“Billboard will give the same weight to YouTube streams as it does to those from Apple, Spotify or any other platform: 1,250 clicks from a paying subscriber — or 3,750 clicks from a nonpaying user — are counted as the equivalent of one album sale.”

A Big Change Comes to Billboard’s Album Chart: YouTube Streams

Starting Jan. 3, official video plays will count toward the tallies on the trade publication’s flagship weekly chart, the Billboard 200.