YouTube Will No Longer Use Loops to Count Towards Billboard Charts
Chart numbers will be solely based on streams from paid subscription sites.
According to a report by Pitchfork, YouTube will no longer count looped videos or snippets of songs as streaming numbers. Once Post Malone’s single “Rockstar,” rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 it brought in some questions about how quickly this happened and it turns out YouTube numbers played a big part. The record label Republic Records released a snippet of the single and it gained 40 million views which played a part in the single’s success.
Knowledge of this tactic did not sit well with YouTube and starting in 2018 people will not be able to manipulate the numbers. “Loop videos that feature misleading and inaccurate metadata violate YouTube policies and we are actively working to have them removed.” A YouTube spokesperson stated in a statement for Pitchfork. “Further, any upload of a song intended to mislead a user (preview, truncated, looped) posted on YouTube to look like the original song will not contribute to any charts.”
Numbers for streaming and bringing fairness into the music industry will be the number one priority for platforms that allow streaming.
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