Billboard's Revamped Hot 100 Chart Now Tracks YouTube Plays

Announced yesterday by Billboard and Nielsen, YouTube views will now be added to the formula ranking the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Nielsen will track YouTube videos with authorized audio as well as any distributed by Vevo. The decision was made to enhance Billboard’s accuracy and modernize the chart that already factors in radio airplay, on-demand audio streaming, in addition to Nielsen’s tracking of online-radio streaming, digital download sales and physical single sales.

Resulting from these changes, Baauer’s “Harlem Shake,” the internet’s latest video obsession, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart today. The Brooklyn-based producer released “Harlem Shake” last May as a free download. The song gained vast popularity this month when YouTube became flooded with people making videos of their versions of dancing to the hip-hop track.

The lyric-less “Harlem Shake” knocks off Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s hit track “Thrift Shop” from the top spot. Despite falling to No. 2, “Thrift Shop” continues to be the most-downloaded track for the week.

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