YouTube is changing up how it counts purchased views.
According to the world’s biggest streaming service, the website will “no longer count paid advertising views” in its charts. However, they will still show up in the public view counters — the ones we see directly below video content.
YouTube currently allows users to boost views through Google advertising and it’s all legal. Rolling Stone reports that artists can spend up to $100,000 to have their video run as short ads leading into other videos. The views are added directly to the artist’s counts, even though the users weren’t necessarily seeking out the content. 
YouTube wrote in a statement:
In an effort to provide more transparency to the industry, we are no longer counting paid advertising views on YouTube in the YouTube Music Charts calculation. Artists will now be ranked based on view counts from organic plays.
This is a step in the right direction, but we’re not sure it’s enough to keep from being misleading.
What do you think?
Source: Rolling Stone
