YouTube Is Coming Back to the Billboard Charts After a Yearlong Standoff

From the Jan. 16 charts on, 1,500 free, ad-supported streams will equal one album sale on the Billboard 200, down from 2,500.

The first time Billboard counted YouTube plays, hundreds of fan-made videos set to Baauer's "Harlem Shake" shook up the charts, Stereogum recalled. Fans who mostly watch their music instead of paying to stream it are about to get that kind of pull back.

YouTube's plays are headed back into Billboard's rankings in 2027. Lyor Cohen, who runs music for YouTube worldwide, made the announcement Monday on the company's blog, Billboard reported. That's nearly a year after YouTube pulled out. His post came the same day Billboard said it would shrink the gap between paid and free streams in its formula from 1:2.5 to 1:1.5.

In plain numbers, right now it takes 2,500 ad-supported streams of an album's songs to equal one album sale on the Billboard 200. Starting with the charts dated Jan. 16, which cover listening from Jan. 1 to 7, it'll take 1,500, Billboard said. Paid streams stay at 1,000 per unit, and the new weighting covers Billboard's song charts as well as its album charts.

That gap is the whole fight. Billboard narrowed its ratio from 1:3 to 1:2.5 on Dec. 16, 2025, and YouTube announced the next day that it would pull its numbers from every Billboard chart, in the U.S. and worldwide, Billboard reported at the time. YouTube's plays dropped out starting with the charts dated Jan. 31.

In that December post, Cohen wrote that the formula "doesn't reflect how fans engage with music today and ignores the massive engagement from fans who don't have a subscription." On Monday, he added two lines to the same post: "Billboard's new methodology better reflects how fans engage with music today across both subscription and ad-supported services."

He didn't get everything he asked for. In December, Cohen's position was that paid and free streams should count the same, and Hits Daily Double noted that the new formula still doesn't make them equal. Pitchfork said it isn't clear why YouTube settled for 1:1.5 and that it had asked the company for comment.

Still, the number moved a lot. Until mid-January of this year, an album unit took 3,750 ad-supported streams. Next January, it'll take 1,500.

Underneath the chart talk is an argument about money. Billboard says its ratios come out of a yearly review it does with Luminate of the revenue from paid and ad-supported streaming. YouTube's free tier has its critics. In a Billboard guest column, Irving Azoff called the service "by far the worst offender" on artist royalties, Billboard reported.

Azoff figured that the $8 billion YouTube said it paid the music business over a year came to about 13% of its revenue. By Billboard's account, the drop to 1,500 streams is a revenue decision. Stereogum's reading is simpler: Billboard relented.

So this is a comeback, not a first. Billboard says it was the first chart anywhere to count YouTube. The Hot 100 and the rest of the song charts picked up YouTube data in 2013, and the Billboard 200 followed six years later. Before YouTube, watching a video counted for nothing. Stereogum pointed out that plays on MTV, VH1, BET and CMT never moved the charts, even when those channels were shaping what the country listened to.

When YouTube walked out in December, a Billboard spokesperson said the company hoped YouTube would reconsider. It has, and Stereogum reported that YouTube's plays will count starting with the chart dated Jan. 16.

Source: stereogum.com, retrieved November 10, 2026. Other sources: Billboard, Billboard (2), Billboard (3), hitsdailydouble.com, pitchfork.com.