Music Charts Criteria
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BIllboard | Circle Chart | RIAA
Billboard
Billboard is an American music and entertainment magazine that provides music charts, news, videos, reviews, events, and other music industry related information. The source of sales and streaming data for Billboard’s charts is Luminate (formerly P-MRC Data).
Below is a list of Billboard music charts at which track the most popular albums and songs in various music genres.
➡️ Billboard Hot 100 Chart
Billboard Hot 100 focuses on music singles.
What counts: Streaming remains the most dominant factor on the Hot 100 chart, followed by radio airplay and digital sales in descending order of significance. Billboard does not count digital download singles from artist web stores. (Sources: 1, 2)
Tracking week: Friday to Thursday (Source: 1)
Reporting schedule: The Hot 100 and genre "Hot" charts are finalized each Monday, with the Hot 100's top 10 and other chart highlights revealed each Monday afternoon (except for weeks affected by holidays) via the weekly top 10 recap story on Billboard.com and social posts, while charts in full are updated on Billboard.com each Tuesday morning. (Source: 1)
➡️ Billboard 200 Chart
Billboard 200 focuses on music albums and EPs.
What counts: Billboard combines pure sales, TEA, and SEA to calculate the ranking. (Source: 1, 2)
TEA stands for Track-Equivalent Albums
10 digital tracks = 1 album/unit sale
SEA stands for Stream-Equivalent Albums
1,250 streams from a premium stream (such as a Spotify Premium account) = 1 album/unit sale
3,750 streams from an ad supported stream (such as a free Spotify account) = 1 album/unit sale
Tracking week: Friday to Thursday (Source: 1)
Reporting schedule: Charts are refreshed every Tuesday on Billboard.com (during weeks with Monday holidays, charts update on Wednesdays) and reflect the date of the Billboard issue in which they appear; online-only charts display the same corresponding date. Articles on the Billboard 200 generally post on Sunday afternoons. (Sources: 1, 2)
➡️ Billboard Top Album Sales Chart
Billboard Top Album Sales is a component chart to the overall Billboard 200 albums chart. The 50-position chart tallies the top-selling titles of the week.
What counts: Titles are ranked by traditional album sales. (Source: 1)
➡️ Billboard Top Streaming Albums Chart
Billboard Top Streaming Albums is a component chart to the overall Billboard 200 albums chart. The 50-position chart lists the most-streamed albums of the week.
What counts: Titles are ranked by SEA units.
SEA stands for Stream-Equivalent Albums
1,250 streams from a premium stream (such as a Spotify Premium account) = 1 album/unit sale
3,750 streams from an ad supported stream (such as a free Spotify account) = 1 album/unit sale
If an artist has multiple albums with the same song, SEA units for that song are generally assigned to whichever album sells the most by traditional album sales in a given week. (Source: 1)
➡️ Billboard Global 200 & Billboard Global Excl. US Charts
Billboard Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide songs.
Billboard Global Excl. US focuses on all territories outside the United States.
What counts: Both charts calculate worldwide streams and download sales.
The charts collate "sales and streaming data from more than 200 territories, with rankings based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of leading digital platforms, and downloads from key online music retailers." (Source: 1)
Tracking week: Friday to Thursday (Source: 1)
Reporting schedule: Charts are refreshed every Tuesday on Billboard.com (during weeks with Monday holidays, charts update on Wednesdays). The top 100 songs are featured on Billboard.com, while the complete 200-title rankings are visible on Billboard Pro, Billboard’s subscription-based service. (Source: 1)
➡️ Billboard South Korea Songs Chart
Billboard South Korea Songs is part of Billboard's Hits of the World chart collection.
What counts: The chart includes streams and download sales within South Korea. The “ranking is based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of leading audio and video music services, plus download sales from top music retailers within the territory.” (Source: 1)
The chart incorporates streaming and download data from Melon, the South Korean digital music sales and streaming platform. (Source: 1, 2)
Tracking week: Friday to Thursday (Source: 1)
Reporting schedule: Charts are updated every Tuesday on Billboard.com. (Source: 1)
Circle Chart
The Circle Chart (formerly Gaon Chart) is produced by the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA).
Circle Chart’s Global K-pop Chart incorporates global song streaming data, partnering with Apple Music, Spotify, TikTok, and YouTube.
It has 200 ranking positions and includes daily, weekly, monthly, first half, and yearly charts.
REcording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
The RIAA is “the trade organization that supports and promotes the creative and commercial vitality of music labels in the United States.”
➡️ RIAA certifies the following album award tiers
Gold: 500,000 units
Platinum: 1,000,000 units
Multi-Platinum: 2,000,000 units (increments of 1,000,000 thereafter)
Diamond: 10,000,000 units (increments of 1,000,000 thereafter)
➡️ Units are defined and counted as follows
1 digital album or physical album sale = 1 unit
10 permanent track downloads from the album = 1 unit
Note: This is why we strongly recommend that ARMY purchase album tracks separately.
1,500 on-demand audio and/or video streams from the album = 1 unit
Note that only sales and streams occurring in the US qualify for RIAA awards. (Sources: 1, 2)