Music Sales Scam Inflates Jay-Z’s ‘Blueprint 2’ Sales

The New York Post reports independent music retailers are fabricating numbers reported to Nielsen Soundscan, inflating the number of albums sold by music labels including Island Def Jam. In one example of the sales inflation, an indie retailer in the Southeast recently reported to Nielsen Soundscan that it had sold roughly 3,000 percent more copies of Jay-Z’s new album, ‘Blueprint 2’ – an Island Def Jam release – than it actually did, according to sources both at the retail level and close to Universal. The scheme was verified by another indie retailer in the Southeast, which typically reports to Nielsen Soundscan triple the amount actually sold. For example, this store sold roughly 50 copies of Jay-Z’s album recently, but scanned 150 for Nielsen Soundscan.