Serenade smart albums approved for Billboard charts

Serenade has been named among seven global vendors and manufacturers whose Smart Media Albums will count toward Billboard’s US album charts.

From 2 October, eligible physical music products made by the UK-based music technology company will be recognised in Billboard’s chart calculations.

Smart Media Albums use technology such as QR codes to connect a physical product with digital album content.

Each eligible release will count as one full album sale on Billboard’s album sales charts and 0.5 equivalent album units on its album consumption charts.

The change gives Serenade’s products formal recognition within one of the global music industry’s most influential chart systems.

The other six companies approved for chart eligibility include IYK, KiTbetter, Totem, WeVerse, Yoto and ZATAP.  

“US chart eligibility is a huge milestone for Serenade. Billboard and Luminate recognising Smart Media Albums validates a category Serenade has been building for years, and being named as one of only seven approved providers globally puts us in an incredibly strong position,” Vinyl Group CEO Josh Simons said.

“Most importantly, it means the artists and labels we work with can now use Serenade products as part of their Billboard chart campaigns. The US is the world’s largest recorded music market, so this significantly expands the commercial opportunity ahead of us."

The news comes only months after Serenade announced the expansion of its Smart Formats suite with the launch of two new products — Smart Events and Wallet Pass. The platform is using the new tools to extend its NFC-enabled engagement model beyond chart campaigns to live events and touring.

 According to the group, Smart Events deploys smart stickers at conferences, festivals, and activations to create direct digital channels between organisers and attendees, while Wallet Pass integrates with Apple Wallet and Google Wallet to deliver artist notifications and behavioural data to artist teams.

Mediaweek is owned by Vinyl Group.