Billboard Alters Music Charts to Add Digital Sales and Streaming Data

In line with the increasing references to digital download sales and streaming plays via subscription sites such as Spotify, Rdio and Muve as markers of success, music chart website Billboard is now integrating the aforementioned into their rankings. The change subsequently gives a much more accurate indication of the popularity of any given track or album. While the likes of Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga who have massive online fan bases will welcome the move, other artists particularly in genres such as country music, see the move as unfair as their respective following take the more traditional route in terms of album sales and radio plays. Billboard spoke of the adjustment to their charting methods and deemed it “perfectly logical.”

“With digital download sales and streaming data measuring popularity on the most inclusive scale possible, it makes perfectly logical sense that the radio portion of the new chart calculations include airplay from the entire spectrum of monitored formats,”

– Billboard‘s Silvio Pietroluongo explained in a post detailing all of the changes.
What do you think of Billboard’s new ranking system? Does it bring the charts more in line with today’s market and does it give a fair reflection for artists irrespective of their online fan base? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.