In late 2016, a new Bon Jovi album, This House Is Not for Sale, opened at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, and then promptly fell to No. 43.
Recently, almost a year and a half later, This House Is Not for Sale was back at No. 1. But Bon Jovi does not suddenly have a new radio hit or viral video, although it is about to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Instead, the band -- which will perform at North Little Rock's Verizon Arena tonight -- is on tour, and in an example of the music industry's latest strategy to move CDs and seize high chart positions at a time of declining sales, it is "bundling" copies of the album with concert tickets. When fans buy tickets to Bon Jovi's new tour they will receive codes that can be redeemed for a CD of This House Is Not for Sale.
Over the past year, as streaming has come to dominate the charts, this same bundling strategy has been used by Kenny Chesney, Katy Perry, Pink, Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem, and is a particular favorite of older rock bands.
The prevalence of ticket bundles has raised concerns about chart manipulation. But David Bakula, a senior analyst at Nielsen, called the practice legitimate, since fans must take the affirmative step of redeeming a code to get the album -- even though their ticket costs the same if they do not.
"The messaging isn't, 'Oh, we're just going to throw in a free album,'" Bakula says.
"This is the way that people are getting albums in their hands," he continues. "If I'm going to a Bon Jovi show, I may or may not go out and buy a copy. But if you offer one to me wrapped in the price of my ticket, then yes, absolutely, I want it."
Bon Jovi's 168-spot plunge soon after, however, is the biggest drop for a No. 1 album in the six-decade history of the chart, according to Billboard.
Style on 03/20/2018