Physical Purchasing

Where to buy physical copies?

In Store and Online

Hello82
- Online Pre-Order
- Pop-Up stores
Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble
- Online Pre-Order through Hello82
- Physical– In-store purchases

HOW TO ENSURE YOUR PHYSICAL PURCHASES COUNT

In order to help with charting, it is strongly recommended to NOT purchase more than 4 copies per customer per week!
- Single Music reported that if a customer purchases up to 4 copies of an album, EP, or single, each copy is counted as a sale. Purchases of 5 to 9 copies will only count as 4 sales. Purchases of 10 or more copies constitute bulk sales, and none will count towards Billboard charts.
- This limitation is PER CUSTOMER. Multiple orders by the same customer will not count for more than 4 copies.
- According to Billboard, Single incorporates the following criteria to identify weekly per-customer limits:
  - Email address
  - IP address
  - Shipping address
  - Billing address
  - Credit Card Number
- Note: This information has not been officially confirmed but it is the best gauge to follow to ensure your purchases are being counted.
Physical + digital bundles count as physical purchases.
- According to Billboard, "any digital download will not be counted as a digital sale and will only be counted as a physical sale upon shipment to the customer."
  - This means that any pre-orders of physical albums/products will not be counted as a physical sale for the Billboard charts until it's been shipped out.
Luminate and Billboard-approved fan packs count as physical purchases.
- According to Billboard, “combinations of merch and albums, dubbed ‘fan packs,’ will be restricted to just two options per album release — a sweatshirt with an LP and a t-shirt with a CD, for example — with the requirement that each individual item must also be sold separately in the same web store. Fan packs will include only merch — not tickets, meet-and-greet opportunities, virtual items or non-tangible benefits — and they must also contain a physical copy of an album.”
- Pre-orders and early shipments sold by retailers that use Single:
- According to Billboard, fulfilled albums “report the day after the date of shipment regardless of the album release date entered in Single. If the order is shipped ahead of Luminate’s physical reporting window (Tuesday to Monday) then the sale will not be counted.”

Quick Tips on PHYSICAL PURCHASES

Limit purchases to 4 copies per customer per week.
Note that pre-orders count for Billboard the day after when they are shipped.

Purchasing Strategy

Purchasing Strategy for Billboard 200

Billboard 200 counts physical online album sales based on the shipping date instead of the purchase date.

In-Store Purchases

Best practice is to visit a physical store during the initial tracking week to purchase your albums, ensuring the sales count for that week without shipping delays. Purchase exclusively from Hello 82 pop up stores, Walmart, Target and Barnes & Noble
Use cash in-store since card transactions undergo tracking to prevent bulk purchases.

Online Purchases

IMPORTANT: Just because you see the album on Amazon or your favorite K-Pop shop, DO NOT ASSUME it will count towards billboard. It must specifically be stated that it will count for billboard, if you are not sure; ASK before you purchase. Do not assume K-pop stores report to Billboard; many source their stock from Korean sellers instead of U.S. distributors.
Avoid listings that include pre-order benefits from Korean sellers
Best practice is to purchase exclusively from Hello 82, Walmart, Target and Barnes & Noble

Bulk Purchases

Purchase no more than 4 albums per transaction; only the first 4 albums count toward Billboard.
To purchase many albums, buy a maximum of 4 albums at one store, then visit another store to buy another 4 albums.

This proposed buying strategy is an approach that keeps your transactions natural, reduces detection risk, and maximizes our potential to chart on Billboard.