Billboard, Nielsen Finally Add Streaming To 19 Genre Album Charts

Nielsen Entertainment and Billboard announced they will be shifting 19 genre album charts from sales-based to consumption-based charts that blend album sales, track equivalent sales and streaming equivalent plays. The change will take effect with the tracking week ending Thursday, January 26ths for the Billboard charts dated February 11th.

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The Nielsen Billboard Charts shifting to consumption based charts include:

Top Country Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
Top R&B Albums
Top Rap Albums
Top Latin Albums
Latin Pop Albums
Regional Mexican Albums
Tropical Albums
Latin Rhythm Albums
Top Rock Albums
Alternative Rock Albums
Hard Rock Albums
Americana/Folk Albums
Top Dance/Electronic Albums
Christian/Gospel Albums
Top Gospel Albums
Top Christian Albums
Top Catalog Albums
Holiday Albums

The new consumption-based genre album charts will include Catalog titles, says Billboard, which is a change from the current methodology. This finally aligns these charts with the Billboard 200 and provides a more accurate ranking of each genre’s albums consumption.Billboard and Nielsen will still compile sales-based album charts, but the main chart in each genre in Billboard and/or on Billboard.com will be consumption-based. Chart rank history for each list will be connected with the sales-based rank history dating back to each chart’s origin.See here for Consumption Charting Rules & Methodology courtesy of A2IM.