In a significant shake-up for the global music industry, YouTube has announced it will stop providing its streaming data to Billboard’s U.S. music charts starting January 16, 2026. This decision ends a decade-long partnership that helped measure song popularity and influence chart positions for artists around the world.
The move arose from a dispute over how Billboard weights different types of streams, raising questions about digital consumption, fairness, and how chart success should be defined in the streaming era. Here’s a breakdown of what this change means for artists, fans, and the music business at large.
Why YouTube Pulled Back Its Data
At the heart of the split is a disagreement over Billboard’s chart methodology specifically, how it assigns different values to paid versus ad-supported streams:
- Billboard currently gives more weight to paid or subscription streams (like Spotify Premium or Apple Music) than to free, ad-supported plays.
- YouTube argues this system undervalues listening behaviour on its platform, where billions of users stream music for free with ads.
In response, Billboard updated its formula for 2026 to make ad-supported streams count more than they did before (reducing the number of streams needed to count toward the charts). However, paid streams still count significantly more than free streams, and YouTube says this doesn’t reflect how modern fans actually engage with music.
YouTube’s global head of music, Lyor Cohen, called Billboard’s formula “outdated” and insisted that all streams paid or free should be counted equally for chart calculations. Because Billboard would not adopt this approach, YouTube announced it will stop submitting its data for all Billboard charts, including the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200.
A Brief History of YouTube & Billboard Charts
YouTube began contributing data to Billboard’s Hot 100 in 2013, recognizing that video streams were a growing part of how people consume music. Later, its data was added to album charts like the Billboard 200.
Because YouTube reaches billions of listeners worldwide; especially in regions where paid subscriptions are less common, its inclusion historically helped songs chart higher based on popularity across video and music formats.
Now, with the partnership ending after January 16, 2026, YouTube streams will no longer factor into these official U.S. rankings unless the two organizations find a new agreement.
How Billboard’s New Chart Rules Work
For charts dated January 17, 2026 (tracking data from January 2-8), Billboard will adjust its streaming values:
- 1,000 paid/subscription on-demand streams = one album unit
- 2,500 ad-supported on-demand streams = one album unit
This narrows the difference between paid and free streams compared with previous years, but paid streams still count more per stream than ad-supported ones.
Under this system, a song must be streamed more times on a free tier to count the same as fewer paid streams, a key reason YouTube disagrees with the approach.
What this could mean for Artists
- Chart Visibility Changes: Songs that used to climb based on huge YouTube view counts alone may now chart lower or not at all on Billboard charts.
- Strategy Shifts: Labels may push artists toward platforms where plays still count fully for Billboard, such as Spotify, Apple Music, or other paid services.
- Video Release Planning: Big-budget music videos might become less central to chart strategies, though they’ll still matter for engagement and reach.
Artists with strong YouTube performance particularly in genres like K-pop, hip-hop, Latin pop, and Afrobeats, may feel the biggest impact, as many of their fans use YouTube as a primary means of listening.
For Fans
- Streaming Choices Matter More: Streaming on paid platforms may have more chart impact than listening on YouTube alone.
- Billboard Chart Dynamics Change: Fans who boosted songs to the charts via YouTube views might see different results going forward.
What This Doesn’t Change
- Music Industry Certifications: YouTube streams will still count toward certifications like RIAA Gold and Platinum, which have their own criteria separate from Billboard charts.
- Luminate Reporting: YouTube continues to submit data to Luminate (a major industry analytics provider), so labels and artists will still see full YouTube consumption metrics.
YouTube’s move isn’t just a technical shift in how charts are calculated, it’s a cultural statement about what matters most in music consumption today. Whether this leads to new chart models or renewed negotiation between platforms and publishers remains to be seen.