Billboard Changes Chart Rules to Give Paid Streaming More Power
The shakeup takes effect in January 2026.
Summary
- Billboard will implement new chart rules starting January 17, 2026, giving more weight to on-demand streaming to reflect rising revenue and changing consumer habits
- Under the new “album consumption unit” math, it will take 20% fewer paid streams (1,000 instead of 1,250) and 33.3% fewer ad-supported streams (2,500 instead of 3,750) to equal one album sale
- In response to these changes, YouTube announced it will pull its data from Billboard charts effective January 16, 2026, arguing that the weighting system still unfairly undervalues ad-supported fans
Billboard is switching up its chart rules to “add more weight” to on-demand streaming beginning January 2026.
The corporation announced that the shakeup reflects “an increase in streaming revenue and changing consumer behaviors.” Paid/subscription on-demand streams will now add more value than ad-supported on-demand streams, slimming the ratio down to 1:2.5 from 1:3.
As of writing, an album consumption unit is equal to one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or either 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams of songs from an album. Once the new rules take effect, each album consumption unit will then equal to 2,500 ad-supported or 1,000 paid/subscription on-demand audio or video streams from an album.
The rule change will be effective starting January 17 and will affect the Billboard 200 and the genre album charts.
