YouTube plays will soon count toward Billboard‘s most reputable albums chart, according to a new report.
Starting January 3rd and moving forward, the publication will incorporate YouTube views for the Billboard 200 chart. Music video streams from other services — Apple Music, TIDAL and VEVO — will also be counted for.
As the most popular means for music streaming, it only makes sense that YouTube be counted in this capacity. However, factoring in these streams fairly hasn’t come without its challenges. 
To count, the videos must be “official licensed video content uploaded by or on behalf of a rights holder.” User-generated content (i.e. memes, covers) will not be included in these counts.
YouTube music head Lyor Cohen described this as a “very important moment in making the chart a more accurate representation of what people are listening to.”
He added, “Genres like Latin, hip hop and electronic, which consistently dominate the YouTube charts, will now be properly recognised for their popularity.”
