After Tuesday night's live show, fans can vote one of four ways: 1). Via phone. 2). Via the NBC Live app. 3). Online at NBC.com. 4). By buying the songs that the artists perform on the show from iTunes (all available from Universal Republic Records). Of course, that means anyone buying the tunes is participating in the vote, whether they know it or not.
"This new voting opportunity reflects the reality of music lovers who vote every day for their favorite artists by downloading and purchasing their music," said Paul Telegdy, executive vice president, alternative programming, NBC and Universal Media Studios in a statement.
The whole deal reflects the Billboard charts model, at least in part (Billboard has tons of charts reflecting different metrics), equating sales with popularity. Although we would have liked to see other digital players (such as Amazon) factored in, this is an interesting idea all the same.