Start of the New Year Marks Significant Changes to Billboard Album Charts

Beginning January 18, 2025, Billboard will introduce substantial updates to its weekly album charts, enhancing the way music popularity is measured. This transformation will reflect the Luminate tracking week ending January 9. In this update, six longstanding genre-specific album charts will shift from traditional sales-only rankings to more comprehensive consumption-based tallies, significantly expanding their reach. Additionally, three existing consumption-based charts will also see an increase in their rankings, allowing for a broader representation of popular music.

Understanding Consumption-Based Album Rankings: A Closer Look at the Metrics

The newly adopted consumption-based album charts will rank the most popular titles of the week based on equivalent album units earned, as compiled by Luminate. These units comprise a combination of album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit is calculated as one album sale, or the equivalent of 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported streams or 1,250 paid or subscription streams of songs from an album. This approach provides a more accurate reflection of an album’s popularity in the current music landscape.

Tracing the Evolution of Billboard Charts: A Journey Towards Comprehensive Rankings

The first transition to a consumption-based ranking system began with the all-genre Billboard 200 chart in December 2014, marking a pivotal moment in the evolution of Billboard rankings. Following this, a majority of Billboard’s album genre charts switched to consumption-based rankings in January 2017. With the upcoming updates in January 2025, virtually all of Billboard’s genre album charts will adopt this modernized ranking system, ensuring that they accurately reflect the current trends in music consumption.

Retirement of the Heatseekers Albums Chart: New Pathways for Emerging Artists

As part of these updates, the Heatseekers Albums chart, which previously highlighted the week’s most popular albums by emerging and developing acts, will be retired starting with the January 18, 2025-dated list. However, Billboard will continue to support new and developing artists through its weekly Emerging Artists chart, which was launched in 2017. This chart ranks the most popular developing artists of the week, utilizing the same methodology as the Billboard Artist 100, which measures artist activity across various Billboard charts, including the Hot 100 and Billboard 200. Importantly, the Emerging Artists chart excludes acts that have achieved a top 25 entry on either the Hot 100 or Billboard 200, as well as those with two or more top 10 hits on Billboard’s genre charts.

Overview of the Upcoming Changes to Billboard Album Genre Charts

Here’s a detailed recap of the changes to Billboard’s album genre charts starting January 18, 2025:

Bluegrass Albums – Transitioning from a 10-position sales-only chart to a more robust 15-position consumption-based chart, now ranking albums by equivalent album units.

Blues Albums – Also shifting from a 10-position sales-only chart to a 15-position consumption-based chart, reflecting the same equivalent album units ranking system.

Cast Albums – Moving from a 10-position sales-only chart to a 15-position consumption-based chart, now ranking albums by equivalent album units.

Classical Crossover Albums – Transitioning from a 10-position sales-only chart to a 15-position consumption-based chart, ranking based on equivalent album units.

Traditional Classical Albums – Shifting from a 10-position sales-only chart to a 15-position consumption-based chart, ranking albums by equivalent album units.

Kid Albums – Expanding from a 15-position sales-only chart to a more extensive 25-position consumption-based chart, ranking albums by equivalent album units.

New Age Albums – Expanding from 10 to 15 positions, remaining a consumption-based chart that ranks albums by equivalent album units.

Tropical Albums – Increasing from 20 to 25 positions, continuing as a consumption-based chart, ranking albums by equivalent album units.

World Albums – Expanding from 15 to 25 positions, this chart remains a consumption-based ranking by equivalent album units.

The rankings for all the aforementioned genre consumption album charts will include both current and catalog titles, providing a comprehensive view of music popularity across various genres.