Plurk paste

Here's a summary of what happened this week, in case some folks don't understand it yet.

Old Rules: Positions on charts like Country Songs and R&B/Hip-Hop Songs are determined by airplay supplied by Nielsen BDS. The panel for these airplay stations are ONLY genre specific, which means that for R&B/Hip-Hop Songs ONLY R&B and Hip Hop stations account for the airplay.

The flaws of the old system are particularly noticeable on Latin Songs, where English spoken tunes like "My Heart Will Go On" went to #1 when it isn't really a Latin Song at all. But due to it's massive airplay, it topped that tally.

New Rules: Positions on the charts above are determined by airplay supplied by Nielsen BDS. The panel now is indeed the Hot 100 panel. This is how these songs gather the so called "Crossover points". Digital Sales and streaming now account into a song's ranking unlike before.

At the end of the day, Billboard ultimately determines what is and is not a specific genre. For example, Billboard classifies Taylor Swift's songs as Country, hence her inclusion on Country Songs. They do not classify any of her songs to be R&B, hence why she isn't on that tally.

So, it's the same method as used to determine R&B Albums & Country Albums. However, the only difference is that we're talking about Songs. Plus, the charts will slow down in some ways.