Nielsen Research From Pollstar

Pollstar and Nielsen SoundScan have collaborated to create the first in a series of new data reports that will provide the U.S. concert industry with another tool to help gauge the potential local demand for tours.

PollstarPro users can now select any of the top 100 DMA markets in the United States and receive a Recorded Music Sales report that shows the numbers of physical and digital album sales and then displays the top 100 albums by combined local sales for that week. The same report also includes the top 100 individual digital track downloads from that market.

Click here to see a sample report.

Nielsen SoundScan has sales reporting relationships with all the major brick-and-mortar retailers in the U.S. including BestBuy and WalMart. Retail sales numbers come from actual cash register barcode scans rather than a record store managers best guess at what is hot. The same is true for the digital world where SoundScan has sales reporting from iTunes, Amazon, and other major online retailers.

This information had previously been available to large companies that could afford broad access to the wealth of information in the SoundScan database. This is the first time individual market reports have been made available on a one-off basis with no long-term commitment. Now professionals in the concert business can get the more narrowly focused data reports they need to make better decisions in their local markets at affordable rates.

The individual reports are available at PollstarPro for $125. Regular users are encouraged to take advantage of the bulk discount offered by pre-purchasing a block of ten report credits at $100 each.

The reports are available here or by going to www.pollstarpro.com/nielsen. They are also accessible on a tab on the front page.

There are many variables that go into successfully forecasting ticket sales demand. Actual past ticket sales from a Pollstar Artist Tour History report for an artist is a prime indicator. But looking forward, the best box office indicator may well be the number of people willing to spend any of their hard earned money on an artist’s music today, whether it be for an entire album or just a digital track. There is lots of free music out there but what cuts through the fog is a fan’s willingness to support an artist via their wallet. If the fan doesn’t find it of value then you typically can’t give it away at any price. Anyone who has tried to paper the house on a stiff show knows how hard it is to get people to come even when it’s free.

In the coming weeks Pollstar and Nielsen SoundScan will offer a report of Record Music Sales by an individual artist across all 100 DMA markets in the U.S. This report will also include digital and physical sales for each market along with supplementary tour information from Pollstar.