Now, every 1,500 tracks streamed on services like Spotify or every 10 song donwloads are considered as one album sale.
- Nov 20, 2014
AceShowbiz - Billboard 200 is making one major change as a response to people's new habit of enjoying music. Billboard has announced that they will now use Nielsen SoundScan's streaming data and download numbers of individual tracks to rank the top albums.
The revamped Billboard 200 will make its debut online on December 4 and in Billboard's print edition on December 13. Now, every 1,500 tracks streamed on Spotify and other services are considered as one album sale. Every 10 song downloads count as one album sale.
According to Billboard, artists like Ariana Grande, Maroon 5 and Hozier will be among those benefited by the change on Billboard 200 as their streaming and digital song sales have been outperforming their album sales in recent weeks.
"Adding streaming information makes the chart a better representation of music consumption activity," says Silvio Pietroluongo, VP of charts and data development at Billboard. "While an extremely valuable measurement, album sales would mostly capture the initial impulse only, without indicating the depth of consumption thereafter. Someone could listen to the album just once, or listen to one track or a number of tracks 100 times. We are now able to incorporate those plays as part of an album consumption ranking throughout one's possession of an album, extending beyond the initial purchase or listen."
It will be the biggest evolution made by Billboard since 1991, when it announced partnership with SoundScan. Record companies are generally pleased with the change, agreeing that basing music popularity on actual purchases of albums is no longer an adequate measurement of how fans consume music.
