Billboard 200
Billboard 200 is the week’s most popular albums as compiled by Luminate. Chart position is determined by blending traditional (pure) album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).
Pure album sales: the amount of album direct purchases (physical & digital)
Track equivalent album (TEA): 10 song sales from an album = 1 album unit
Streaming equivalent album (SEA): 1,250 premium streams OR 2,750 free streams = 1 album unit
IMPORTANT: Only US / PR ATINY can directly contribute to Billboard 200.
Streaming
Streaming is one of the easiest ways for ATINY to contribute for Billboard 200. Premium streams count more than free (ad-supported plan) streams, so we highly recommend purchasing a premium plan or signing up for a free premium trial. We typically achieve our Billboard 200 rankings because of strong physical purchasing, but our streaming numbers have been improving with each comeback!
Streaming service recommendations
SPOTIFY – TOP RECOMMENDATION
Spotify is one of the easiest services to use because you have such a wide variety of streaming options.
Want to make your own playlist and listen? No problem (just follow playlist guidelines!)! Want to use playlists created by fanbases? No problem, there’s so many to choose from that follow all the guidelines! Need to be away from your device(s) for a while but still want to get streams in? No problem, just join the ATINY channel on Stationhead, and one of our fanbases will stream for you!
Spotify is also highly recommended because you can maximize your streams with this service – Spotify streams count toward all US charts, global charts (like the Spotify Global 200 debut we’re chasing), and even some Korean charts to help with music show wins.
There is a general consensus that only a certain number of streams from one account will count for charts each day for a particular track, so you can have multiple accounts (premium or free) and swap accounts after about 10 plays of the title track (in a proper playlist/playlists) to maximize the streams going toward the chart.
APPLE MUSIC – TOP RECOMMENDATION
Apple Music is tied with Spotify for our top recommendation because it’s just as easy to use.
Apple Music may be better in some regards because it is the only streaming service that has only premium plans, which may lead to less filtering. You have the same options of creating your own playlists, using playlists created by fanbases, or joining other ATINY on Stationhead to get all your streaming in!
While there isn’t a major global chart for Apple Music that we’re targeting at the moment, you can still maximize your streams using it – Apple Music streams count toward all US charts, global Apple Music charts, and even some Korean charts to help with music show wins.
YOUTUBE – 2nd RECOMMENDATION
Both YouTube (MVs) and YouTube Music count for Billboard charts. There are some additional rules with these to help ensure all your streams count as quickly as possible, and each service has some limitations. However, these two services together give you a similar set of options to our dual #1 choices – and if you have a YouTube premium subscription, you automatically have access to YouTube Music!
YouTube (MVs) – For watching the MV, you have the option to manually stream on your own (watching the MV then about 15 minutes of other videos before watching the MV again). It’s highly recommended to truly manually stream and search each video individually, watch it, then search the next individually. Fanbases will provide manual streaming lists that you can just follow if you don’t want to keep track of all the timing. With YouTube, you can also join Scener parties, and the host will stream for you!
YouTube Music – YouTube Music allows you to create your own playlists or use playlists created by fanbases to stream the focused track. It unfortunately does not have a fully hands-free streaming method….but it does have the (not Billboard chart-affecting) benefit of being able to use all of the members’ special clips and other releases as fillers!
PANDORA, AMAZON MUSIC, QOBUZ, TIDAL, DEEZER, ETC. – LOWEST RECOMMENDATION
At this moment, all other streaming services are recommended at the same level.
Pandora only counts for US charts and seems to be filtered at the same rate as other streaming services so it is a low priority for us. Previously, Pandora was highly recommended because it was less filtered and you used to be able to loop tracks; however, this has changed.
Looping tracks actively harms our streaming numbers because those are wasted streams that will not count.
Streaming Strategy
Stream on the number of accounts you can handle while still taking care of yourself. We always need more streamers, so please spread the word and help bring people on board! Every stream counts – it’s great if you’re able to stream for a large chunk of the day, and it’s still great if you can stream for only a few hours (and honestly, if you can only listen to the title track a couple times sporadically throughout the day, that’s still great, too!). We want to mimic how the general population streams, so don't worry about trying to adhere to too rigid of a format!
If you want to participate on a more “intense” level, consider having multiple Spotify accounts and swapping accounts after about 10 plays of the title track. Make sure that you’re using different playlists across the accounts, ESPECIALLY if you are using accounts simultaneously. If you are using accounts simultaneously, they must also be used on separate devices!
TikTok/YouTube Shorts can also help us gain streams – people may discover the song through either platform and then listen to the song on an actual platform that contributes to Billboard charts. Since TikTok/YouTube Shorts contribute to multiple projects, we do recommend creating and engaging with videos that use the official audio! Additionally, you can recommend the song to reactors or dancers to help bring even more ears to the track.
Purchasing
Purchasing is the next easiest way for US/PR ATINY to contribute for Billboard 200 – and you have multiple options for how to do it!
Physical Album Purchases
Whether you are purchasing your physical albums online or in stores, there are some essential rules to know to make sure everything counts!
Purchasing Limits
Wherever you purchase your albums, you can only buy 4 ALBUMS per VERSION per TRANSACTION.
Different store exclusives are considered different versions! You can buy 4x "HEAT" and 4x "THIRST" with the Store A exclusive and then go buy 4x "HEAT" and 4x "THIRST" with the Store B exclusive and have all 16 albums count!
Fan packs (the album packaged with physical merch like clothing and sold as a single unit) also count as their own version.
If you want to purchase more than 4 copies of a particular version, you must split your purchase into multiple transactions and have completely unique details associated with the additional purchase(s).
Online purchases: you must have unique information (name, credit card, billing address, shipping address) for additional orders – no order details can match!
Online purchases must also use a US payment method and ship to a US address to count.
In-store purchases: use different payment methods!
We do not know if they track to the granularity of names associated with credit/debit cards, so we highly recommend using cash since it is not tied to a particular person.
If a store has a membership program tied to personal information (e.g., a phone number), please do not continue to use that beyond the 4 albums per version limit, even if making additional purchases using cash.
Version tracking resets with EACH TRACKING WEEK. If you maxed out your physical purchases during Week 1 with a particular card/order details, you are safe to BUY AGAIN using THAT SAME CARD/order details during Week 2 tracking.
IMPORTANT! Your online album purchase will be counted for Billboard upon SHIPPING not upon ordering. Your album must be shipped by Monday, 11:59pm ET of the tracking week to count. Make sure you PRE-ORDER or order EARLY in the tracking week!
Purchasing albums in-store from Billboard-certified stores (such as Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Pop-Up locations) is the safest way to ensure all your purchases will count for a particular tracking week!
Digital Album Purchases
Digital purchases are potentially even easier than physical purchases – purchasing the album digitally costs less, so it's a very cost-effective way to contribute to Billboard 200!
Important note: Billboard is strictly enforcing their rules and ensuring that all services that report to them are also strictly following the rules. You can purchase the digital album from ONE service ONCE for life – services will track information like card payment details, billing address, email address, and even IP address to ensure that duplicate purchases are not made and counted in the Billboard tally.
There are a few rules you need to know to make sure your digital purchase counts:
Download your purchase: you must download the purchased album for it to count for charts
If you purchase on a platform you stream on (iTunes/Apple Music), download the album then delete your download. This will ensure that you are truly streaming the album (contributing to charts) and not just playing your download (contributing to great enjoyment)!
Purchase Lemon Drop first, then "complete album"
Purchasing Lemon Drop first allows it to contribute to singles charts (like Hot 100). Completing the album (NOT buying tracks individually) helps us get the most album units possible to contribute for Billboard 200!
If you purchase tracks individually, you need 10 track sales to equal 1 album unit. Golden Hour: Part 3 is only FIVE tracks long, so we would need two ATINY purchasing tracks individually to get 1 album unit or ONE ATINY purchasing Lemon Drop and completing the album to get 1 album unit.
Purchasing Multiple Copies
If you wish to purchase multiple copies, you must use UNIQUE details and a unique IP address. If ANY details match, your purchase may not count. The easiest way to "purchase multiple copies" and ensure they count is to ask friends to help purchase since their details will be different from yours.
You can also sponsor US / PR ATINY who have not bought Lemon Drop / Golden Hour: Part 3 through the #DIGITEEZ project.
What should I buy?
If you are able, purchase Lemon Drop first, then "complete the album"
If you don't have the funds for the full digital album, purchase just Lemon Drop – it will still contribute to Track Equivalent Album units!
If you are able, purchase the remix versions of Lemon Drop