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Billboard to Partner With Spotify

April 21, 2016

It was announced today that Billboard has named Spotify as their exclusive streaming partner. This will enable Spotify to be the official provider of “playback of more than 75 Billboard music charts”, as well as a new editorial feature focused on Spotify’s increasingly popular New Music Fridays playlist and several ‘Spotify-centric tallies.’

These three new Spotify powered song charts – to be featured on Billboard.com with a weekly cadence – include:

  • Viral 50 – This chart will mirror Spotify’s now-well-known US Viral 50 playlist.
  • Velocity – This chart will contain 30 editorially selected songs whose popularity is experiencing rapid growth relative to the previous week.
  • Rewind – This chart will feature five songs from each decade – 1960s-2000s – ranked by popularity and ‘weekly revival.’

On the other end of this partnership, 75+ Billboard charts will be available on Spotify via Billboard’s profile.

Some of you as artists may be wondering what this means why it matters. While not everyone involved with making music reads Billboard religiously in 2016, the publication has been one of the most historically influential resources for fans, artists and industry folks alike. As time has waned on, Billboard has adapted not only by offering charts that reflect the popularity of releases, but also by providing industry-minded insight, commentary and news content that have established them as a thought leader in the music space.

Now, to most of us, that’s not news. But when you think about the way we (musicians, journalists, industry people, and fans) have remained fixated on the future of music streaming, the announcement of Spotify – a leader in world of streaming globally – and Billboard partnering is pretty big stuff!

While the educated music fan already has their streaming preference, (many of them card-carrying Spotify Premium subscribers), this partnership further solidifies not only that streaming is here to stay, but that leaders like Spotify are going to continue to pave the way in making sure even more music fans can appreciate the benefits of it.

Read more about the Spotify/Billboard partnership here.

As the world of digital music continue to evolve, we’ll continue to keep you as informed!

Tags: billboard billboard charts digital music featuring music business music industry music industry news partnership rewind spotify streaming velocity viral 50