Hot Singles Sales
{{Short description|Music chart published by Billboard magazine}}
The Hot Singles Sales, also known as the Hot 100 Singles Sales and the POS chart, was a music chart released weekly by Billboard magazine listing each week's best-selling physical singles in the United States, such as CD singles, vinyl singles, and cassette singles. Along with the Hot 100 Airplay, Hot Digital Songs, and Streaming Songs charts, it was a component chart used to compile the main Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The chart was first published on October 20, 1984, with Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You reaching number one.
The Hot Singles Sales was a very important component chart during the 1980s and the 1990s. In the late 1990s, airplay-only singles were allowed to enter the Billboard Hot 100 and by the mid-2000s, digital downloads had overtaken physical singles as the main sales metric. At this time if a physical single had an equivalent digital download release with the same track listing as the physical single and all of the b-sides were downloaded then it was counted as a sale towards the Hot 100 Singles Sales chart.
The Hot Singles Sales was last featured on the regular issue of the magazine on July 5, 2008, when Cast of Camp Rock's "We Rock" topped the chart. Nevertheless, the chart was still published through Billboard.biz until November 25, 2017, with Emcee N.I.C.E.'s "I Got Angels" as the final number-one single.
History
Since its inception in the late 1950s, the Billboard Hot 100 chart had been complied using a combination of retail sales and radio airplay data. However, in the October 20, 1984 issue of Billboard magazine, it was announced that separate charts for retail sales and airplay would also be published. They were published on the same page of the magazine and had a number to show where each song was on the main Billboard Hot 100 chart.{{cite magazine |date=October 20, 1984 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/80s/1984/BB-1984-10-20.pdf |title=The New Billboard |magazine=Billboard |pages=1, 69, and 73 |access-date=December 31, 2024}}
In the May 25, 1991, issue of Billboard, it was announced that for 30 years up until then, retail sales data had been provided to them by record stores, either by telephone or by messaging service, but that the magazine was looking into using barcode scanning to provide more accurate data.{{cite magazine |date=May 25, 1991 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/90s/1991/BB-1991-05-25.pdf |title=Billboard Debuts Piece Counts On Two Music Sales Charts |magazine=Billboard |pages=1 and 77 |access-date=December 31, 2024}} In the June 8, 1991, issue of the magazine, there had been speculation over the future of retail singles, but it had been decided that the Billboard charts being based on a combination of sales and airplay, made it a necessity to release retail singles. In this issue of the magazine, the chart began being named the POS Singles Sales chart which meant "point-of-sales".{{cite magazine |date=June 8, 1991 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/90s/1991/BB-1991-06-08.pdf |title=Music Industry Mulls The Single's Future |magazine=Billboard |pages=67 and 81 |access-date=December 31, 2024}}{{cite magazine |last=Terry |first=Ken |date=November 9, 1991 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Billboard-Index/IDX/1991/1991-11-09-Billboard-Page-0005.pdf |title=New Hot 100: Changes On Horizon |magazine=Billboard |page=5 |access-date=December 31, 2024}} There was an overlap from when the new POS chart started being published in June, 1991, but the old retail chart was still being used as the component chart of the Hot 100, but the POS chart was fully implemented as the component chart of the Hot 100 by January, 1992.{{cite magazine |last=Mayfield |first=Geoff |date=January 11, 1992 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/90s/1992/Billboard-1992-01-11.pdf |title=New POS Charts: Everything You Wanted to Know |magazine=Billboard |pages=1 and 78 |access-date=December 31, 2024}}
On August 31, 1996, Billboard reported that it had been experimenting with reducing the ratio of retail sales used to compile the main Billboard Hot 100 chart from 40% to 20% due to the changing market.{{cite magazine |date=August 31, 1996 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Billboard-Index/IDX/1996/1996-08-31-Billboard-Page-0121.pdf |title=Billboard Examining Hot 100 Revamp |magazine=Billboard |page=133 |access-date=December 31, 2024}} However, on March 1, 1997, Billboard announced that a song would not be able to chart on the main Billboard Hot 100 unless it had charted on the Hot 100 Singles Sales chart first.{{cite magazine |date=March 1, 1997 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/90s/1997/Billboard-1997-03-01.pdf |title=Billboard Changes Policies for Hot 100, R&B singles Chart |magazine=Billboard |pages=6 and 77 |access-date=December 31, 2024}}
On September 19, 1998, Billboard reported that the Hot 100 chart had been based on a 60/40 ratio of airplay to retail sales but that this had become problematic.{{cite magazine |last=Mayfield |first=Geoff |date=September 19, 1998 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/90s/1998/BB-1998-09-19.pdf |title=Chart Changes Pondered |magazine=Billboard |pages=1 and 105 |access-date=December 31, 2024}} Then on December 5, 1998, Billboard announced that because of the large number of singles that had been released to radio but not as retail singles, including from the genres of rock, pop, country, and R&B, that airplay only singles would be able to chart on the main Billboard Hot 100 chart. The retail component of the chart was also reduced from 40% to 25%.{{cite magazine |last=Mayfield |first=Geoff |date=December 5, 1998 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/90s/1998/BB-1998-12-05.pdf |title=A New Hot 100 Reflects Changes In Music Business |magazine=Billboard |pages=1 and 129 |access-date=December 31, 2024}}
By 2003, if a physical retail single had an equivalent digital release with the same track listing, and all tracks were downloaded, then this would count as a sale towards the Singles Sales chart, but if only one of the tracks was downloaded then it would count as a sale towards the Hot Digital Tracks chart,{{cite magazine |last1=Pietroluongo |first1=Silvio |last2=Patel |first2=Minal |last3=Jessen |first3=Wade |date=July 19, 2003 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Billboard-Index/IDX/2003/2003-07-19-Billboard-Page-0053.pdf |title=Hot Digital Tracks Chart Makes Its Debut |magazine=Billboard |page=49 |access-date=January 11, 2025}} and then later the Hot Digital Songs chart.{{cite web |last=Caufield |first=Keith |date=February 22, 2008 |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/ask-billboard-27-1046464/ |title=Ask Billboard |website=billboard.com |access-date=December 31, 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241230103024/https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/ask-billboard-27-1046464/ |archive-date=December 30, 2024}} Keith Caufield of Billboard gave the example of Kate Nash's 2007 single "Foundations" that made it to number 1 on the Singles Sales chart with 14,000 sold and that 4,000 of these were retail CD singles and 10,000 were download sales. These were known as "digital bundles" or "digital single bundles".{{cite magazine |date=May 1, 2010 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/00s/2010/BB-2010-05-01.pdf |title=Charts - MGMT Moves In; Record Store Day Reflections |magazine=Billboard |pages=37 and 40 |access-date=January 5, 2025}}{{cite magazine |last=Caufield |first=Keith |date=May 4, 2013 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/00s/2013/Billboard-2013-05-04.pdf |title=Fall Out Boy's No. 1; Record Store Day Wins |magazine=Billboard |page=47 |access-date=January 5, 2025}} For individual song downloads, "Foundations" sold 61,000, but this was still not enough to get it onto the Hot Digital Songs chart, showing the now slight importance of the Singles Sales chart.
In the February 12, 2005 issue of Billboard, it was announced that because of the decline of sales of retail singles, that the Hot 100 had almost become the same chart as the Hot 100 Airplay, and so the addition of digital downloads was introduced into compiling the Hot 100. The number of positions on the Hot 100 Singles Sales chart for retail singles, was reduced to 20 from 25, but would have 50 positions when published on Billboard websites.{{cite magazine |date=February 12, 2005 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Billboard-Index/IDX/2005/2005-02-12-Billboard-Page-0062.pdf |title=Hot 100 Adds Digital Sales; Pop 100 Debuts |magazine=Billboard |page=64 |access-date=December 31, 2024}} In the August 4, 2007, issue of the magazine, it was announced that with the introduction of streaming being used to compile the Hot 100, that sales of retail singles would contribute towards less than 1% of how the chart is compiled.{{cite magazine |last=Mayfield |first=Geoff |date=August 4, 2007 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Billboard-Index/IDX/2007/2007-08-04-Billboard-Page-0041.pdf |title=Hot 100 Retools, Adding Internet Streams |magazine=Billboard |page=43 |access-date=December 31, 2024}}
The Hot Singles Sales chart was last featured on the regular issue of Billboard magazine on July 5, 2008,{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gRQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA58|title=Hot Singles Sales|magazine=Billboard|date=July 5, 2008|access-date=December 31, 2024}} and had since become available only on Billboard.biz, the online extension of the magazine.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/biz/charts/2017-11-25/hot-singles-sales|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190716215546/https://www.billboard.com/biz/charts/2017-11-25/hot-singles-sales|title=Hot Singles Sales|magazine=Billboard |date=November 25, 2017|access-date=December 31, 2024|archive-date=July 16, 2019}} However, occasionally the chart was still published in the regular print version of the magazine to coincide with Record Store Day.{{cite magazine |date=May 3, 2014 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/00s/2014/BB-2014-16-05-03.pdf |title=Record Store Day Grooves |magazine=Billboard |pages=42 and 46 |access-date=January 2, 2025}} The chart was completely ended by Billboard on November 25, 2017.{{cite web |date=November 21, 2017 |url=https://indiehitmaker.com/ihm_news/billboard-cancels-hot-singles-sales-chart/ |title=The End of the CD and Maxi Single? - Billboard Kills The Hot Singles Sales Chart |website=indiehitmaker.com |access-date=December 31, 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241230112019/https://indiehitmaker.com/ihm_news/billboard-cancels-hot-singles-sales-chart/ |archive-date=December 30, 2024}}
Achievements and milestones
=Artists with the most number-one singles=
Sources: Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2008, 12th Edition ({{ISBN|0-89820-180-2}}){{cite web|url=https://www.billboard.com/biz/charts/2015-07-04/hot-singles-sales|title=Hot Singles Sales|date=July 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529065930/https://www.billboard.com/biz/charts/2015-07-04/hot-singles-sales|archive-date=May 29, 2019|magazine=Billboard|access-date=December 31, 2024}}{{cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/pro/ask-billboard-madonna-vs-whitney-whos-sold-more/|title='Obsessed' with Black Eyed Peas|first=Gary|last=Trust|date=August 14, 2009|magazine=Billboard|access-date=December 31, 2024}}
=Singles with the most weeks at number one=
=Year-end number-one singles=
=Other notable hits=
- Elton John's double A-side single "Candle in the Wind 1997" / "Something About the Way You Look Tonight" having sold 3.5 million in its first week of release, was the fastest selling single of all time and was number 1 on both the Hot 100 Singles Sales and Hot 100 charts in 1997.{{cite magazine |last=Sandiford-Waller |first=Theda |author-link=Theda Sandiford |date=October 11, 1997 |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Billboard-Index/IDX/1997/Billboard1997-Billboard-Page-0046.pdf |title=Hot 100 Singles Spotlight |magazine=Billboard |page=103 |access-date=December 31, 2024}}
- Actor Christopher Lee scored a number 22 hit in 2013 with a heavy metal version of "Jingle Bells" called "Jingle Hell".{{cite news |date=December 25, 2013 |url=https://blabbermouth.net/news/christopher-lee-lands-on-billboard-hot-singles-sales-chart-with-heavy-metal-take-on-jingle-bells |title=Christopher Lee lands on Billboard Hot Singles Sales Chart With Heavy Metal Take On 'Jingle Bells' |work=Blabbermouth.net |access-date=December 31, 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241230111551/https://blabbermouth.net/news/christopher-lee-lands-on-billboard-hot-singles-sales-chart-with-heavy-metal-take-on-jingle-bells |archive-date=December 30, 2024}}{{cite web |date=December 27, 2013 |url=https://myguitarlessons.co.uk/2013/12/christopher-lee-lands-on-billboard-hot-singles-sales-chart-with-jingle-hell/ |title=Christopher Lee Lands on Billboard Hot Singles Sales Chart With 'Jingle Hell' |website=myguitarlessons.co.uk |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250106164905/https://myguitarlessons.co.uk/2013/12/christopher-lee-lands-on-billboard-hot-singles-sales-chart-with-jingle-hell/ |archive-date=January 6, 2025 |access-date=January 6, 2025}}