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Billboard genre album charts will now include streaming numbers

Billboard logo canvasBillboard is converting its genre album charts to a consumption methodology that accounts for listening on streaming music services. The company first transitioned its Billboard 200 chart to this new accounting system in 2014. The first genre charts with the new methodology will be published on January 31.

The Billboard equivalency treats 10 digital track sales from an album as one album sale, while 1,500 on-demand song streams also count as one album sale. The rankings will include on-demand streams from Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music, Soundcloud, Slacker, Napster, Google Play, Groove Music, and Medianet.

“We’ve been thrilled with the reception to the Billboard 200 album consumption methodology and how it reflects album popularity in today’s world, where music is accessible on so many platforms,” said Silvio Pietroluongo, Billboard’s VP of charts and data development. “The conversion of genre album charts to consumption reinforces how this approach has become the accepted measure of album success.”

Anna Washenko

4 Comments

    • Hey Colin — thanks for the comment. I get your point. I guess the reason is that non-interactive streams don’t represent a consumer choice as much as the station’s choice.

  1. Thank you so much for mentioning that billboard will now treat 1,500 song streams along with 10 digital track sales as the equivalent of one album sold. My brother is an aspiring artist and he had heard that something about the billboard charts was changing. Now I’ll be able to tell him that this just means that whenever someone streams any of his Latin songs, that will also be included in where he places on the charts.

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