Drake called the music industry “so cooked” after Billboard reversed its decision to exclude YouTube streams from its charts.
On November 11, he posted a screenshot of an article about the change to his Instagram Story, adding a shocked-face emoji. Billboard had reversed its earlier decision from January this year.
YouTube announced on November 9 that it would return to the Billboard charts in 2027. The platform had stopped providing its streaming data in January after disagreeing with Billboard’s formula, which gave more weight to paid subscription streams than to free, ad-supported streams.
YouTube Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen said in a blog post that Billboard’s new methodology better reflects how fans engage with music across subscription and ad-supported services.
Billboard said that, effective January 16, 2027, and based on data gathered from January 1–7, one album consumption unit on the Billboard 200 will equal 1,500 ad-supported streams or 1,000 paid subscription-based official video and audio plays from a project’s tracklist.
Currently, one unit equals 2,500 ad-supported streams or 1,000 paid or subscription-based on-demand official audio and video streams from an album’s songs. One album consumption unit also equals one album sale or 10 individual tracks sold from an album.
