“There are so many ways a fan can support an artist they love. Each has a specific place in the music ecosystem”: Billboard attempt a chart repair job

The Billboard charts – or rather the mathematics used to create them – are to be given a shake-up.

The magazine announced the changes on Tuesday (December 16) – the idea is to better reflect the reality of how most people engage with albums in this day and age. So the rules are being changed to reduce the number of track streams needed to equate to one album ‘sale’. According to a Billboard article announcing the changes, they are being introduced to "better reflect an increase in streaming revenue and changing consumer behaviours."

Currently, 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid-for or subscription track streams equate to one album sale. Come January, those figures will be reduced to 2,500 and 1,00,0 respectively. "The change means that it will take 33.3% fewer ad-supported on-demand streams of songs from an album, and 20% fewer paid/subscription on-demand streams of songs from an album, to equal an album unit,” Billboard said.

No sooner had the changes been announced than one of the biggest streaming platforms out there – YouTube – announced that it would no longer be submitting data to Billboard from mid January next year.

Their problem is that Billboard weighs subscription-supported streams (say on Spotify) higher than ad-supported ones (on YouTube, of course. In a statement Lyor Cohen, the platform’s Global Head of Music called Billboard’s chart formula “outdated” and said it “undervalued” the “massive fan engagement on YouTube.” The Billboard formula, he said, “doesn’t reflect how fans engage with music today and ignores the massive engagement from fans who don’t have a subscription.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for a clearly-wounded Billboard replied: “There are so many ways a fan can support an artist they love. Each has a specific place in the music ecosystem. Billboard strives to measure that activity appropriately, balanced by various factors including consumer access, revenue analysis, data validation, and industry guidance. It is our hope that YouTube reconsiders and joins Billboard in recognising the reach and popularity of artists on all music platforms and in celebrating their achievements through the power of fans and how they interact with the music that they love.”

How to maintain a chart that accurately reflects popularity in a world which - thanks to tech - is ever-changing has been a bane of chart-compilers the world over for a couple of decades now. The current changes are just the latest in a series of tweaks Billboard has performed in the last ten years. They began factoring in on-demand streams in 2014, given more weight to paid-for as against free streams in 2018 and factored in YouTube plays in 2020.

Whatever the formula, it seems you can’t please everybody, as YouTube’s strop demonstrates. Curating a chart in the 21^st Century really is a thankless task.