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In 2025, YouTube announced<\/a> it would no longer submit its streams for Billboard consideration, due to the company\u2019s decision to weigh subscriber streams more favorably than ones on the platform\u2019s free, ad-supported tier. At the time, Lyor Cohen, YouTube\u2019s global head of music, referred to the change as an \u201coutdated formula\u201d that \u201cignores the massive engagement from fans who don\u2019t have a subscription.\u201d Well forget all of that, because YouTube has reversed course.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are returning to the Billboard charts starting in 2027,\u201d Cohen wrote<\/a> in an updated note to his original blog. \u201cBillboard\u2019s new methodology better reflects how fans engage with music today across both subscription and ad-supported services.\u201d As Coen notes, Billboard recently cut down<\/a> the ratio of streams between the subscriber and ad-supported tiers from 1:2.5 to 1:1.5 (in other words, now one subscriber stream counts as much as one-and-a-half ad-supported streams, rather than the previous two and a half). The change takes effect on January 16.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear why YouTube was down with the soon-to-be-updated radio rather than the 1:1 Cohen initially hinted at in his first post. We\u2019ve asked the company\u2019s reps for comment. Until then, stan accounts are now free to include YouTube again in their attempts to push their faves up the Billboard 200.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n