The recent boom in music download sales, spurred on by Apple’s new iTunes Music Store, has prompted the number-crunchers at Nielsen SoundScan to begin to take serious notice. Billboard reports that the sales tracking giant will announce today its plan to begin compiling sales of permanent music downloads. Sales will be included in the company’s existing “non-traditional” category, which currently includes Internet, mail-order, and concert-venue sales. A completely new Downloaded Tracks Chart will be initiated by SoundScan as well.
At launch, tracking of Internet download sales will come from the iTunes Music Store, Pressplay, Liquid Audio, MusicNet, and Listen.com’s Rhapsody. Subscription only music download services will not make the cut.
