New rules for Billboard charting
Some serious changes:
Among the changes we implemented or seriously considered this year for our charts are (i) how to weigh paid vs. ad-supported and free streams, (ii) the weighting of programmed streams (on a service like Pandora), (iii) whether streams of YouTube official music videos should be included in the Billboard 200 albums chart, (iv) how to address the increase in, and uniqueness of, sales of music through direct-to-consumer offers, (v) whether to modify what’s allowable for concert ticket/album bundle sale redemption offers, and (vi) how to address the rise of promotions that incentivize consumer streaming.
Beginning in 2018, plays occurring on paid subscription-based services (such as Amazon Music and Apple Music) or on the paid subscription tiers of hybrid paid/ad-supported platforms (such as SoundCloud and Spotify) will be given more weight in chart calculations than those plays on pure ad-supported services (such as YouTube) or on the non-paid tiers of hybrid paid/ad-supported services.
In 2018, Billboard will have multiple weighted tiers of streaming plays for the Hot 100, which take into account paid subscription streams, ad-supported streams, and programmed streams. Streaming, along with all-genre radio airplay and digital songs sales data, make up the three metrics of the Hot 100’s methodology.
The Billboard 200 will now include two tiers of on-demand audio streams: paid subscription audio streams and ad-supported audio streams. The chart will continue to not incorporate video streams. The Billboard 200 ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums, and streaming equivalent albums.
Below is a list of current streaming services contributing to the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200, as well as corresponding genre songs and albums charts.
Hot 100 (+ Genre Charts) StreamingService Audio/Video Data Type
Amazon Music Unlimited Audio Paid
Amazon Prime Audio Paid
Apple Music Audio Paid
Apple Music Video Paid
Google Play Audio Paid
Groove Music Pass (Xbox)Audio Paid
Medianet Audio Paid
Napster Audio Paid
SoundCloud Audio Paid / Ad Supported
Slacker Audio Paid
Spotify Audio Paid / Ad Supported
Tidal Audio Paid
Tidal Video Paid
Vevo on YouTube Video Ad Supported
YouTube Video Ad Supported
AOL Radio (Powered by Slacker) Audio Programmed
Google Radio Audio Programmed
Napster Audio Programmed
Pandora Audio Programmed
Slacker Audio Programmed
Billboard 200 (+ Genre Album Charts) Streaming ServicesService Audio/Video Data Type
Amazon Music Unlimited Audio Paid
Amazon Prime Audio Paid
Apple Music Audio Paid
Google Play Audio Paid
Groove Music Pass (Xbox)Audio Paid
Medianet Audio Paid
Napster Audio Paid
Slacker Audio Paid
SoundCloud Audio Paid / Ad Supported
Spotify Audio Paid / Ad Supported
Tidal Audio Paid