How the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 Charts Work

For implicit 2 decades, Keith Caulfield has been an integral portion of the Billboard charts team, tabulating which singles and albums are the astir fashionable successful the United States. To beryllium much specific, Caulfield — managing manager of charts and information operations — looks aft the Billboard 200, the modular bearer for an album’s show since it was archetypal introduced successful 1956.

In the years since the Billboard 200 — and the Hot 100, Billboard‘s premiere singles illustration — debuted, a batch has changed successful the euphony industry. Music fans went from buying vinyl records astatine carnal stores, to buying 8tracks, cassettes and CDs, to downloading singles online, to streaming euphony for a level monthly rate. To support up with however radical are listening, Caulfield and the charts squad astatine Billboard person evolved the rules a fig of times to equilibrium the incorporation of caller media portion inactive staying existent to the origins of the charts.

In this wide-ranging speech connected Billboard’s new euphony concern podcast, On the Record, Caulfield discusses however to comparison illustration show successful the past versus the present, wherefore albums are often longer than ever and wherefore artists are releasing truthful galore medium variants. He besides offers immoderate illustration amusive facts that mightiness travel arsenic a surprise, discusses the powerfulness of algorithms to propulsion songs to caller audiences, and explains however the charts are keeping up with an progressively fragmented taste landscape.

The interrogation tin beryllium watched successful afloat beneath oregon listened to astatine this link.

To drawback up connected past episodes of On the Record, including interviews with guests similar Atlantic CEO Elliot Grainge, apical capitalist Matt Pincus, hitmaker Amy Allen, Spotify exec Sam Duboff, caput of Sphere booking Josephine Vaccarello and more, click here.

This podcast is simply a co-production of Billboard and Sickbird Productions.