Billboard’s Top 100 Hit Songs has been around since 1955. Up until today, those songs that make the Top 100 Hit list were ranked based upon overall sales and radio play. Today, things are a bit different in the music world. Streaming services like Spotify and Rdio are what many people listen to as the radio world slowly fizzles out. In order to keep up with the streaming trend, Billboard has decided to include top songs from Rdio and Spotify in the new Top 100 Hit List.

There’s no doubt that this new hit list comprised of top streaming songs will make the general public happy. After all, it’s hard to create a “Top 100 Hit Songs” list if most of those songs are based upon sales and radio play alone – this wouldn’t be representative of the actual song-listening population. Now that streaming appears to be here to stay, the new Billboard Top 100 Hit Songs list might start actually representing the tunes that people who listen to all kinds of music sources are listening to.

What About YouTube?

You might be wondering how YouTube could possibly play into the current Top 100 Hit List scene. After all, YouTube is certainly a popular and important source of music for many people these days. Well, YouTube tunes haven’t yet been included in the Top 100 Hit List ranks, but Billboard told press recently that the video site wouldn’t be entirely excluded either. As it stands, Billboard is currently looking into a way to monitor YouTube videos, so that these tracks can be added to the Top 100 Hit List too.

Seemingly, the new Billboard list will be more representative of what people are currently listening to, since radio play is only part of the factor now. Then again, there are those who state that even streaming services offer up only the trendiest of songs, and that these songs aren’t really at the core of current popular music. Might Billboard have to dig deeper in order to find out what the population is really listening to?

The Times They Are A-Changin’

As Bob Dylan once said, “the times they are a-changin’,” and nothing is better proof of changing times than adding stats from streaming music providers to the Billboard Top 100. Then again, the radio was once a new music form too. If you currently listen to music through a streaming service like Rdio or Spotify, let me know what you think of Billboard’s decision to add these songs to the Top 100. Will the new Top 100 list be more or less representative (or not change at all)?

Seemingly, radio rankings and record sales are things of the past – right alongside the Encyclopedia Britannica print edition, print in general, libraries, and a myriad of other relics. Change in mediums such as print and music is inevitable. As we say goodbye to the past we can also look forward to what lays ahead – things like rankings taken from streaming services and digital books.