Sound Scan

[Novembers Paul]

A friend of mine in the industry, did me a favor and pulled our sound scan numbers for America, to see the exact number of CD's sold of each of our CDs through retail stores.

Looking at all these numbers, I came across something very interesting, and investigated further.

It turns out, our sales numbers for the original pressing of "To Welcome the Fade" comes up as "ZERO" units sold in the US. I had an original copy scanned, and the bar code on the disc registers as a completely different band, and CD title. So, sadly, someone else has received sales credit for our work. This is another reason why people shouldn't put so much importance on sound scan numbers. Mistakes happen, and something like this can't be fixed now, because there's no way to prove exact numbers now.

 

[Septembers Marc]

So paul, if I understand this correctly, you (as in ND) didn't earn any money on the sales of the original pressing of 'TWTF'?

 

[cheechonaleash]

Holy fuck dude, that's brutal!

 

[NvmbrsDoom5]

So paul, if I understand this correctly, you (as in ND) didn't earn any money on the sales of the original pressing of 'TWTF'?

I'll go ahead and answer this for you...

Our payment (thankfully) is not solely based on Soundscan numbers. Luckily the label itself keeps track (usually) of how many copies they've shipped, sold and have been returned, etc. But yes, something like this can wind up affecting proper payment, especially if there ever became a legal issue between a band and its label and they needed those numbers as proof of sales.

Thankfully, this cd wound up being re-released through The End Records a couple years ago, and the bar code on that version is correct, so the recorded sales of the TER version are just fine. It's just a shame that we will never truly know how many copies we sold through Soundscan outlets of the original version. And it makes me even more angry knowing that another band undeservedly now have our sales numbers credited to themselves. But at this point, there's nothing can be done about it. Oh well.

 

[beast from the east]

Well guys, that truly sucks balls. I guess there's not much "oversight" in the industry when it comes to such things...

 

[Jasonic]

You know what?
If you do an EBAY search for Novembers Doom, I periodically come across a copy of To Welcome the Fade, where the seller indicates the band name is SYSTEM SYN, or something like that. I think I asked you guys about that a couple years back.

Maybe the number assigned to TWTF is really meant for that band.

I know on EBAY, when making a listing, you can submit the UPC for the album and it will automatically pull the info for it.

I would do this for you guys, but I only have the rerelease on The End.

 

[dan of bereavement]

You know what?
If you do an EBAY search for Novembers Doom, I periodically come across a copy of To Welcome the Fade, where the seller indicates the band name is SYSTEM SYN, or something like that. I think I asked you guys about that a couple years back.

Maybe the number assigned to TWTF is really meant for that band.

I know on EBAY, when making a listing, you can submit the UPC for the album and it will automatically pull the info for it.

I would do this for you guys, but I only have the rerelease on The End.

That is fucked up, and funny, I heard the same thing happened to a band that I am pretty close with, kinda used their band as a tax write off and used their credits for a bigger band.

As for the Barcode I only have the DS version so if this helps, here are the #'s
8 0502600182 2 Dark18

 

[dan of bereavement]

On a different Sound scan note (no pun intended), I was talking to Tim from our label, and he says it's like 30,000 just to register and view the numbers for the labels releases. That's a rediculous number and a stupid setup. It is just so inconsistant I don't see how anyone can use it. When we sell cd's we are supposed to have proof of sales and signatures from clubs showing that we sold cd's, but basically, if a band sells cd's of their website, or at shows, and promos and trades, it's just so inaccurate, that the whole idea of sound scan just sounds silly. Aopperently, we are registered there, and I am willing to bet we will be the worst selling band on there lol. Anyway, Sound Scan, A good idea in theroy, but naw, not for underground music.