Billboard Makes Youtube Part of Hot 100 Formula
This week the Billboard Hot 100, the magazine’s 55-year-old singles chart, takes a evolutionary step by incorporating YouTube plays into its formula.
Bill Werde, the magazine’s editorial director commented on the new system: “the notion that a song has to sell in order to be a hit feels a little two or three years ago to me,” he said.
“The music business today — much to its credit — has started to learn that there are lots of different ways a song can be a hit, and lots of different ways that the business can benefit from it being a hit.”
Besides sales and radio airplay, Billboard’s Hot 100 now also incorporates data from streaming services like Spotify.
This instantly skyrocketed Baauer’s song “Harlem Shake” to the top of the charts with only 18,000 downloads but103 million views in the United States, according to YouTube. It now has sold 262,000 downloads.
