Now that the magic of digital has allowed us to turn an album into a URL of a couple dozens characters, where one sticks said Internet address has become the product. Ta da! Remember that Mos Def t-shirt album, The Ecstatic? The tag included a code for downloadable jams, the shirt was the album art, and now the whole thing is counted by Soundscan as an officially sold album. In short, merch, like say Will Ferrell’s “I’m #1” hat, could actually be #1 on Billboard in the future.
Digital Music News confirmed Soundscan’s inclusion of t-shirt album sales statistics with Soundscan’s Chris Muratore and the president of Invisible DJ, the company behind Mos Def’s textile-based release.
Now we possibly know why Zooey Deschanel is such a Cotton® fan, Kim Gordon is partnered with Urban Outfitters, and Liz Phair’s in Banana Republic commercials. It’s the fabric of our charts.