Chart: YouTube no longer provides Billboard with streaming statistics
For almost 13 years, Billboard charts have also been based on YouTube's music streaming. Opinions differ on the weighting.
The symbolic image shows the musician Zachary Richard, known for his French-language songs.
(Image: Daniel AJ Sokolov)
Suddenly it was there, from zero to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100: the until then unknown Baauer with "Harlem Shake". That was almost 13 years ago, in February 2013. As the very first to reach the top without any prior Top 100 placement or weeks of TV presence on "American Idol", Baauer made it all the way to the top. Because at that time, for the very first time, YouTube views of music tracks were included in the Billboard charts, which caused a stir. This collaboration is ending because YouTube will withhold its data.
After January 16, 2026, YouTube will no longer tell Billboard which music tracks were accessed how often. The background is a dispute over the different weighting of accessed streams that are accessed via an account with a paid subscription and those that are exclusively ad-financed. YouTube insists on valuing both stream variants equally; a stream is a stream, regardless of how it is financed.
Even before 2013, sales of physical records, paid digital downloads (from February 2005), terrestrial radio airplay, on-demand audio streaming from certain subscription services (from August 2007), and web radio determined the singles chart. Since February 2013, YouTube's statistics have also been part of the formula, the details of which are not public. Even before that, the two companies had been negotiating for two years.
In 2018, Billboard began to differentiate between ad-financed and subscription-financed on-demand streams. The latter counted triple. Since the beginning of 2020, streaming statistics have also been included in the album chart Billboard 200, with a ratio of 3:1 also applying. 3,750 ad-financed video streams, regardless of which track on an album, correspond to 1 album sold. 1,250 streams are then sufficient for a calculated sales unit if they are accessed by paying subscribers.
New calculation is not enough for YouTube
Last week, Billboard announced that it would lower the hurdles: From the second day of the new year, 1,000 subscription streams of a single track will correspond to 1 physical record sold or paid album download. It will be 2,500 streams if the user does not have a paid subscription.
This changes the ratio from 3:1 to 2.5:1. This also applies to the singles chart Billboard 100. The first charts calculated using the new method will appear on January 17, 2026, and will cover data from January 2 to 8.
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While Billboard is taking a step towards YouTube with this, it's not enough for its management. YouTube's Head of Music Lyor Cohen speaks of an "outdated formula" and says: "It doesn't reflect how fans interact with music today and ignores the massive engagement with music by fans without subscriptions." To underscore this point, he calls for a data strike: "After January 16, 2016, our data will no longer be delivered to Billboard."
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