sales source for the Billboard music charts. It is the largest collection of sales records in the music industry.
Information about ISRC and UPC codes
UPC codes (Universal Product Code) are used for albums and ISRC codes (International Standard Recording Code) are used for individual tracks.
Bandzoogle does not supply UPC or ISRC codes but there are several easy ways to get them. In fact, there’s a very good chance that you already have them. For example, if your music is being distributed digitally by Distrokid, you’ve already been given UPC codes for your albums and ISRC codes for your tracks.
To report your sales to Luminate, you’ll need to include the UPC code for each version of your album, and the ISRC code for each track within the music feature. For more details on how to add these, please view the ‘Adding Music’ Help article.
If you do not have your music distributed through an aggregator, but would like to submit your sales to Luminate, you’ll need to purchase UPC and ISRC codes. It’s an easy process, and you pay per album for UPC codes, and per track for ISRC codes, plus a small registration fee, and you can order those here.
Digital and physical albums require different UPC codes. If you plan to sell digital and physical versions separately, be sure you have the appropriate UPC code.
How to report digital music sales
To report your track sales to Luminate (formerly SoundScan), add the ISRC code to each track in your Music feature. To report a full digital album sale, add the UPC code in the 'Album' feature. For more details on how to add these, please view the ‘Adding Music’ Help article.
For a sale to be reported to Luminate, the customer must have clicked the link they received to download their digital purchase. We automatically submit these US and Canadian digital music sales reports to Luminate daily. Pre-orders through the music features are reported on the day of their release.
How to report physical music sales
For physical sales to be reported, the product must have a UPC code entered in the product settings and be marked as ‘shipped’ in your account.
To mark your physical album as shipped:
- From the ‘Selling Tools’ tab, click ‘Transaction History’ in the menu on the left
- Click the transaction order number to open the transaction details
- Click ‘Mark as shipped’
To mark multiple orders as ‘shipped’ at once:
- From the ‘Transaction History’ screen, select the orders you’d like to mark as shipped by checking the box to the left of the order date
- With the orders selected, click the ‘Mark as shipped’ button that will appear in the top-right of the screen
Note: If you have a pre-order for CD or Vinyl and want the sales to be reported the week of the release, mark your physical orders as 'Shipped' the date of the actual release. They will be reported to Luminate that week.
If you also want to report sales of your music at live shows to Luminate, use a service such as Indie Hit Maker or atVenu to provide live venue sales reporting.
Note: If a customer purchases 5 or more copies of your album or single, Luminate will treat the transaction as a bulk order and will omit the sales from your report.
How bundles are reported
As of October 9, 2020, Luminate no longer tracks album sales if they are bundled with merchandise. Merchandise accounts for anything that is not the album itself such as event tickets, apparel, or virtual items.
If you are bundling a digital album or single with a CD or Vinyl, the physical version of the album will be reported. If you bundle a digital or physical album or single with any other merchandise, the album or single will not be reported.
To ensure your music sales are reported to Luminate, avoid adding them to product bundles.
To learn more about bundles, please view the Product Bundling Help article.
Reporting requirements
To qualify for Luminate reporting, purchased items must meet Luminate's minimum pricing requirements:
- Digital albums: $7.99
- Digital tracks and singles: $0.69
- Albums on CD or cassette: $7.99
- Albums on vinyl: $15.99
For a sale of multiple copies of the same album, it breaks down as follows for reporting purposes:
- A sale of 1 to 4 units will be reported as is
- With a sale of 5 to 9 units, the order number will be reduced to 4 for reporting
- For a sale of 10 or more units, it will be dismissed entirely. Nothing will be reported to Luminate.
International reporting
International sales are counted based on the location of the purchaser. If a fan in the US or Canada purchases an album or track, that sale will be reported to the fan's country of residence.
If you have more questions about ISRC codes and Luminate (formerly SoundScan), please view our ‘How to get ISRC codes and report your music sales to SoundScan’ blog post.
