Billboard Charts to Add More Weight to On-Demand Streaming in 2026
The change is being implemented to reflect an increase in streaming revenue, along with changing music consumption behaviors.
Starting in January, the Billboard charts will add more weight to on-demand streaming to better reflect an increase in streaming revenue and changing consumer behaviors.
As part of the change, paid/subscription on-demand streams will continue to be weighted more favorably compared to ad-supported on-demand streams, with the ratio between the two tiers narrowing from 1:3 to 1:2.5 based on analysis of streaming revenue.
Currently, each album consumption unit equals one album sale, 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.
Effective for the Billboard 200 and corresponding genre album consumption charts dated Jan. 17 (encompassing data from Jan. 2-8), each album consumption unit will now equal 2,500 ad-supported or 1,000 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album (sales and download metrics will remain the same).
The change means that it will take 33.3% fewer ad-supported on-demand streams of songs from an album, and 20% fewer paid/subscription on-demand streams of songs from an album, to equal an album unit.
The ratio between paid/subscription and ad-supported on-demand streaming tiers will additionally be adjusted to 1:2.5 for the Billboard Hot 100, along with corresponding streaming and song consumption charts.
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