If Billboard was looking to reignite the streaming vs. sales debate, they succeeded with a recent announcement.
Indeed, just two years after announcing the inclusion of streaming data for Billboard 200 placements and 8 months after RIAA made a similar move, now the music Bible is adding new scriptures to its evolving process.
“…as of charts dated Nov. 5 [the current week’s chart], SoundCloud plays now contribute to the streaming data that informs the Hot 100 and other genre hybrid songs charts, in addition to the consumption-based Billboard 200 albums chart. Additionally, Amazon Music Unlimited Streams now count toward Amazon’s overall chart contributions, along with streams from the Amazon Prime service, which has long been part of the chart panel.”
Granted, the move isn’t that major of a feat in the grand scheme, but it’s certainly enough to get tongues wagging – especially on the Billboard 200 front. Luckily for the week’s current chart champions, however, the involvement of numbers from the two new digital services hasn’t shaken up things too much.
See the latest Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot 100 below:
Billboard 200 This Week
Streaming is taking over, get with it or get lost. And guess who’s the Queen of Streaming? 🙂
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If your favorites are STILL flopping today, then the GP are just not into them. You can tell the artist that payed radio for spins, now that radio alone doesn’t bring you much chart success, we’re seeing pop stars that were ruling radio are free falling off the charts now.
i totally agree. I was against including streams but a good percentage of the music population streams music more than they buy it… it’s evident in the tremendous decline in record sells over the last decade and a half. If Billboed wants to remain credible they must open the charts up to inclusion and represent all music data. Streaming services definitely needs to incorporate a system that counts UNIQUE PLAYS for accuracy purpose yet they still need to be tallied in. If fans of physical sells need reassurance that their fave is slaying… than it’ll be great if Billboard introduce the “Traditional Sells Chart” and “The Streaming Sells Chart.” But one collective chart of physical and digital should take precedence over the aforementioned two. There are plenty of artists like Chance, Khalani, Future etc making major moves on the streaming charts but don’t get recognition because people aren’t buying physical. Making the charts exclusive to Physical copies puts the game in a chokehold, only acknowledging those with major studio backing. This a new breed. The Youth are hanging on their phones not in their room, with a stereo reading Tiger Beat and J12 New era… get with the times.
Right?! And to add to your amazing comment. I think streaming is helping the two artist you named. It’s a platfrom that get their music out to the world, while they can tour, but also be a true to themselves artist. The old way was that they had to sell their ownership to labels while they change into whatever the label wanted them to be. I mean look at Ke$ha. do you think she would have that issue if she was an inde artist? No, but now she is forevr owned bc she sold herself to a label. The only people are ruined by this are labels, their puppets and these stans. Billboard always been about what popping. How can you have an accurate chart on what the people are enjoying if you cut out a major huge part/the future out of it? This isn’t the first time BB changed their rules and won’t be the last.
Can anyone figure out my real name?
NONETHLESS! I’m with you both, streaming is the new wave. There are plenty of underground artists who are making strides on streaming platforms that doesn’t get the recognition they deserve due to reputable sources like BILLBOARD counting them out because people don’t purchase and consume their music in the same tradition they have in the 90s. Excellent analysis by Kris that should settle this score regarding the merit of including all streaming platforms!
And rock music is really dead now. Green Day released an album? Them, Blink 182 and Red Hot are flopped this year. I called this in 2004.
I do understand that STREAMING is the way most people consume these days and anyone who disagrees is just plain foolish. It’s CHEAP and FREE…so people like that. However, SOME people still buy albums (especially older crowds) e.g Ms Streisand latest album that PUSHED ROBOTNEY’S ‘GLORY-HOLE’ to the bottom of the chart. I WILL ALWAYS RESPECT ARTIST THAT CAN ACTUALLY SELL ALBUMS…IN THIS CLIMATE. Yes, streaming does indicate popularity, but financially it is killing independent artist…..FREE STREAMS DOES NOT EQUATE TO ACTUALLY BUYING AN ALBUM FOR 8 DOLLARS OR SONGS 1.29 DOLLARS. At first i was pissed with beyonce that she did not put LEMONADE on the relevant streaming sites, but after a while i am happy she did not, even if her singles did not chart well due to streams gotten from SPOTIFY OR APPLE MUSIC, FINANCIALLY SHE MADE MORE MONEY THAN MOST OF THEM THAT CHARTED HIGHER THAN HER. LEMONADE WAS AND IS STILL SOLD FOR 18 (FULL-PRICED) DOLLARS AND IN THE US ALONE, IN PURE SALES IT HAS SOLD OVER 1.4 MILLION COPIES…..WHICH EQUATES TO OVER 26 MILLION DOLLARS IN REVENUE. Hence, in my opinion I AM MORE IMPRESSED BY ACTUAL SALES THAN FREE ALLOTTED STREAMS WHICH IS NOT NOT NECESSARILY FINANCIALLY VIABLE FOR ARTIST, EXCEPT THE ALREADY ESTABLISHED ONE WHO CAN JUST GO ON TOUR AND MAKE MORE MONEY..UNLESS U ARE ADELE OR TAYLOR.
Death at lady gaga promoting like crazy and still only selling her album for 3.99 and 69 cents for her singles major flooooop lol
But Rihanna did the same and even discounted her newly released album to 99c and still couldn’t earn a #1 or 200K debut???
LOL the self drag when Rihanna did much worse discounting during release week to 0.99 with rated R and with no change of genre and with all the press in the world with the Chris Brown thing AND coming from her “biggest” era with Umbrella and all that. And she still, once again, couldn´t sell more than 200k copies while many albums were still doing that easily at the time 🙂 The discount for Gaga was just for a day and in one platform. She exceeding expectations is happening now throughout the week thanks to people realizing it is great and being reminded with her recent tv appearances that she is talented and can sang. You tried it though 🙂
What in fresh f*ck is going on with this industry!?! One of the many reasons i have more respect for artists like Mariah, Xtina, Madonna, Usher, etc…is because back in their day, they didn’t have streaming. They had to actually sell physical albums. If you really think about it, artists with bigger album sales are the ones from the 90’s-00’s. Artists’ these days come from mostly streaming.
They weren’t stealing music as bad these days either so get over it.
because back in their day, they didn’t have streaming.
because back in their day, they didn’t have streaming.
because back in their day, they didn’t have streaming.
because back in their day, they didn’t have streaming.
because back in their day
because back in their day
because back in their day
.
See how your comment is stupid? The artist you named are flopping today just like most of the new artist today. So sit down and welcome to 2016.
Album sales charts are telling a completely different story though
Tell it!!!
And that is the REAL chart to me!
Streaming makes things a bit easier for an independent artist.
Great, so now the charts will be infiltrated with soundcloud locals….. Billboard is over
Stop trying to tell people to get with this and that. People was listening to music online long ago. Stop using streaming as an excuse for why your favorite artist can’t sale. There are still multiple artists going platinum or above with pure sales. Streaming can’t hold a candle to a purchased album. If you are 2x platinum off of streams, but you only sold a little over 500k, then you’re a flop. No one is impressed over no free streams. Lol, streaming is your way. The album that sold the most this week should be number one..
I totally agree,true loyalty and loving a track is actually using money to buy that track not free streams
Get with that.. Streaming is free…. Who listens to soundcloud like that? You’re desperate if you constantly stream something just for a chart constantly. Stop being cheap & support one album, if you can.
Completely agree with you…..IF U ARE DOUBLE PLATINUM WITH SPS BUT JUST GOLD IN PURE SALES, U ARE A FLOP.
This!
Honestly it’s too many whack artists out having longer careers than they should, charting forgettable hits because of streaming. Let a one hit one wonder stay a one hit wonder.
Adele, Taylor, Carrie, Pink, Justin, Justin B., Bruno, The Weeknd, Luke Bryan, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Pentatonix, Chris Stapleton, Maybe Lady G & a few others can still sale a million or more pure albums. If you are a superstar artist, that is their peer, you should be able to do this easily, being a huge superstar. Soundcloud is low budget af. Billboard is literally anything for this crap.
Again i agree with you, but Remove GAGA from that list..JOANNE will struggle to go gold in pure sales.
You still don´t know how Joanne will do, she is already exceeding expectations and she has Superbowl. Taht´s why he said “maybe”. Plus Gaga has not been getting the exposure lately, until this week, a lot of hate campaign for years now too. So she is, despite all that, doing pretty well. Plus none of the others mentioned have made a huge change of direction musically like she just did. Be nice. He is being nice.
I would replace Bey with “Lady G” ?.
SMH. The music industry is dead, minus a selected few everybody is flopping.
It really has….this is why i respect Beyonce for not putting her music on the RELEVANT streaming sites……LEMONADE IS STILL SELLING AT FULL PRICE OF 18 DOLLARS…AND HAS SOLD (IN PURE SALES ALONE) OVER 1.4MILLION COPIES. DO THE MATH, SHE HAS EARNED ALMOST 30 MILLION DOLLARS FROM THE US ALONE IN REVENUE. IF SHE PUR IT ON OTHER STREAMING SITES, IT WILL REDUCE HER PURE SALES WHICH ACTUALLY PUTS MONEY IN HER POCKETS. IN A STRANGE WAY THE FLOP THAT IS TIDAL HELPED HER IN THAT SENSE…AND THEN FORMATION TOUR WILL PUT SO MUCH MONEY IN HER PURSE..B**** IS PAID…LOL
Drake & Beyonce are apart of that group as well. LG has a chance. So she isn’t to be written off. Billboard is whack..
I don’t think she does..her first week (PURE SALES) are low..second week will be brutal as hell. She will struggle to go gold..platinum is def not happening. I mean when sales were still manageable in 2013…ARTPOP did not even go platinum and struggled to reach 800k sales..and it opened with over 250k. So no..JOANNE will struggle for gold this era in PURE SALES…MAYBE WITH SPS.
Hun we would have to see Beyonce doing traditional release and changing all of a sudden to a country-indie type of album. We would have to see how she could do. You obviously cannot put some genres and different moments in some artists careers at the same level. Gaga and Tony did great with their Jazz album. Did it sell more than Beyonce´s last albums? Obviously not, but it is not to be expected for a Jazz album. Over 100k first week like they did and their respective grammy is a success in that case. You´re like too focused on Gaga. She obviously is a force in her own way and if she had a long running #1 hit like many of these streaming “forces” she could definitely sell pretty big no doubt. That´s why she is more in this other group of artists with Bey and the others. Not to emntion she clearly is talent wise.
Pinkprint freestyle would’ve charted. Oh well, guess more chart entries for Drake
Don’t nobody care about Pinksh!t Non-SB Style when OOOUU’s #21 on Billboard as I type. Outchea.
Yes we DO care h**
LMFAOOOO!!! More ways to mask these flops under achievements.
Meanwhile BEY has raked in close to 30 million dollars in the us alone on just pure sales…..despite it being on only Tidal????????
People are dissing SoundCloud yet podcasters are making bank from it. Do you fools not understand ad revenue? Google is the one of the biggest companies ever, here’s the Gag, Google doesn’t sell crap, advertisers pay them to promote their ads. Everything from their phones and whatever else is there for them to push more ads. From Android to YouTube. Netflix is another one, they even have better shows and movies than cable. Time Warner was just bought out by att. Why? Because cable is dying and they know streaming is the new way. Get with it or become a “back in the day” has been like Blockbuster. Next will be theaters. The Internet is a powerful tool that is forever changing. We are entering the information revolution. Your fave sold 1.4M and 2m WW. Good, sure she’s selling more than most, but you’re a fool if you think that’s good numbers compared to 10 years ago. Hint the reason why she’s touring more. The point is, get it and win how ever you can.
Yes i do know that, SALES ARE INDEED DOWN FROM 10 YEARS AGO….But i am specifically talking about how selling her album for 18 dollars and not discounting it earned her a lot of money which is good. Touring is also a MAJOR AVENUE for making money now…but mainly for the established acts like adele, beyonce, drake etc….BUT FOR ARTIST WHO ARE STRUGGLING AND CAN’T PERFORM FOR 10K CROWD, STREAMING WILL NOT PUT MONEY IN THEIR POCKETS.
(This comment wasn’t aimed at you. Just wanted to say that) I disagree, lndie bands tour a lot and make imcome that way. Is it $200M? No, but it make them good money nonetheless. If indie artist feel that streaming is cheating them, take it off. The game is so leveled now that indie artist are selling just as much (or less) as major acts. The only people this hurt are the label puppets. Labels are making money from the sites, it’s the artist that is not. BUT their albums aren’t selling neither, so what they gonna do? Don’t know.
Sure..i get what you are saying. THAT IS WHY THE PLACE TO EARN MONEY THESE DAYS AS AN ARTIST IS TRULY THROUGH TOURING…UNLESS U ADELE OR TAYLOR SWIFT. THAT IS WHY EVERYONE INCLUDING THE LABEL PUPPETS ALL TRY TO TOUR VERY QUICKLY THESE DAYS SO THEY CAN ACTUALLY EAR SOME MONEY TO EAT…STREAMING DOES NOT HELP DO THAT THO. AGAIN, I KNOW INDIE ARTIST ARE NOW SELLING AS SOME BIG ARTIST IN SOME CASES……BUT STILL THE POWER OR SELLING ACTUAL ALBUMS SUPERSEDES STREAMING ALBUMS FOR FRE ON SPOTIFY AND STILL FINANCIALLY VIABLE…AND IF THEY CAN’T SELL…TOURING REMAINS THE MAIN SOURCE OF INCOME THESE DAYS.
Bruh, stop trying to convince everyone streaming is the way because Rihanna didn’t have the sales you predicted! That’s the ONLY reason you’re doing all this, WHO DO YOU ACTUALLY LISTEN TO ON SOUND CLOUD, LIKE SERIOUSLY. You’re making this long ass rant about how streaming is the way yet cable and CD’s are still popular. Just not amongst the Navy, and I don’t blame them, why pay for an artist who isn’t going to give you 100%? The real point of streaming is to give new artist, movies and shows a chance to reach a broader audience, not to help Artist who been out over a decade yet stills p**** pats and finger shoot during their performances a way to cheat their way to the top. Physical sales outperforms sps any day because it proves whether ppl take you seriously as an artist are not.
YES….@TORI, I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU JUST SAID. NOT ‘FINGER SHOOTS’ THO……LMAO
Anti sold 3M WW, so come again?
WHO DO YOU ACTUALLY LISTEN TO ON SOUND CLOUD?
Podcast:
Double Toasted
The Read
Brilliant Idiots
I play podcast all day in my house.
Did this n***** just say “Anti sold 3M WW”…
And don’t tell me that streaming is cheap when your fave is covered owner of a streaming site that can’t win at anything. Clearly it’s NOT easy nor cheap.
Its cheap because u can USE SPOTIFY (THE BIGGEST OF THEM ALL) for free without paying a single cent…THE VALUE OF STREAMS DOES NOT BEAT THAT OF SELLING ACTUAL COPIES..WITH REGARDS TO THE FINANCIAL STABILITY OF EVERY ARTIST OUT THERE.
Streaming is cheap you idiot .
Also, that is why TIDAL was a very good concept, charging people more for streaming which in turn allows every artist to see some tangible financial success….HATE ON TIDAL ALL U WANT, THE IDEA OF IT WAS ACTUALLY BRILLIANT, IT WAS JUST EXECUTED POORLY….AGAIN, THE BIGGEST STREAMING SITE IS SPOTIFY AND THEY PAY ARTIST AT A VERY LOW RATE…YES, AS I SAID BEFORE, STREAMING IS WHAT PEOPLE USES THESE DAYS, NO DENYING THAT. BUT FINANCIALLY FOR ARTIST IT IS F****** HORRIBLE.
Them charging twice as much was because their stream is up to par with CDs. Still wasn’t/not enough to gain a following. I’m not paying $20, the other plan is $10, the same as the others, still no gain. I PAY for Spotify, I tried Tidal for 60 days I got from the Anti download, I didn’t like it. The interface is sloppy, there’s not enough of a community to find great playlists, at the time the exclusives were great (Anti, Life Of Pablo) and I liked how it was urban music driven. But Spotify have great number of playlist/community, the interface is great, smooth and easy. Plus they had an amazing summer deal of buy 3 months for the price of one. By that time Anti and other albums were on it, so I went back home. Tidal just isn’t it. They should go with an ad feature to gain a following.
Please like we all don’t know bey would not even sell half of what she sold without gimmicks and if her album was available for streaming.
Some artists can give out 1.5million copies of their album, release said album on all streaming platforms,don’t record a movie and lie about cheating rumours and still sell 1.5million without promo.
Less than a million what bey sold without streaming, with the videos gimmick to pull more crowd and cheating rumors
Did FRIH sell that 1.5 million in ACTUAL copies or coupled with FRIH STREAMS??
U still don’t get it do you??? UR HATRED FOR BEYONCE is clogging ur sense of reasoning. The fact that she did not put it on other streaming sites…THE RELEVANT ONES, affected her charting success but FINANCIALLY, the album itself pulled in almost 30 million dollars with its….PURE SALES.
And Rih made 25 million dollars alone for giving away 1.4 million albums for free lol! Not even mentioning what she made from 1.4 million albums sold (pure sales) worldwide and work and needed me both over and nearing 4x platinum plus owning her masters
Very smart move by RIH…at least she has 25 million dollars in her bank. But i was talking specifically about PURE SALES in the us…..RIH has only passed 500k pure sales and her album isn’t 18 dollars…BUT WITH THAT BEING SAID, RIH STILL GOT PAID AND I RESPECT HER FOR THAT.
Yassss @ ANTI still top 20 9 months in
Thanks to streaming lol…
ITunes is the new billboard charts! F*** this streaming s***!
I makes me feel like there’s no need to buy music anymore lol. I’m not crazy about streaming and like someone mentioned above it’s always more impressive when people are spending their hard-earned cash to support the artist. Times have changed.
Exactly lol. Streaming just isn’t the same as buying an actual album. It doesn’t carry the same power. Should there be a streaming chart that stands alone? That’s ok. But they’re trying to make it seem as though it’s much bigger than it actually is. Streaming should some how be seen as another form of radio as opposed to an actual sale. Labels should lower the price of albums. When they do the sales explode. Only allow singles to be streamed & when new albums are released with hold them from streaming services until the album cycle is over. Some of these artists are still moving units with streaming. So that speaks for itself. These artists make pennies from streaming. That’s why no one gets excited when a streamed album gets certified. It’s really smoke & mirrors lol.. Free listens & playlists that many fans just loop over & over lol..
EXACTLY..PERFECTLY SAID. But i do see why billboard included streams tho, the Billboard chart is about popularity, so basically the most streamed songs are the most popular songs that chart, So streaming in a sense is just like radio…BUT STILL PHYSICAL SALES TRUMPS(PUN INTENDED) STREAMS, WHICH COULD BE GOTTEN FREELY….TOURING IS THE PLACE TO MAKE REAL CASH NOW….IF U ARE ARTIST U BETTER UR ASS OUT THERE AND START DOING DEM SHOWS OR ELSE U WILL STARVE.
Streaming is terrible!
As quick as some can argue that it shows the artist in question popularity, one could also say it’s the same set group listening to the same thing,which makes an album that only sold 500,000 look like it’s listened to by more people than it really is.
Actual physical sales>Streaming
Does anyone use soundcloud enough for it to matter?
Who knew the “everybody gets a trophy” generation would affect billboard as well..
I couldn´t have said it better.
Seriously, hasn´t Beyonce been consistently outselling Drake every single week for months (at least months ago)? Why is he always so high in the list? How can he be still #2? They really pucked up the meaning the charts could have with the streaming pshit.
Oh and congrats to the streaming “forces” for this news. I guess they have it easier than ever to “supposedly” rival Michael Jackson and the likes´ records (as if! lol).
Oh shut up. One reason those 80s artist sold so much is because people bought their music several times, rather your tape ate up because the tech was crap, or you later bought the CD version of it, and then later again on the digital format. On top of that, most of their numbers are false, made up by labels to make them seem more than they was.
What? No mate. It cost good money and people didn´t use to buy several times the same album… like at all. You´re so off with that reasoning. It is now thanks to cheap digital singles when crazy fans can afford to buy several copies just for the sake of blindly supporting their fave. It´s way easier now. Plus it doesn´t have anything to do with the fact that some streaming “forces” are way above in the charts that people who are outselling them. That makes no pucking sense.
Billboard says otherwise. Streams are not sales. Period..
Lmao. I thought that creature has stopped commenting. Anyways, stream is a good thing. But the Navy were laughing at some artist who went 2x Platinum based on streams like 2 years ago? They also said that they don’t want to hear artist can’t sell album in X year.
And Congrats to the “Black Madonna”, she really is a Streaming Queen. It must be a tough one to compete with the likes of Ariana Grande, Ellie Goulding, Meghan Trainor, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, Fifth Harmony etc.
Shady bish 🙂
They just making it harder & harder for rb
Poor Blonde and her minions.. The meltdown will be endless because streaming is the future. THE END.
I thought that f** Mark was done with this site like leave it was better without you
As long as my fave can still go 2x platinum in pure sales I don’t care about this streaming bs… yHow can you justify an album selling less than 5000 copies occupy a top ten just because it gets streamed for free a gazzilion times. Both drake and rihanna are the most streamed albums this year and yet Beyoncé made more of her fully priced album and only streamed on tidal? Despite anti and views staying on top ten longer than bey… yet people will scream streaming is the future ??? the only thing streaming indicates is people no longer buy music.
You say streaming rules but worship Adele because deep down you know SALES will always be of higher value. McDonalds may be popular but we all know WholeFoods will always have better quality. So stream on all ye fans of flops!
Let’s not act like Adele’s music wouldn’t be consumed by the GP either way. People would stream Adele’s music over Beyonce. She doesn’t need gimmick to sell traditionally and she would have STILL won if her music was released to streaming sites. Unlike the BLONDE..Ppl actually like Adele’s music.
Lmaooo. The soundcloud famous artists will be all ober BB now smh what a mess
The only reason the HIVE are saying STREAMING doesn’t hold any weight because Beyonce isnt benefitting from the streams but it is funny that for someone who had their album slay with just streams, that particular album is charting higher and being played more than the album that sold for 18 bucks (because of all those videos and songwriters to pay). People need to realize that they are slowly getting rid of Physical copies and they will only be digital and streaming. Shade is that people say that Rihanna made McMusic but yet her album is still being listened to 9 months after release and even being leaked or had that mesy roll out still managed to get a number 1 single and album and sell over 500k in physical sales. Smh poor yall
Beyonce needs to make upbeat visual album (if shes still gonna do that) that why her next tyour can be a crazy turn up.
Physical media ain’t going nowhere buddy. Streams for high profile artists just ain’t it..
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