{"id":879131,"date":"2025-12-20T00:12:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T06:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/20\/youtube-to-pull-music-data-from-billboards-charts-because-it-doesnt-like-its-ranking-formula\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T00:12:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T06:12:06","slug":"youtube-to-pull-music-data-from-billboards-charts-because-it-doesnt-like-its-ranking-formula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/20\/youtube-to-pull-music-data-from-billboards-charts-because-it-doesnt-like-its-ranking-formula\/","title":{"rendered":"YouTube to pull music data from Billboard\u2019s charts because it doesn\u2019t like its ranking formula"},"content":{"rendered":"
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YouTube is pulling its data from Billboard<\/a> for use in the publisher\u2019s industry-leading U.S. music charts. The decision is in response to a recent change<\/a> Billboard made to its ranking formula, which continues to add more weight to paid, on-demand streaming compared with ad-supported, free streaming.<\/p>\n

Billboard justified its decision to adjust its age-old formula by saying that the change will \u201cbetter reflect an increase in streaming revenue and changing consumer behaviors.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, streaming now matters more than buying albums or songs, so it wants its charts to reflect that.<\/p>\n

However, YouTube doesn\u2019t like the new formula because it doesn\u2019t want there to be much \u2014 if any \u2014 differentiation between free and paid streams, especially if the changes are meant to reflect how consumers today are enjoying music. <\/p>\n

\u201cBillboard uses an outdated formula that weights subscription-supported streams higher than ad-supported. This doesn\u2019t reflect how fans engage with music today and ignores the massive engagement from fans who don\u2019t have a subscription,\u201d a YouTube blog post published on Wednesday explains<\/a>. \u201cStreaming is the primary way people experience music, making up 84%<\/a> of U.S. recorded music revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re simply asking that every stream is counted fairly and equally, whether it is subscription-based or ad-supported\u2014because every fan matters and every play should count,\u201d the post notes.<\/p>\n

The ranking changes will be reflected starting with the charts published on January 17, which will include data from January 2-8, 2026. This will impact the Billboard 200 lists and genre-based album charts. In addition, the ratio between paid\/subscription and ad-supported on-demand streaming tiers will be adjusted to 2.5:1 for the Billboard Hot 100, Billboard said.<\/p>\n

To protest the new formula, YouTube said it will no longer provide data to Billboard after January 16, 2026.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what that change means in practice: Under the revised calculation, Billboard said it will take 33.3% fewer ad-supported on-demand streams of songs from an album, and 20% fewer paid\/subscription on-demand streams of songs from an album, to equal an album unit. In short, it will take fewer streams than before for an album to climb the charts. This is a win for streaming in general but not necessarily for YouTube.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why. At present, the formula Billboard uses defines an album unit (the standard measurement for chart rankings) as one album sale. It counts 10 individual songs from an album as one album consumption unit, as well.<\/p>\n

On the streaming side, it currently says an album unit equals 3,750 ad-supported streams \u2014 like YouTube\u2019s \u2014 or 1,250 paid\/subscription official audio and video streams.<\/p>\n

After the changes, those figures will be adjusted, so it will take 2,500 ad-supported streams or 1,000 paid\/subscription streams to count as one album unit. This means paid streams count 2.5x as much as ad-supported streams. While that\u2019s less of a gap than the current 3:1 ratio, it\u2019s still not what YouTube would prefer seeing here. The company is essentially doing what companies do in failed negotiations like this: it\u2019s taking its ball and going home.<\/p>\n

Of course, by not cooperating with Billboard, YouTube\u2019s music data won\u2019t be considered in chart rankings, which could lead labels and artists to deprioritize publishing their music on YouTube. That\u2019s not a good long-term strategy for YouTube as an important player in the streaming music era. That\u2019s why this move should be viewed as the negotiation tactic it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to achieving equitable representation across the charts and hopefully can work with Billboard to return to theirs,\u201d YouTube\u2019s announcement concludes. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\tSarah has worked as a reporter for TechCrunch since August 2011. She joined the company after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to her work as a reporter, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software.<\/p>\n

You can contact or verify outreach from Sarah by emailing sa****<\/span>@********<\/span>ch.com<\/span><\/a> or via encrypted message at sarahperez.01 on Signal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\tView Bio <\/svg><\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

YouTube is pulling its data from Billboard for use in the publisher\u2019s industry-leading U.S. music charts. The decision is in response to a recent change Billboard made to its ranking formula, which continues to add more weight to paid, on-demand streaming compared with ad-supported, free streaming. Billboard justified its decision to adjust its age-old formula […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":879132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442,49,104640],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-879131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"category-youtube","9":"category-youtube-videos"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}