Chennai, Dec 15: Billboard has announced that video and audio data from the Google-owned YouTube platform, as well as visual plays from several music streaming services, will soon be factored into the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Apart from YouTube, officially licensed video content plays from the likes of Spotify, Apple, Tidal and Vevo will also be included in the album chart's calculations starting January 3, 2020.
Video streams have counted in many of Billboard's song-specific charts since 2013, but have never been incorporated into the albums chart.
Traditionally, Billboard's charts have served as a barometer of success within the music industry.
The inclusion of video data into the Billboard 200 albums chart arrives five years after audio streams were added, marking the chart's shift from a measure of pure sales to a consumption model, said online reports.
It is important to note that the addition of video will also impact Billboard's genre album consumption charts, such as Country, R&B/Hip-Hop, Latin among others.
Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music at YouTube, called the changes a "very important moment in making the chart a more accurate representation of what people are listening to", according to web reports.