One of the most important facts regardless of what platform you use:  DO NOT LOOP THE SONG!

 

Top Billboard Charts that include streamed music:

  • Billboard 200 Albums
    • Billboard combines pure sales, TEA (track equivalent album) and SEA (streaming equivalent album) to calculate the ranking.
  • Hot 100 Songs
  • Artist 100
  • Social 50
  • Streaming Songs

    Streams are counted between Friday-Thursday.

What type of account counts more for music charts?

Spotify Premium, Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, YouTube Premium

  • SEA: Paid streaming accounts carry more weight when it comes to Billboard charts.
    • Paid: 1 album unit –> 1,250 streams
    • Free (ad-supported): 1 album unit –> 3,750 streams
    • Video Streams: 1 album unit –> 3,750 streams
  • TEA:
    • 1 album unit –> 10 digital tracks

Streaming platforms to use:

  • Apple Music
  • Spotify
  • Tidal
  • Amazon Music
  • YouTube

What type of accounts count more for RIAA Certifications?

  • 1 Track Sale –> 150 Streams
  • 10 Track Sales –> 1500 streams
  • 1 album unit –> 10 track sales

RIAA Certifications

Gold — 500,000 units
Platinum — 1,000,000 units
Multi-Platinum — 2,000,000 units+
Diamond — 10,000,000 units +

Apple Music & Spotify Tips:

  • Do not mute the volume. Hook up headphones (and don’t put them on) or turn the volume down very low, but not on mute.
  • Don’t use a VPN. The streams will not count.
  • Use as many devices as your plan will allow (phone, tablet, computer, TV, etc.)
  • 30 Seconds Rule: You must listen to a track at least 30 seconds.
  • Repeat/Loops:
    • No concrete evidence, but create a playlist with the album added to the playlist several times. Add a few other artist in between songs randomly in the playlist
    • Do not shuffle playlists.
  • For those that buy the song from iTunes also, make sure you are playing the Apple Music version or the streaming will not count.

iTunes

  • Buy the song and album. Sales = charts.
  • Do not gift the song to people because it will not count. Give them a gift card and have them buy the song themselves.
  • When buying a whole album, buy the tracks individually. Do not hit “complete my album.”

Amazon Music

  • If you bought the song from the Amazon Digital Store, it counts as a purchase, not stream.

YouTube:

  • Play the song/video from the boys’ official channel only. 
  • Do not play videos from channels/accounts that have re-uploaded the song or music video. It will not count towards their streaming numbers. 
  • Like the video and comment. Do not copy comments.
  • Share the videos to social media. It will help get the video on YouTube’s Trending lists. 
  • Use multiple devices to stream.
  • Log out of your account.
  • Do not mute the songs/videos.
  • You can play the same music video 5 or 6 times in an hour.
  • Make sure to watch 2-3 music videos of other songs after playing the video.
  • You must wait 6-10 mins before playing the music video again.
  • Do not refresh the page or replay the video in a loop.
  • Do not add music videos to a playlist as it will only count once with both free and premium accounts.
  • Do not change the playback speed. 
  • Make sure the video quality is set to 480P or above.
  • Switch the song every so often, along with the tabs you are playing it in so that YouTube will not think you’re a robot.
  • Playing music through YouTube Music is the same as you would through Apple Music, Spotify, etc. It counts as audio streams. 

Shazam

Shazam is a mobile app that recognizes the music that is currently being played around you. For example if you’re playing a song on the radio, your TV, computer etc. Shazams are counted every time the song is recognized by the app or partner apps that use Shazam technology such as Snapchat. 

It is also used to influence and predict future hits by labels and radio station stations. Shazam has its own Top 200 Global chart as well as charts for countries around the world. 

The higher number of Shazams the better chance it has to be added to more playlists on Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music.