I’ve been a long-time fan of Billboard magazine, the music industry bible for tracking the success of songs and albums. Billboard has been charting hits since 1940. However, something has gone terribly wrong with their once-reliable music charts. I think it’s because of music streaming and social media which have impacted all chart records in more ways than we realize.
Ever since the music streaming and social media age emerged, Billboard has scrambled to keep up with the times to reflect as accurate a reflection as possible of the music fandom. In the past, it was much easier to do because they just traced record sales and airplay time across radio stations. Nice and easy.
Well, things only became more complicated when the public started streaming music instead of buying physical items like vinyl, cassette, CDs, etc. It became harder to gauge how popular songs and albums were because most fans listen and skip through tons of selections. How do you even track the amount of time each person spends listening to selections?
I do not profess to know what the answer is to repair Billboard’s broken chart ranking system but I do think it’s related to online streaming and social media because there is evidence that supports this theory. Let me explain more.
Avalanche of Number One Records
One of the clues to the problem with the Billboard charts these days is the number of records being set for most weeks at number one across many different music charts.
The first time I really noticed something strange was when “Meant to Be” by Bebe Rexhte and Georgia Florida Line spent a staggering 50 weeks in a row at number one on the country songs chart in 2018! This shattered the previous mark of 34 weeks which was itself an insane mark by “Body like a Brick Road” by (Insert name here). Meant to Be spent almost an entire year on top.
OK, maybe it was just one of those rare flukes that occur from time to time. Right? Well, no. There were many more of these flukes to come. Hold on to your hat.
“Old Town Road” by Lil Naz X and Billy Ray Cyrus recently broke the long-standing record with 19 weeks at number one on the Hot 100 chart. It was 16 weeks for a quarter of a century by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men with “One Sweet Day”.
“You Say” by Lauren Daigle just spent 66 weeks at number one on the Hot Christian Songs chart and if it wasn’t for Kanye West going Christian she would still be on top! Think about that. 66 weeks at number one.
“Happier” by MarshMello and Bastille has spent 63 weeks in a row at number one on the Dance/Electronic Music Chart and it’s still number one! It could break Lauren’s record if it keeps on going.
“High Hopes” by Panic! at the Disco has spent 46 weeks at number one on the Hot Rock Songs chart and it’s still going! It has also been on the chart for 80 weeks! Not only that, but they also have the number two song which also spent time at number one so they have been on top for over a year.
What’s the solution?
How can Billboard fix their chart problem so we can go back to some semblance of normality again and see more variety at the top of all respective charts? Music streaming and social media are never going away so what’s the answer? Well, Billboard could — and should — change how much weight they’ve given to music streaming and social media impact.
While I do not know the details of their algorithm for determining the rankings of the charts, we do know the key factors which include sales of physical and digital copies of songs and albums as well as radio airplay analytics. The tricky part involves music streaming and social media analytics.
Everyone agrees that the old method of tracking sales and radio airplay makes a great deal of sense to determine how popular songs and albums are during a specific period of time. I think we all would agree with factoring in online streaming and social media too but the hard question becomes “How much weight do we give these new forms of measuring?”
Something has to change because the current system is not working right. Look, I love all of the songs and artists that have been benefiting from this new ranking system but I also want to see other artists enjoy some success too. Do we really need to see songs stay at number one for over a year over and over again?
