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The Billboard charts are music sales and airplay reports distributed to the general public by Billboard magazine. Billboard is considered the foremost authority worldwide in these song sales and airplay reports, or charts.

On January 4, 1936, Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade and on July 20, 1940 the first Music Popularity Chart was calculated. Since 1958 the Hot 100 has been published, combining single sales and radio airplay.

Methodology of its charts

Currently, Billboard utilizes a system called Nielsen Soundscan to track sales of singles, albums, videos and DVDs. Essentially, it's a system that registers sales when the product is purchased at the cash register of SoundScan-enabled stores. Billboard also uses a system called Broadcast Data Systems, or BDS, which they own as a subsidiary, to track radio airplay. Each song has a musical "fingerprint" which, when played on a radio station that is contracted to use BDS, is detected. These detections are added up every week among all radio stations to determine airplay points. Arbitron statistics are also factored in to give "weight" to airplay based on audience size and time-of-day.

Each of Billboard's charts use this basic formula. What separates the charts is what stations or stores each chart uses - each musical genre having a core audience or retail group. Each genre's department at Billboard is headed up by a chart manager, who makes these determinations.

For many years, a song had to be commercially available as a single to be considered for any of Billboard's charts. At the time, instead of using SoundScan or BDS, Billboard obtained its data from manual reports filled out by radio stations and stores. In 1990, the country singles chart was the first chart to use SoundScan and BDS. They were followed by the Hot 100 and the R&B chart in 1991. Today, all of Billboard's charts use this technology.

Before September 1995, singles were allowed to chart in the week they first went on sale based on airplay points alone. The policy was changed in September 1995 to only allow a single to debut after a full week of sales on combined sales and airplay points. This allowed several tracks to debut at number one.

In December 1998, the policy was further modified to allow tracks to chart on the basis of airplay alone without a commercial release. This change was made to reflect the changing realities of the music business. Previous to this, several substantial radio and MTV hits had not appeared on the Billboard chart at all, because companies chose not to release them as standalone singles, in hopes that their unavailability would spur greater album sales. Not offering a popular song to the public as a single was unheard of before the 1970s. Among the many pre-1999 songs that had ended up in this Hot 100 limbo were Nirvana's "All Apologies", the Cardigans' "Lovefool", Smash Mouth's "Walking on the Sun", OMC's "How Bizarre", Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta", Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity", Everclear's "Santa Monica", Stone Temple Pilots' "Interstate Love Song", Fastball's "The Way", the Smashing Pumpkins' "Disarm", Veruca Salt's "Seether", and The Cranberries' "Zombie", as well as numerous Green Day, Live, Offspring, No Doubt, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mariah Carey, Alanis Morissette and Foo Fighters tracks.

Starting in 2005, Billboard changed its methodology to allow paid digital downloads from digital music stores such as iTunes to chart with or without the help of radio airplay.

A variety of charts

Originally, Billboard had separate charts for different measures of popularity, including disk jockey playings, juke box playings, and best selling records in stores. There was also a composite standing chart compiled by combining those, which gradually grew to become a top 100, the ancestor of the current Hot 100 chart. The juke box chart ceased publication after the June 17, 1957 issue, the disk jockey chart, after the July 28, 1958 issue, and the best seller chart, after the October 13, 1958 issue. The July 28, 1958 issue was also the last issue in which the composite chart was called the Top 100; the following week was the start of the Hot 100 title.

Currently, Billboard has many different charts with the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 being the most famous. Billboard also has charts for the following music styles: rock, country, dance, bluegrass, jazz, classical, R&B, rap, electronic, pop, Latin, Christian music, comedy albums, and even for ringtones for cell phones.

At year's end

At the end of each year, Billboard tallies the results of all of its charts, and the top single/album/artist(s) in each of those charts is awarded in the form of the annual Billboard Music Awards, held in December. The results are also published in Billboard's year-end issue, and heard on year-end edition of its American Top 40 and American Country Countdown radio broadcasts. The year-end charts cover a period from the first week of December of the previous year to the last week of November of the respective year.[1]

Singles and tracks

The Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly. Chart rankings are based on airplay and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the airplay tracking-week runs from Wednesday to Tuesday. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by Billboard on Thursday. Each chart is dated with the "week-ending" date of the following Saturday.

Hot 100 Airplay

The Hot 100 Airplay is a chart released weekly which measures radio airplay, and is one of the three component charts, along with the Hot 100 Singles Sales and the Hot Digital Songs charts, that determine the chart positions of singles on the Billboard Hot 100,

Hot 100 Singles Sales

The Hot 100 Singles Sales (also known as Singles Sales) is a chart released weekly which measures sales of commercial singles and is one of three component charts, along with the Hot 100 Airplay and the Hot Digital Songs charts, that determine the chart positions of singles on the Billboard Hot 100.

Hot 100 Singles Recurrents

Hot 100 Singles Recurrents is a music chart which ranks singles that have reached Billboard recurrent criteria.

Hot 100 Recurrent Airplay

Hot 100 Recurrent Airplay follows the same recurrent rules as the Hot 100. When a song reaches recurrent status on the Hot 100, it is simultaneously removed from Hot 100 Airplay and moved to this chart.

Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles

Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles is a chart which comprises twenty-five positions that represent songs that are making progress to chart on the main singles chart, the Billboard Hot 100. Many times, singles halt their progress at this chart, and never debut on the Hot 100.

The Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart can also be seen as a twenty-five position addendum to the Hot 100, but the chart only represents the twenty-five songs below position number 100 which have not yet appeared on the Hot 100. If a song were to be ranked at number 99 but then declined the following week to a position that is comparable to number 105, it would not be eligible for the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart because it already appeared on the Hot 100.

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, formerly known as Top Soul Singles, Top Black Singles, and Top R&B Singles (before the hip hop term was added in the late 1990s), is a chart used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African-American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, doo wop, soul, and funk, it is today dominated by contemporary R&B and hip hop. It lists the most popular R&B and hip hop songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio stations and sales in urban record stores.

Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop

Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop is an airplay chart which uses the same formula as the Mainstream Top 40. Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop chart is similar to the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart both measure the airplay of songs played on Urban stations playing urban music, the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay (like the Hot 100 Airplay) measures airplay based on statistical (audience) impressions, while the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop chart uses the number of total detections (spins)

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay is the airplay component chart of Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. It is not the R&B subset of Hot 100 Airplay, but rather a separate panel of R&B stations in urban markets used.

Hot Adult R&B Airplay

Hot Adult R&B Airplay lists the 40 most popular R&B songs played on urban adult contemporary radio stations across the United States.

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales is the sales component chart of Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. It is not the R&B subset of Hot 100 Singles Sales, but rather a separate panel of sales of commercial singles in the urban market. Due to the decline of standard commercial CD singles for the urban market, the chart is most often filled with the sales of 12" Maxi Singles, a format popular in urban markets. ta geulle connard

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Recurrents

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Recurrents chart follows the same recurrent rules as the Billboard Hot 100. Songs which have appeared on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart for twenty weeks and fallen below position fifty are moved to this chart.

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Recurrent Airplay

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Recurrent Airplay follows the same recurrent rules as the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay. When a song reaches recurrent status on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks, it is simultaneously removed from R&B/Hip-Hop Recurrent Airplay and moved to this chart.

Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles

Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles is a chart released weekly which comprises twenty-five positions that represent songs that are making progress to chart on the main R&B/hip-hop chart, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. Many times, singles halt their progress at this chart and never debut on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart.

Hot Rap Tracks

Hot Rap Tracks is a chart released weekly which lists the most popular rap songs, calculated weekly by airplay on rhythmic and urban radio stations and sales in hip hop-focused or exclusive markets.

Pop 100

The Pop 100 is a songs chart created in February 2005 which ranks songs based on mainstream radio airplay, singles sales, and digital downloads.

Pop 100 Airplay

Pop 100 Airplay is a weekly chart which measures mainstream radio airplay, and is one of the three component charts, along with Hot 100 Singles Sales and Hot Digital Songs, that determine the chart positions of singles on the Pop 100 chart.

Hot Digital Songs

Hot Digital Songs ranks the best-selling digital sales, which have been incorporated into many of Billboard's music single charts. It was decided to do so mainly because the digital market was more reliable than the unpopular commercial single-sales market.

Hot Digital Tracks

Hot Digital Tracks ranks the best selling digital tracks and is not to be confused with the Hot Digital Songs chart, which combines different versions of songs for a summarized figure (for example remixes, "explicit" or "clean" versions, and/or any other alternate versions can chart separately here, whereas all versions of the same track occupy only one position on Hot Digital Songs)

Top 40 Mainstream

Top 40 Mainstream (often also called Mainstream Top 40) is an airplay chart which is often mistaken and confused with the Pop 100 Airplay chart. Whereas the Top 40 Mainstream charts and Pop 100 Airplay both measure the airplay of songs played on Mainstream stations playing pop-oriented music, the Pop 100 Airplay (like the Hot 100 Airplay) measures airplay based on statistical (audience) impressions, while the Top 40 Mainstream uses the number of total detections (spins).

Rhythmic Top 40

Rhythmic Top 40, also known as Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio and "Rhythmic Crossover", is a music radio format that includes of a mix of dance, upbeat rhythmic pop, hip hop and R&B hits. While most rhythmic stations' playlists comprise that mentioned above, there are some tend to lean very urban with current hip hop, urban pop and R&B hits that gain mainstream appeal. The chart corresponds to what is played on Rhythmic radio stations.

Adult Top 40

Adult Top 40 is a format which is geared towards an adult audience who are not into rock music, teen pop, dance music, hip hop, modern rock or slower adult contemporary fare. The chart roughly corresponds to what is played on Hot Adult Contemporary stations.

Top 40 Adult Recurrents

Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks

Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks (formerly known as Adult Contemporary Singles) lists the most popular songs which include adult contemporary and pop songs played on "lite-pop" and adult contemporary radio stations across the United States.

Hot Adult Contemporary Recurrents

Hot Adult Contemporary Recurrents (formerly known as Adult Contemporary Recurrents) lists the most popular songs played on adult contemporary radio stations which have reached recurrent status.

Triple A Tracks

Triple A Tracks is a music chart which lists the forty most-played songs on Adult album alternative (also known as "Triple A") radio most of which are alternative rock songs that skew towards an older audience. It is a companion to both the Adult Top 40 and Modern Rock Tracks charts[2]. Billboard Radio Monitor had published a chart since the early 2000's until the publication merged with Radio & Records. Billboard itself published its first chart on July 10, 2008.

Modern Rock Tracks

Modern Rock Tracks is a music chart that has appeared in Billboard since September 10 1988. It lists the forty most-played songs on modern rock radio, most of which are alternative rock songs. The chart was introduced as a companion to the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and its creation was prompted by the explosion of alternative music on American radio in the late 1980s.

Mainstream Rock Tracks

Mainstream Rock Tracks is a ranking of the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that includes stations that play primarily rock music but are not modern rock (i.e. alternative), which are counted in the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The two charts were formed in 1988 when Billboard split its album-oriented rock chart to reflect the increased specialization in radio station formats. Songs that charted on the AOR chart prior to this date are considered to have charted on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a 60-position chart which lists the most popular country songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales. Currently, the chart does not count digital downloads towards chart tabulation.

Hot Country Singles Sales

Hot Country Recurrents

Hot Dance Club Play

Hot Dance Club Play is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs. It is compiled by Billboard exclusively from playlists submitted by nightclub disc jockeys who must apply and meet certain criteria to become "Billboard-reporting DJs."

Hot Dance Airplay

Hot Dance Airplay is a monitored dance music radio chart which came about as a result of the small but influential impact of dance music on the radio in the United States and the stations that program it. The chart made its debut on October 17, 2003 with "Just The Way You Are" by Milky being the first number one song.

Hot Dance Singles Sales

Hot Dance Singles Sales (formerly known as Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales) is a chart which measures the sale of commercially released singles in the dance music market, including remixes. It was formerly known as Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales, when the chart was restricted to sales of the 12" Maxi Single and CD Maxi Single format, but in recent years, singles only released in the CD Single format have apparently been counted too.

Global Dance Tracks

Global Dance Tracks is a weekly international survey of the songs that are most popular in dance clubs globally. It is compiled by Billboard exclusively from playlists submitted by nightclub disc jockeys who must apply and meet certain criteria to become "Billboard-reporting DJs."

Hot Latin Tracks

Hot Latin Tracks is the most important music chart for Spanish language singles in the American music market. It was established by Billboard in the 1970s, when the music labels and the magazine realized that Spanish-language songs had a great potential in the American music market.

Latin Pop Airplay

Latin Regional Mexican Airplay

Latin Tropical Airplay

Latin Rhythm Airplay

The Latin Rhythm Airplay chart comprises singles and tracks from artists who represent the Hispanic Rhythmic/Hurban genre, which includes Reggaeton, Hispanic R&B/Hip-Hop, Rhythmic Pop/Dance and crossovers from English-language and/or bilingual acts. This chart came about as a result of radio stations tapping into the growing second and third generation Hispanic audience who wanted a Spanish-speaking or bilingual alternative to the (English-language Mainstream, Rhythmic, and R&B/Hip-Hop) formats that they felt would represent them.

Hot Christian Songs

Hot Christian Adult Contemporary

Hot Gospel Tracks

Canadian Hot 100

The Canadian Hot 100 is a measure of digital singles sales and radio airplay in Canada. It is formatted similarly to the U.S.-based Hot 100 and premiered in the issue dated June 16, 2007.

Hot Videoclips

Hot Ringtones

Hot Ringtones is a weekly chart that first appeared in the November 6, 2004 issue of Billboard. The chart comprises forty positions, and the songs are ranked by the weekly sales of their polyphonic ringtones for mobile phones. The chart is compiled by Nielsen Mobile. The data is collected from all major ringtone distributors and wireless carriers and represents over 90% market share. [3]

Hot RingMasters

Hot RingMasters is a weekly chart that first appeared just recently on December 1 2006. The chart is compiled by Nielsen Mobile. The chart comprises forty positions, and the songs are ranked by the weekly sales of their master ringtones for mobile phones. The first ever number 1 master ringtone was Smack That by Akon. [4]

Smooth Jazz Songs

Canadian Singles Chart

The most popular physical singles sold in Canada, published every Thursday. The chart is supposed to have 50 positions, however only 10 to 20 positions are often occupied, because of the declining market for physical singles in Canada.

Hot Canadian Digital Singles

Eurochart Hot 100 Singles

Japan Hot 100

Albums

The Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a listing of the 200 highest selling music albums in the United States, published weekly in Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Often, a musical group will be remembered by its "number ones", those of their albums that outsold all others during at least one week. The chart was first known as Top Pop Albums from the mid-1950s until 1983 when it changed its name to the Billboard 200.

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Catalog Albums

Top Rock Albums

Top Hard Rock Albums

Top Modern Rock/Alternative Albums

Top Country Albums

Top Bluegrass Albums

Top Electronic Albums

Top Electronic Albums is a twenty-five position albums chart published weekly which ranks the top selling electronic music albums in the United States.

Top Independent Albums

Top Pop Catalog Albums

Top Pop Catalog Albums is a weekly albums chart produced by Billboard magazine which ranks the best selling catalog titles, regardless of genre. Billboard defines a catalog title as one that is more than two years old and that has fallen below position 100 on the Billboard 200. Albums meeting these criteria are removed from the Billboard 200 and begin a new chart run on Top Pop Catalog Albums.

Top Latin Albums

Top Latin Albums is a chart which ranks Spanish language music albums. Like Billboard's other albums charts, it is based on sales, with totals provided by Nielsen Soundscan.

Top Latin Pop Albums

Latin Music Rocks

Top Regional Mexican Albums

Top Tropical Albums

Top Latin Rhythmic Albums

Top Rap Albums

Top Compilation Albums

Top Cast Albums

Top Cast Albums is a chart that was added to Billboard's listings January 12, 2006, measuring sales of cast recordings.

Top Comedy Albums

Top Classical Albums

Top Classical Crossover Albums

Top Classical Budget Albums

Top Classical Midline Albums

Top Holiday Albums

Top Canadian Albums

Top Blues Albums

Top Christian Albums

Top Contemporary Jazz

Top Gospel Albums

Top Jazz Albums

Top Kid Audio

Top Kid Audio chart records the sales of children's music albums. In order to be eligible to chart, the album has to be marketed and meant for kids.

Top New Age Albums

Top Reggae Albums

Top World Music Albums

European Top 100 Albums

Top Soundtracks

Billboard Comprehensive Albums

Billboard Comprehensive Albums is a weekly albums chart produced by Billboard magazine that ranks the biggest selling albums in the United States regardless of the product's age or method of sales.

Albums which are over two years old (from the date of release) and have dropped below position 100 on The Billboard 200 are removed from that chart and placed on the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart.

Billboard Comprehensive Albums includes any album, old or new, sold anywhere. Generally, the Billboard Comprehensive Albums is nearly identical to the Billboard 200, with the exception of approximately twenty to thirty "catalog" albums that still sell well enough to be one of the top 200-selling albums in any given week.

Billboard Comprehensive Albums is not published in the print edition of Billboard magazine. Instead, it can be viewed via paid subscription to Billboard's online service.

Top Internet Albums

Top Heatseekers

Top Heatseekers is a weekly albums chart introduced by Billboard magazine in 1993 whose purpose is to highlight sales by new and developing musical recording artists. Albums appearing on Top Heatseekers may also concurrently appear on The Billboard 200.

Top Heatseekers contains fifty chart positions. Although the chart's policies have changed slightly over the years, its current rules for an album's eligibility to enter Top Heatseekers are as follows (per Billboard):

"The best-selling albums by new and developing acts, defined as those who have never appeared in the top 100 of The Billboard 200. If a Heatseekers title reaches that level, it and the act's subsequent albums are immediately ineligible to appear on the Heatseekers chart."

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+The Billboard charts are music sales and airplay reports distributed to the general public by Billboard magazine. Billboard is considered the foremost authority worldwide in these song sales and airplay reports, or charts.
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