Billboard Will Stop Counting Artist's Website Sales Towards Hot 100

In a surprise announcement, Billboard confirmed that it will no longer count digitally downloaded singles from the artist's own website towards its total sales for the Hot 100. The decision was announced yesterday and has taken effect today. This means that the Hot 100 revealed next week will be the last one where website sales will count towards overall sales. While the decision's biggest victims are predominately K-Pop acts like BTS, there is one hip-hop artist who has relied on the website sales tactic more than anyone else, Nicki Minaj.

Nicki's stans, referred to as the Barbz have used mass buying tactics to send her music up the Billboard charts repeatedly. The most notable example was her 2020 collaborative single with 6ix9ine, "Trollz." The song was purchased hundreds of thousands of times through Minaj's website by fans. This led it to a debut at the very top of the charts in its first week. The song quickly tumbled down the charts in successive weeks, however, as its number-one debut didn't accurately reflect its popularity. Following 6ix9ine's run of singles in 2020 Billboard made changes to the way they calculated album sales. They banned so-called "bundles" which let fans include album sales with merch. Also starting today, bundles will be reintroduced to the Billboard 200 formula. As long as a bundle provides fans with a physical copy of the album they're purchasing it will count.

One of the biggest stories on Billboard's charts this year relates directly to hip hop. The year is halfway over and there hasn't been a rap song hit number one on the Hot 100 or a rap album hit number one on the Billboard 200. Some have come close on both charts. The highest-selling rap album of the year so far Lil Durk's Almost Healed debuted at number 2. Drake's single "Search & Rescue:" also debuted at number 2 on the Hot 100. Both were kept off the top of the charts by Morgan Wallen, whose new album and single "Last Night" are having one of the most dominant runs in chart history.

Initially it looked like a rap album could finally challenge Wallen for the top spot. Young Thug's Business Is Business was originally expected to sell 110k in its first week. After updated projections dropped that down to 87k it seems that Wallen will rule for another week. What do you think of the changes Billboard made to the Hot 100 and Billboard 200? Let us know in the comment section below.

About The Author

Lavender Alexandria is a music and culture journalist based in Los Angeles, California. She’s covered dozens of musical genres and styles from the most mainstream to the most experimental and underground on her blog and accompanying YouTube channel that looks at music, pop culture, and Billboard charts since 2017: Lav’s Music Corner. Lavender has produced editorial and listicle content both in written and video form over the past far years and has also interviewed up-and-coming artists like Censored Dialogue. Her experiences covering culture have taken her from Hyperpop parties in LA to underground rap shows in Atlanta, to DIY punk shows in Charlotte. Lavender has also written for iHeartRadio, covering some of the biggest artists in Hip Hop such as Ice Spice, Drake, Doja Cat and Cardi B. She also has bylines with ScreenRant and continues to write for Ringtone magazine. Lavender is a lifelong Charlotte Hornets fan and her favorite rap artists include Clipping, Little Simz, Earl Sweatshirt, and Kendrick Lamar.

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