Nielsen SoundScan Digital Album Card Policy:

Effective Week 3 (week ending 1/20/08) in the U.S., Nielsen SoundScan will begin tracking sales of the new album configuration: digital album card. A digital album card will be counted as a physical album sale at the point-of-purchase when the content described on the card is that of a specific album and where there is no option to redeem the digital album card for any content other than what is described on the digital album card at the point of purchase.  Additionally, the point of purchase transaction must trigger a business process at the record company which is substantially similar to the sale of a physical CD. These sales will be reflected under the CD sales configuration in Nielsen SoundScan.

If the consumer has any option to redeem the digital album card for content other than what is displayed on the card at the point of purchase, that sale will be counted at the point of redemption when the consumer’s purchase decision is confirmed. Point of redemption sales will be reported by the redemption company and will be reflected in Nielsen SoundScan as a digital album sale.  For digital album cards where the point of purchase transaction does not trigger a business process at the record company which is substantially similar to the sale of a physical CD, the transaction will be counted as a digital album sale at the point of redemption.