MRC Data Rebrands As Luminate

MRC Data, the company that powers the Billboard charts with data on music sales and streaming consumption, has rebranded itself as Luminate.

“We re-conceived this brand as the industry’s central and most trusted source for all of entertainment’s verified strategic and operational data. The name represents our mission to bring clarity and insight to a complex and evolving industry,” CEO Rob Jonas, said in a release.

“Over the past few months, we have begun to incorporate our tent-pole products, MRC Data and Variety Business Intelligence, into the most comprehensive entertainment analytics offering, which will eventually span across all major media categories, while comprehensively managing the rights of our ecosystem data partners and contributors.”

Originally known as Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen Music Products, the organization was founded by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991.

Music sales data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for album sales) and every Monday (for song sales) to subscribers which include record labels, music publishers, retailers, and artist managers.

Luminate recently launched Global Hits, which tracks top-performing songs across forty-eight countries and offers comparison and analysis across regions.

The company is also scheduled to release a unified, cross-industry analytics platform later this year.