Rolling Stone to Challenge Billboard With New Music Chart

 

Rolling Stone to Challenge Billboard With New Music Chart

Plans include a daily singles chart and more transparency on ranking calculations.

 

Rolling Stone is planning to launch its own music charts on Monday (May 13), competing with the Billboard 200 and the Hot 100, as Vanity Fair and Variety point out. The “Rolling Stone Charts” will include a singles chart updated daily, rather than every week. Rolling Stone also plans to incorporate more streaming data and make the ranking calculations more transparent.

 

Jay Penske, the CEO of RS’s parent company, Penske Media Corp., said in a press release: “What’s imperative and exciting about our new Rolling Stone Charts is that it will present a transparent, granular and real-time quantification to accurately reflect listeners’ evolving interests and give insight into worldwide trends.”

 

Beyond the main two charts, RS will also launch the Rolling Stone Artist 500—ranking the most-streamed artists—the Rolling Stone Trending 25, and, for new artists, the Rolling Stone Breakthrough 25.

 

RS will compile the charts using music analytics service Alpha Data (formerly BuzzAngle Music), incorporating digital and physical sales as well as streaming.

Billboard recently became embroiled in controversy when Lil Nas X’s country-trap hit “Old Town Road” was removed from the country chart. A spokesperson was forced to release a statement saying the decision “had absolutely nothing to do with the race of the artist.”