Billboard‘s data partner Luminate is improving the way it collects and reflects album sales data from independent music retailers.

This week, Luminate revealed to all clients that in week 1 of 2024 (the reporting week that begins Dec. 29, 2023), data on physical sales (vinyl, CDs and cassettes) will reflect a direct representation of those reported from indie retailers in the United States and Canada. In the past, Luminate was unable to gather direct sales data from those retailers on a weekly basis, instead employing a modeled methodology.

The improved data will be incorporated into the Billboard charts beginning week 1 of 2024.

Along with communicating this information to retailers directly, Luminate is working with several associations supporting indie music retailers to ensure that instructions are clear and as simple as possible for accurate data reporting. The company is also working directly with major label groups to encourage indie retailers to submit data in order for in-store marketing efforts to be as effective and mutually beneficial as possible.

All indie retailers who wish to provide data can visit Luminate’s partner page at https://luminatedata.com/partners to learn more.

The effort is Luminate’s latest in its continued mission to provide more accurate data to the music industry. At the Music Biz conference in May, the company unveiled a new and improved platform that includes enhanced search functionality, more comprehensive artist metadata, the addition of market-level data from specific countries and support for additional forms of consumption including short-form video and gaming.

Luminate is an independently operated company owned by PME TopCo, a PMC subsidiary and joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge. Billboard is an independently operated company owned by PME Holdings, a subsidiary of PME TopCo.