That's a Pretty Big Step

[Jason Tate]

Sources indicate that Universal Music Group has officially notified VNU's SoundScan that it will no longer be using the retail sales monitoring service when UMG's current contract expires on Dec. 31. After consistent price increases every year since SoundScan's inception, current negotiations broke down over the service's insistence on additional increases over the next several years. Starting in January, UMG plans to get its sales figures from other sources.

Source: HitsDailyDouble.com (http://HitsDailyDouble.com)

[LPMagic]

Wait... what?

- Jeff

[ThisIsJo]

Wait... what?

- Jeff
haha, my thoughts exactly.

[goughjustin]

oh my god this is huge.... well for major label fans like myself... I knew sound scan was a rip but seriously.... this is eqivalent to the Coaches Poll and the AP poll in College Football..... it coudl create to seperate #1 albums each week.....

I hope Nokia, Tostitos and Fed Ex can come to the rescue and support some sort of system that can give us one champ each week....

[wristsNeyes]

I really wish there was some way for a competitor to soundscan could come about and provide a reasonable pricing structure that was more in tune to the value of the data rather than priced according to their monopoly.

[KevInept]

This is huge.

[number1alien]

Wow. That's pretty big news.

[outtask]

actually jason, this is no longer true.
UMG negotiated with VNU.