Okay, so now, apparently, it is official. Any and all YouTube streams, plays, hits, any kind of numerical engagement on the YouTube platform, as far as music is concerned, no longer counts toward any kind of Billboard charting, anything.

And for a period of years, it actually did. And it was pretty essential to boosting the careers and chart positions of some pretty major artists and musical trends over the past 10 years: K-pop, for example.

But because, I guess, YouTube and Billboard couldn't reach a decision to where YouTube's hits and streams were counting toward sales just as much as traffic from other sources, like music streaming platforms such as Spotify, Youtube has essentially taken its ball and gone home, and there's no more reporting to Billboard. Which, even if YouTube's original intentions there have artists in mind to some degree, you're kind of screwing musicians over double time by essentially not reporting to Billboard at all. The charts will become so much more industry and so much more homogenized.

Case in point, there have been reports that very recently, an Aphex Twin song has been going absolutely viral on YouTube, overtaking many Taylor Swift tracks. And because YouTube isn't reporting to Billboard anymore, that's not going to count toward any kind of logged sales, officially speaking.

So, I don't know. Kind of an unfortunate change, in my opinion.