Nielsen Music Sold to Valence Media

In the US, Nielsen has sold its music data and insights product suite Nielsen Music to TV and film content creation and monetization specialist Valence Media, which owns the Billboard music charts. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Created in 1991 and formerly known as Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music offers a method for tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the US and Canada, with data collected weekly. The business is the sales source for the Billboard music charts, which provides consumption insights on sales, downloads and streams. For the decade between 1999 and 2009, Billboard and Nielsen were both owned by Dutch media conglomerate VNU, which acquired Billboard in 1994 and Nielsen in 1999. For the last year, Billboard has been part of Valence Media.

With the new acquisition, Valence - which also operates The Hollywood Reporter Media Group, MRC Film, MRC Television and MRC Non-Fiction - has established a new MRC Data division that will be led by current Billboard-The Hollywood Reporter Media Group President Deanna Brown (pictured). Under this new arrangement, MRC plans to continue improving Nielsen Music's consumption data by tapping into relationships with digital streaming providers, investing in technological upgrades and re-evaluating proprietary methodologies.

Nielsen Music products included in the deal are the Music Connect analytics platform and API that provides music streaming, airplay and sales data for artists, albums and songs; Broadcast Data Systems that offers streaming, sales and airplay data at national and local market levels in the US and Canada; and Music 360 music research and insights reports. Brown comments: 'By bringing Nielsen Music products and Billboard back together, we're answering the request from the music industry for a more coordinated, powerful, agile and global suite of independent measurement products. The new MRC Data division will leverage our scale and global, multimedia perspective to operate as a true accelerant for our music business colleagues and stakeholders.'

Web sites: www.nielsen.com and www.valencemedia.com .