Effective 11/21: “Unit sales for Albums priced below $3.49 during their first four weeks of release will not be eligible for inclusion on the Billboard album charts and will not count towards sales data presented by Nielsen SoundScan.”

Very disappointed in that decision. 

I thought it was great that Amazon used Born This Way as the loss leader for their Cloud launch, and not just because it was a surefire chart win.  It was an indicator of the value of the Gaga brand, and that value deserved to be reflected in her sales and ranking. If a major corporation were to get behind an unknown artist by purchasing a huge quantity of albums and then selling them for a penny to boost the artist or even just to hijack the charts, who loses? No one. Well, record stores, but that’s a whole different issue.

How is it really different than when an artist’s first week sales are boosted by massive press, advertising, promotional budgets and radio play?  It’s actually more legit, since Amazon did this completely independently of the label.  In an industry both battling and making peace with sales killers like advanced leaks, streaming services and illegal downloading, anything that actually supports sales can only help create a better tally of the artist’s magnitude that week.  It may seem subjective, but it’s the most meaningful way to rank that we can hope for today.