As a measure of overnight fame, the number of views that a music video gets on YouTube in its initial 24 hours has become the primary yardstick for bragging rights for fans and artists.
The video-sharing giant, which is owned by Google, has officially changed its method for Youtube Music Charts. Now, the platform will no longer count paid advertising views in 24-hour tallies. Instead, artists’ music debuts will currently be ranked based on their number of views from only organic plays.
According to YouTube’s blogpost, its goal is to ensure that the platform will stay as a place where all artists are accurately recognized and celebrated for achieving milestones and success.
These new changes are designed to provide the industry with more transparency. The video giant also implemented the said policy changes to align with official charting companies like Billboard and Nielsen.
Changes Will Not Affect Those Who Hold An Existing 24-hour Record
Furthermore, YouTube added that these changes in policies would not affect the existing 24-hour record debut holders.
Currently, the record holder for buying YouTube views’s 24-hour views is BTS., a K-pop boy group. Their single entitled “Boy With Luv,” featuring Halsey, garner 74.6 million views in the first 24 hours after it was published in April. It was then followed by ‘Me!”– a song by Taylor Swift featuring Brendon Urie with 65.2 million views. On the third spot is Blackpink’s “Kill This Love,” which racked up 56.7 million views. Lastly is Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next” with 55.4 million views.
Badshah’s “Pagaal” was driven by paid advertisements
The issue about boosting 24-hour views came after a video by the Indian rapper Badshah entitled “Paagal” won over BTS’s record. The said video, according to Sony Music India, was able to get 75 million views in the first 24 hours after it was uploaded on July 10. However, YouTubed did not credit the artist evidently because paid advertisements drove a significant number of its views.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg said that the premiers of both Blackpink’s “Kill this Love” and Taylor Swift’s “Me! were also promoted through the use of ads on YouTube. In other words, the K-pop girl group and the well-acclaimed American singer will be able to keep their respective 56.7 million and 65.2 million debut records. Those debut records include paid-ad views.
Bloomberg also pointed out that Taylor Swift’s “Me!” had a significantly higher number of likes and lesser dislikes. The news outlet said that this suggests that advertisements played a lesser role. However, it also reported that the difference between the higher totals that are listed on YouTube and the figures reported to Nielsen depicts that paid ad views significantly increased the final tallies.
YouTube Views Are A Type of Advertising
Badshah admitted that his music video received paid promotions. However, he also accused YouTube fo singling him out.
In an Instagram Story, the Indian rapper asked, apparently on YouTube, if they think that artists abroad receive paid promotions. He also added that he did not want to be the one who has the highest views. However, he said that he tried and could do it, so the platform has to get over it.
Under the new policy publicized by YouTube, videos that are eligible for 24-hour record debuts gained the highest views from organic sources. Those organic views include direct links to the video, embeds done by external sites, search results, trending page, and YouTube’s “Watch Next” recommendations.
According to a report published by the Rolling Stone, Sony Latin and Universal Latin were among the record labels that bought ads to get included on Youtube’s 24-hour view counts. Also, music companies have invested $20,000 to $60,000 on advertisements that would significantly increase views in the first 24 hours of release. In some extreme cases, some music labels even paid $100,000 for ads. This only shows that record labels and music companies would go miles to get a spot on YouTube’s 24-hour rankings.
The Latin Music Industry’s Biggest Platform is YouTube
Tomas Cookman, the CEO and founder of the independent Latin label Nacional said that there certainly is money being spent on views. He also questioned whether there is fairness in paying to have perceived views on a video. Answering his question, he said that there is no fairness to paid ads at all. He also added that there will be some manipulation within a system any time that there is a new one. Cookman also pointed out that whoever is saying that there is no manipulation going on is the one who is doing the manipulation themselves.
Furthermore, labels have been spending more on advertising ever since record businesses became popular. This is probably the entire point of signing a deal with major labels. However, the old ways of promoting music are unreliable. A billboard for a particular song might catch the attention of people once they see it. However, it is not enough to make them take action, such as streaming the song on music platforms.
Conclusion
One Latin label employee said that YouTube legitimized buying views. In addition to this, several members of the Latin music industry are worrying that the 24-hour YouTube ranking is highly susceptible to the pressures of showing high numbers of views on the platform. Latin labels are going harder on YouTube because it is much more important than general market labels. The music executive also pointed out that general market labels mostly advertise on Spotify because most of their consumers are there. On the other hand, the most prominent music platform for the Latin music industry is YouTube. This is probably why Badshah and his record label will utilize the platform to promote his new song.
Date: September 29, 2020 / Categories: Explainer, / Author: Joy P
