YouTube’s streaming data is coming back to the Billboard charts. YouTube’s global head of music, Lyor Cohen, announced on Monday, November 9, that the platform will resume supplying its streaming data to Billboard starting in 2027, ending a nearly year-long absence that began after a dispute over how free streams are weighted.
The announcement came on the same day Billboard revealed it will update its chart methodology in 2027, narrowing the gap between paid subscription streams and ad-supported streams from a ratio of 1:2.5 to 1:1.5. Cohen said the revised formula was the reason for the return, writing in a two-line update to YouTube’s original December 2025 announcement: “We are returning to the Billboard charts starting in 2027. Billboard’s new methodology better reflects how fans engage with music today across both subscription and ad-supported services.”
Under the new methodology, effective for the Billboard 200 and corresponding genre album consumption charts dated January 16, 2027, reflecting data from January 1 to 7, each album consumption unit will equal 1,500 ad-supported streams or 1,000 paid-subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. Each album consumption unit also equals one album sale or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, and sales and download metrics will remain unchanged. The current formula counts 2,500 ad-supported streams or 1,000 paid streams toward one album unit, so the change gives free streams substantially more weight.
The return closes a standoff that began almost a year ago. On December 17, 2025, Cohen announced that YouTube would stop delivering its data to Billboard after January 16, 2026, calling Billboard’s formula outdated and saying it undervalued the massive fan engagement on YouTube. “Billboard uses an outdated formula that weights subscription-supported streams higher than ad-supported,” Cohen wrote at the time. “This doesn’t reflect how fans engage with music today and ignores the massive engagement from fans who don’t have a subscription.” He added that streaming makes up 84 percent of U.S. recorded music revenue, and that YouTube was asking for every stream to be counted fairly and equally, “because every fan matters and every play should count.”
YouTube ultimately withdrew its streaming data from the Billboard charts earlier this year, beginning with the charts dated January 31, after Billboard announced that paid streams would be weighed against ad-supported streams at a 1:2.5 ratio. At the time, Billboard said it hoped YouTube would reconsider and rejoin the charts. Cohen, for his part, left the door open in the original announcement, writing that YouTube was committed to achieving equitable representation across the charts and hoped to work with Billboard to return.
The dispute has roots going back more than a decade. YouTube was first included as part of the Billboard charts in 2013, when its streaming data was incorporated into Billboard’s song charts, including the Hot 100, and Billboard was the first chart publisher to include YouTube’s streaming data. In 2019, Billboard began incorporating YouTube streaming data into the Billboard 200, and paid and subscription streams were first weighted more heavily than ad-supported streams that same year. International organizations including the IFPI also began to incorporate weighted systems around that time.
For K-pop, the return matters twice over. Billboard chart positions have become a central benchmark for K-pop acts, with album debuts and weekly placements on the Billboard 200 closely watched by fans and the industry alike. Because a large share of global K-pop listening happens on free, ad-supported tiers, those streams counting more toward an album unit could translate into stronger chart showings for acts whose audiences stream heavily without subscriptions. On top of that, YouTube is where billions of fans worldwide connect with music, from official music videos to live streams, according to the platform itself, and YouTube views will once again feed into the charts that decide those positions.
The first charts calculated under the new formula, and the first to include YouTube data again, will be dated January 16, 2027. No official statement was available from Billboard beyond its methodology announcement earlier on Monday.
