Billboard to Distinguish Between Free/Paid Streams

RADIO ONLINE | Monday, October 23, 2017

Billboard has announced that greater emphasis will be given to paid subscription streams with ad-supported activity remaining an important factor when compiling the Billboard Hot 100, Billboard 200 and other charts. Currently, the publication only distinguishes between streams from on-demand platforms versus programmed services, with more weight given to on-demand. Beginning in 2018, Billboard will begin weighting paid streams (such as Amazon Music and Apple Music) more heavily than free listening streams (such as SoundCloud and Spotify).

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.

Billboard says that the shift to "a multi-level streaming approach" to its methodology is "a reflection of how music is now being consumed on streaming services, migrating from a pure on-demand experience to a more diverse selection of listening preferences (including playlists and radio), and the various options in which a consumer can access music based on their subscription commitment."