The digital age has changed the way most of us listen to music, with album sales crashing through the floor as music streaming services take hold of the industry.
Three years ago, Billboard changed the way it charts music by incorporating digital streams, and its Hot 100 already takes into account YouTube plays (remember when “Harlem Shake” hit #1?). Now, the definitive ranking of what music is being listened to by the public is reportedly set to make an even more controversial change by incorporating YouTube views in the Billboard Top 200 album chart.
The report, by the HitsDailyDouble “Rumor Mill,” suggests that the move is the end result of a push by YouTube’s Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen, who was once an exec at Def Jam, Warner Bros. and 300 Entertainment.
According to the report, the new system will also take into account user-generated clips that incorporate music.
Billboard has yet to make an official announcement with regards to the decision, and as it stands there are many questions left unanswered. Unlike streaming services such as Spotify or Apple Music, there are many duplicate versions of songs on YouTube — will views from all the different uploads of songs and albums be counted? Will there be protections against artificial inflation of views?
There are more questions than answers around the plan, but it’s another firm reminder of just how drastically the landscape is changing for record labels and artists in this day and age.
Congratulations Black Twitter. You memed the Cash Me Outside girl into a millionaire and now we’re going to see some of the worst cringe rap on the charts. I hope we live in a timeline where we see Quavo snuff Jake Paul.
You’re being a racist prick but it’s true.
I’m Black man. I’m just sick of Black Social Media making shitheads famous and then getting mad when the shitheads get rich. Tomi Lahren, etc, etc.
Stupid…. the whole, who has the most plays already holds too much importance…. people will do anything, legal or illegal now just to get people to push play…. rig computers or otherwise… RIP
Might be good for some of the decent underground guys that can’t cop sales, but still got a feeling this is real bad for the state of music and the shitty youtube policies/politics
$True. And one can’t help but wonder how many individuals said artist might have sitting on their devices all day just reloading the video and paid to do so. This is just a bad idea period imo
Is that any different than labels buying albums?
its whatever. industry just evolving. the way I see it– streaming equates to causal listening/potential fans, and sales equate to real fans[since they spend money]. Charts just going to give a more comprehensive view on total consumption. so again, its whatever. we still got pure sales charts/metrics. Real G-speak. you either apart of the machine, or you’re the engineer. so stop bitching and figure it out.
Lyor Cohen at work!!!!!! Absolute innovator!!!
It’s going to be interesting to see how YouTube goes about this. i have a feeling that might end up getting sued by everyone and their mama for unpaid royalties. Might get sued for uncleared samples too. If there are too many legal ramifications, they might try to limit who can post music.
I think its BS. Dope Music Videos can inflate the Numbers of a whack Song. The Visual Artwork should never have an effect on Record Sale Number specially since there is no actual sale. Sh*t makes no sense at all
Wow. There’s going to be so many whack ass “underground” mumble rappers and pretend numetal vocalists like XXXtesticles. this is not good.