Billboard’s new global music charts include Australian data

MRC has announced the launch of new Billboard Global Charts, taking into account worldwide streams and download sales.

The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. are being pitched as the first authoritative charts ranking the top songs globally

The new charts are powered by MRC Data/Nielsen Music’s newly launched Music Connect product, which claims to be the industry’s premier music measurement and analytics platform.

The charts take into account streaming and sales activity from more than 200 territories from around the world, including Australia.

“As the steward of the definitive industry charts, we’re thrilled to unveil our global charts which give the industry insights into the most powerful artists worldwide, what songs have an international impact, as well as what songs may start trending outside of the United States,” MRC Data and MRC Media & Info President Deanna Brown said.

In a press release, MRC revealed that chart rankings are based on a weighted formula, incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of leading audio and video music services, plus download sales from top music retailers across the globe.

Streams from paid subscriptions will hold more weight than those from free subscriptions.

“Billboard and MRC Data are proud to present charts that are reflective of a world view and we are committed to the continued expansion of territories and digital service providers contributing to the global charts to further expand that reach,” Silvio Pietroluongo, Billboard SVP, Charts & Data Development, said.

While Billboard didn’t go into further detail about how many paid streams will equal one song sale, it’s safe to assume that the formula will be similar to the way the Billboard Hot 100 is calculated, which, as Vulture points out, is 125 paid streams or 375 free streams equals one song sale.

But unlike the Billboard Hot 100, the new charts won’t take into account radio spins, with a rep for MRC noting that “radio is not reliably measured at this time in many territories and, even if tracked, is not done consistently from country to country.”

The first edition of the charts sees ‘WAP’ by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion debut at #1 on the Billboard Global 200, while ‘Hawaii’ by Maluma kicks off as the #1 song on the Global Excl U.S. Chart.

The charts took into account data from September 4 through 10, The charts will be published on Billboard every Tuesday.

Rolling Stone launched its own music charts in 2019, with its point of difference being daily updates, and with data provided by Alpha Data.

In Australia, The Music Network has published the official Australian Airplay Charts for over 20 years, while the ARIA Charts are compiled based on sales and now, streaming performance.