The Billboard Hot 100 music tracks comes out today, just as it does every Wednesday. Today’s list is different. Not only has Fun. re-captured the number one spot from Kelly Clarkson, but today is the first list that tallies plays on streaming services like Spotify, Rdio, and Rhapsody and brings them into the equation. According to the Wall Street Journal, “The other services added to the magazine’s chart data include Slacker Inc., Cricket Communications Inc.’s Muve Music and MOG Inc.” Billboard has been testing the process of using streaming data, and it hasn’t seen much of a difference in song ranking, except for a little bump in electronic dance music, which is less frequently purchased but nonetheless streamed. Again from the Journal
For the week ended March 4, songs by two popular electronic acts—M83 and Skrillex—would have made it into the lower reaches of the Hot 100 if streaming-music data had been counted, but they didn’t appear in the chart as published in Billboard. Still, those songs’ theoretical positions—No. 77 and No. 85, respectively—highlight that the new chart represents a tweak, not an overhaul. Otherwise, the ranking changes are mostly subtle shifts up or down a few notches. In the most recent week, none of the top four songs would have been affected.
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