Billboard has been in the process of changing the way they rate their songs for a couple years now, adding the digital analytic’s as part of the formula. After adding YouTube as part of their charts, they have now added the Twitter Trending 140, Spotify, Beats Music, Rdio, Rhapsody and Google Play streams as a portion of their counted as sales.
Billboard will count 1,500 song streams as a sale on the Billboard 200. 10 downloads of individual tracks will count for the album rankings. With album sales becoming at an all time low, Billboard has finally shifted toward the digital side. Welcome.