Digital download sales debut on music charts

The company that revolutionized music sales charts in 1991 by replacing record company-provided figures with actual retail sales of albums and singles hopes to do the same for the tracking of digital music sold in cyberspace.

Nielsen SoundScan on Wednesday began releasing figures for individual songs sold via legal digital downloads by companies such as Apple, Listen.com, MusicNet, Liquid Audio and the Pressplay service run by Roxio’s Napster division.

“Crazy in Love” by Beyonce featuring Jay-Z was the most popular selection, according to Nielsen SoundScan’s new digital tracks chart, with 1,500 downloads sold.

Purchased downloads -- including individual tracks, two-song singles and albums -- reported to Nielsen SoundScan totaled 300,000 for the week that ended Sunday, compared with 9.7 million albums and singles sold in stores in the same period, said Rob Sisco, president of Nielsen Music.

“We started this now because we felt there was enough critical mass to provide a trackable number on the digital download activity,” Sisco said Wednesday. “I expect it to continue to increase....I don’t think anybody knows where this will go, but I think everyone has taken note that consumers seem to be interested in consuming music digitally.”

Sisco said the companies reporting downloads account for 90% or more of music offered for sale legally.

Nielsen SoundScan clients will be able to find out not only how many copies of a song or album were sold in physical versus as digital form, Sisco said, but also how those sales break down geographically.

Destiny’s Child singer Beyonce Knowles tops not only the new digital songs chart, but the traditional album sales chart as well, entering at No. 1 with sales of 317,000 copies of her debut solo album, “Dangerously in Love.”

Debuting well behind Knowles in the No. 2 slot is Michelle Branch, whose sophomore album “Hotel Paper” sold 157,000 copies.