Billboard Comprehensive Albums
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Billboard Comprehensive Albums is a weekly albums chart produced by Billboard magazine that ranks the biggest selling albums in the United States regardless of the product's age or method of sales.
Billboard Comprehensive Albums includes any album, old or new, sold anywhere, for which sales data is available. Generally, the Billboard Comprehensive Albums is nearly identical to the Billboard 200, with the exception of approximately twenty to thirty "catalog" albums that still sell well enough to be one of the top 200-selling albums in any given week.
Albums which are over two years old (from the date of release) and have dropped below position 100 on The Billboard 200 are removed from that chart and placed on the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart.
Until November 2007, albums sold as an "exclusive" to a particular retail outlet (such as iTunes, Starbucks, or Wal-Mart) were not eligible for the Billboard 200 due to a long-standing policy. This policy was changed following the first-week success of The Eagles' album Long Road Out of Eden, sold exclusively at Wal-Mart and on the Eagles' website; the rule change took effect with the issue dated November 17, 2007.[1]
The Billboard Comprehensive Albums chart is not published in the print edition of Billboard magazine. Instead, it can be viewed via paid subscription to Billboard's online service, Billboard.biz.
