YouTube sources its data from Billboard for use in the publisher’s industry-leading US charts. The decision is in response to a recent change Billboard made to its ranking formula, which continues to add more weight to paid, on-demand streaming compared to ad-supported, free streaming.
Billboard justified its decision to adjust its age-old formula by saying the change “will better reflect an increase in streaming revenue and changing consumer behavior.”
In other words, streaming now means more than buying albums or songs, so it wants its charts to reflect that.
However, YouTube doesn’t like the new formula because it doesn’t want there to be much — if any — difference between free and paid streams, especially if the changes are intended to reflect how consumers enjoy music today.
“Billboard uses an outdated formula that weights subscription-supported streams more highly than ad-supported ones. This does not reflect how fans interact with music today and ignores the massive engagement of non-subscription fans,” explains a YouTube blog post published Wednesday. “Streaming is the primary way people experience music, accounting for 84% of US recorded music revenue.”
“We’re simply asking that every stream be counted fairly and equally, whether subscription-based or ad-supported — because every fan matters and every play should count,” the post reads.
The placement changes will be reflected starting with the charts published on January 17, which will include data from 2-8. January 2026. This will affect the Billboard 200 charts and genre-based album charts. Additionally, the ratio of paid/subscription to ad-supported on-demand streaming tiers will be adjusted to 2.5:1 for the Billboard Hot 100, Billboard said.
To protest the new formula, YouTube said it will no longer provide data to Billboard after January 16, 2026.
Here’s what that change means in practice: Under the revised calculation, Billboard said 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. In short, fewer streams are needed than before for an album to climb the charts. This is a win for streaming in general, but not necessarily for YouTube.
Here’s why. Currently, the formula used by Billboard defines an album unit (the standard measurement for chart positions) as an album sale. It also counts 10 individual songs from an album as one album consumption unit.
On the streaming side, it currently says that one album unit is equivalent to 3,750 ad-supported streams – just like YouTube’s – or 1,250 official paid/subscription audio and video streams.
Following the changes, these numbers will be adjusted so that it will take 2,500 ad-supported streams or 1,000 paid/subscription streams to count as one album unit. This means that paid streams count 2.5 times as much as ad-supported streams. While that’s a smaller gap than the current 3:1 ratio, it’s still not what YouTube prefers to see here. The company basically does what companies do in failed negotiations like this: it takes the ball and goes home.
Of course, by not partnering with Billboard, YouTube’s music data won’t be factored into top rankings, which could cause labels and artists to de-prioritize releasing their music on YouTube. It’s not a good long-term strategy for YouTube as a major player in the streaming music era. This is why this move should be seen as the negotiating tactic that it is.
“We are committed to achieving fair representation across the charts and can hopefully work with Billboard to return to theirs,” YouTube’s announcement concludes.