Billboard has an undeniable cultural monopoly on music charts. Consequently, they have received loads of backlash with the rise of streaming music. That is due to the fact that some artists and companies have manipulated the charts for the sake of garnering a no. 1 hit. However, Billboard is apparently trying to put an end to these “pay-to-play” practices. And they did so by recently announcing several new rules that will surely change the charts’ general behavior and trajectory.
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For context, Billboard founded these new rules because artists have been using somewhat unethical yet not illegal practices to ensure that their songs have successful chart runs. Specifically, big-name artists have been using bots to boost streaming numbers. Doing so has resulted in price drops of physical music sales to garner a high spot on the chart. Furthermore, certain artists have also allegedly released versions of the original album or song days after for a boost in listenership. Artists do all of this because Billboard takes sales and streaming statistics into account when creating their chart rankings.
In essence, what these practices do is keep the most popular artists in the world on top. All that being said, a change needed to happen, and Billboard finally made that happen.
Billboard’s Defense Against Chart Manipulation
Billboard’s rules pertain to four major issues: Digital Album Redemption, False Streaming Data and bots, Fixed Pricing Minimums, and the Restrictions of D2C Exclusive Versions. In short, D2C versions are a shotgun approach to gaining more streams by releasing versions days after the original. Here are the Billboard’s news rules per Chart Data:
Billboard rule change, effective February 28:
— chart data (@chartdata) March 17, 2025
Digital albums sold via an artist, label, or other official web store must now be redeemed in order to be chart eligible.
In addition, verification using hCaptcha is now required to prevent bots.
Digital Album Redemption: “Digital albums sold via an artist, label, or other official web store must now be redeemed in order to be chart eligible. In addition, verification using Captcha is now required to prevent bots.”
False Streaming Data & Bots: “Any D2C store with three submissions of illegitimate data within a 12-month period may receive a minimum 90-day reporting suspension. […] Physical D2C shipments which fall outside of “established sales trends” will require the reporting store to provide enhanced tracking status along with other info such as geolocation data and if a VPN was used to make the purchase.”
Fixed Pricing Minimums: “Minimum price for all D2C exclusive digital albums has been raised to $7.99.” As well as, “Minimum price of albums increasing at all retailers: $7.99 – CD $7.99 – Cassette $15.99 – Vinyl.”
Restrictions of D2C Exclusive Versions: “Only four digital D2C exclusive versions will be allowed for the life of an album. Includes deluxe versions. […] Digital D2C exclusive versions cannot be put up for sale during the middle of the first week. Either need to be available for pre-order or held for a later week of release.”
The General Mission of Billboard’s New Rules
Just know that amid all of this jargon resides the pursuit of making Billboard’s charts as honest as possible. Billboard will now rank music on its merit and honest statistics. Or at least, that will be the goal going forward.
Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
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