How the Billboard & iTunes charts work

First, from a digital service provider perspective, partners such as iTunes, Spotify, Beatport, etc, have their own chart recognition systems that are a bit different from the traditional billboard charts. Each partner has their own overall chart and often, charts for specific genres.

For a song or album to chart, it has to sell and/or have a lot of streams. No album and/or release is automatically placed there nor can it be bought thus, if you'd like to be on iTunes charts for example, a hit record will be one that will get you some solid placement.

From a Billboard perspective, iTunes and many others report sales to Soundscan which is what Billboard uses to display its charts. In order to have a chance at making the Billboard music charts, any release must be registered with SoundScan using UPC number (for the whole album) and ISRC codes (for the individual tracks). Without registration, the sales figures will not be counted, and will remain invisible to the system. This article outlines how the Billboard charting process works.

Do you want to register your album with SoundScan?
Symphonic can assist with registering your album or track with SoundScan!