The official street date for all new album releases is Friday. For all sales-based charts (both albums and tracks), the chart reporting period covers the first 7 days of an album’s release, meaning sales are measured from Friday to Thursday.
Nielsen’s sales tools are updated Mondays. Billboard posts final charts (including sales, airplay, streaming, the Hot 100 and other multi-source charts) on billboard.com each Tuesday morning.
Billboard posts a "Projected Top 10" Billboard 200 albums chart story on billboard.com late afternoon on Friday, and then a "Final Top 10" story once processing is complete on Saturday. The final charts (including sales, airplay, streaming, Hot 100 and other multi-source charts) post on billboard.com each Tuesday morning.
There is a small window each Monday morning for labels to review the charts and to bring any errors or omissions to Nielsen and Billboard's attention for possible chart revisions.
Billboard Hot 100 and all other genre sales/streaming/airplay hybrid charts utilizing the Hot 100 formula are created on Mondays
The Hot 100 tracking week is as follows:
Mail Order – Mail order CDs shipped between Tuesday and the following Monday will be counted in the new chart week. This represents the Friday-Thursday sales week, but makes an allowance for shipping time/receipt by customers.
Venue Sales – For venues and labels reporting sales, the reporting week will be Wednesday-Tuesday. Forms need to be submitted by 3pm the next day (Wednesday) to be included in the following Monday charts.
Nielsen is modernizing venue sales by partnering with service atVenu to make reporting venue sales simple and easy for artists and labels of all sizes. All atVenu sales are automatically reported to the new Friday-Thursday week. No more forms, no more paper. Learn more >
Learn about Nielsen Music Measurement, including how to register your music.
Learn about Nielsen Music Measurement, including general SoundScan procedures and how to become a reporter. For questions, contact Molly Johnson.
For all enquiries, contact soundscan@nielsen.com.
No change for genre radio charts which will continue to run Sunday to Monday. The Hot 100 airplay/Radio Songs chart (HOH), however will now be tracked Sunday to Monday instead of Wednesday to Tuesday.
The Billboard Hot100 and all other genre/streaming/airplay hybrid charts utilizing the Hot 100 formula will be created on Mondays. The Billboard Hot100 and all other genre/streaming/airplay hybrid charts utilizing the Hot 100 formula will be created on Mondays.
The tracking week for Hot 100 will be:
Sales: Friday-Thursday
Streams: Friday-Thursday
Airplay: Monday-Sunday
Streaming services contributing to the Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot 100 will be tracked from Friday to Thursday. If any streaming service is delayed in reporting, Nielsen will use the most recent seven days for each service, as is the current policy.
All charts will be refreshed on billboard.com on Tuesday morning. Charts are post-dated to the second Saturday following the online posting (11 days later). So charts that post on Tuesday, July 14th will be dated July 25th.
Contact Molly Johnson. For information on Nielsen SoundScan’s new collaboration with atVenu, visit www.atVenu.com.
Contact Adam Foster.