Nielsen Entertainment and Billboard announced they will be shifting 19 genre album charts from sales-based to consumption-based charts that blend album sales, track equivalent sales and streaming equivalent plays. The change will take effect with the tracking week ending Thursday, January 26ths for the Billboard charts dated February 11th.
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The Nielsen Billboard Charts shifting to consumption based charts include:
- Top Country Albums
- Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
- Top R&B Albums
- Top Rap Albums
- Top Latin Albums
- Latin Pop Albums
- Regional Mexican Albums
- Tropical Albums
- Latin Rhythm Albums
- Top Rock Albums
- Alternative Rock Albums
- Hard Rock Albums
- Americana/Folk Albums
- Top Dance/Electronic Albums
- Christian/Gospel Albums
- Top Gospel Albums
- Top Christian Albums
- Top Catalog Albums
- Holiday Albums
The new consumption-based genre album charts will include Catalog titles, says Billboard, which is a change from the current methodology. This finally aligns these charts with the Billboard 200 and provides a more accurate ranking of each genre’s albums consumption.
Billboard and Nielsen will still compile sales-based album charts, but the main chart in each genre in Billboard and/or on Billboard.com will be consumption-based. Chart rank history for each list will be connected with the sales-based rank history dating back to each chart’s origin.
See here for Consumption Charting Rules & Methodology courtesy of A2IM.