Overview
- Billboard’s new methodology takes effect with charts dated Jan. 17, 2026, lowering one album unit to 2,500 ad-supported streams or 1,000 paid streams and narrowing the paid-to-free ratio from 3:1 to 2.5:1 across the Billboard 200 and Hot 100.
- YouTube says it will stop delivering its data to Billboard after Jan. 16, 2026, contending that every stream should count equally regardless of whether it is subscription-based or ad-supported.
- Billboard defends the tiered weighting as reflecting revenue, consumer access, data validation and industry guidance, saying it hopes YouTube will reconsider.
- Variety reports YouTube will continue sending data to Luminate, a primary source for Billboard’s charts, even as its streams are excluded from Billboard’s U.S. rankings.
- YouTube data has figured into Billboard charts since 2013 for the Hot 100 and 2020 for the Billboard 200, and industry watchers say the split could alter release strategies and what the charts capture as streaming accounts for about 84% of U.S. recorded-music revenue.