YouTube Revises Music Charts To Eliminate Pay-For-View

YouTube is revising its chart criteria and will no longer count paid advertising views on YouTube in the YouTube Music Charts calculation. The shift aligns YouTube with the policies of Billboard and Nielsen.

Indian rapper Badshah, K-pop group BlackPink and Taylor Swift have all spent money on YouTube ad advertising campaigns that have boosted their first-day views.

"There is definitely money being spent on views,” Tomas Cookman, founder and CEO of the independent Latin label Nacional told Rolling Stone. “Is it fair to pay to have all those perceived views on a video? Probably not. But any time there’s a system, there’s going to be some manipulation of that system. And whoever tells you there isn’t is probably doing it.” 

Now, artists will be ranked based only on view counts from organic plays. 

Videos eligible for YouTube’s 24-hour debut record are those with the highest views from organic sources within the first 24 hours of the video’s public release. This includes direct links to the video, search results, external sites that embed the video and YouTube features like the homepage, watch next and Trending.

The changes will not impact YouTube’s existing 24-hour debut record holders.