One of the closest chart races in recent memory ended with Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet barely eking out the No. 1 spot over Travis Scott’s Days Before Rodeo, the 2014 mixtape he released for the first time. But before the final numbers came out September 3, Scott’s label was disputing the results.
Vulture obtained a letter that Cactus Jack Records sent to representatives for Billboard and Luminate, which tabulates weekly data for the Billboard charts. Written ahead of the Billboard 200’s publication, the letter alleges the process behind that week’s albums chart was “unreliable and incomplete,†focusing on a portion of sales Cactus Jack claimed were not included in Days Before Rodeo’s final number and could have pushed Scott to No. 1. (The writer of the unsigned letter claims they are “not reaching out as management for an upset artist†but instead on behalf of Cactus Jack Records and Scott’s Cactus Jack store.)
A spokesperson for Luminate confirmed the company received a letter from a label disputing that week’s Billboard 200, adding that the company routinely corresponds with labels to verify data for the week’s charts. In this case, the company is standing by its data. “We are confident that our numbers are correct in accordance with our processes and methodology,†the spokesperson said. Cactus Jack declined to comment. Representatives for Scott and Billboard have not responded to Vulture’s requests for comment.
As part of a final push for No. 1, Scott released multiple deluxe digital editions of Days Before Rodeo during the last day of tracking on August 29, including a final release around 11:20 p.m. ET. That final edition spurred “an extremely high volume of orders,†Cactus Jack’s letter claims, causing delays in the final minutes of tracking. The letter says an executive at Single, the music-selling app for Shopify, alerted Cactus Jack that “about 1000 units†of Days Before Rodeo were delayed and not reported to Luminate but would be counted during the next tracking week (text screenshots attached to the letter show the alleged conversation). At that point, a representative for Cactus Jack allegedly responded to Single, “All good not worth the headache.†Single declined to comment on its clients’ sales.
According to the letter, Cactus Jack was not initially concerned about those units because data available to labels on August 31 showed Scott with a 11,000-unit lead over Carpenter. But after independent retail numbers were reported on Sunday, Carpenter had taken the lead. While data like streaming numbers are reported to Luminate every day, indie record stores only report sales at the end of the week. The letter suggests Carpenter’s indie sales had been weighted more heavily than a normal album sale, even though Luminate stopped that practice at the beginning of 2024 to improve accuracy. “It clearly bumped Sabrina’s final number of units just above Travis by almost the exact amount of units we erroneously ‘lost’ that would have counted toward week 1,†the letter says. Representatives for Carpenter have not responded to Vulture’s requests for comment.
Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet ended up debuting at No. 1 with 362,000 album units, while Days Before Rodeo logged “a little over†361,000, Billboard reported. The letter claims Scott’s units in question “comprised 1,291 actual units verified to have timestamps between 11:45–11:59pm.â€
The letter alleges Cactus Jack attempted to notify Luminate about the units before September 3, claiming Luminate responded that it could not update the data because it had already been sent to other labels, and because Cactus Jack reported the data late. (Luminate had not further comment on the matter.) But the letter also claims Single attempted to communicate with Luminate about the data over the weekend, attaching emails that do not appear to directly reference the units in question.
The letter also notes that Cactus Jack was previously able to count delayed orders in the final numbers for Scott’s 2023 album Utopia, but those units had been added before data was reported to labels. “Upholding the legitimacy of the data should be of paramount importance more so than fielding questions from upset competitors,†the letter says.
Cactus Jack’s letter adds that it “is especially concerning†that the Luminate employee whom Cactus Jack and Single corresponded with had previously worked for Carpenter’s label, Island Records, alleging he would have “a personal incentive†for Carpenter to earn a No. 1. “Occam’s razor principle dictates the explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is usually correct,†the letter says. According to the employee’s LinkedIn, he left Island in May 2021, four months after the label signed Carpenter in January. Vulture has reached out to the employee. (Luminate adds that the employee “had no final say over the final chart data of the tracking week.â€) Luminate also works with both Scott’s parent label, Sony Music Entertainment, and Island’s parent, Universal Music Group, according to its website.
“All of this paints a deeply troubling picture especially given the drastic swing reported,†the letter claims. It concludes by asking Luminate “to give one final consideration†to units in question.
This story has been updated to include additional comment from Luminate.