Rolling Stone to Launch Its Own Music Charts in Challenge to Billboard

By Henry Chu

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Rolling Stone will begin publishing its own music charts beginning next Monday, in a challenge to the longtime leader in the field, Billboard magazine.

The new “ Charts” will encompass the top 100 singles and the top 200 albums in the U.S.. the singles chart will be updated daily instead of weekly. The lists are also expected to incorporate more information on streaming and offer more transparency about how the rankings are derived. Rolling Stone, which is owned by Penske Media Corp. (which also owns Variety), is hoping that those innovations will help it muscle onto turf that has ruled for decades.

“PMC’s strategy is to constantly evolve our brands and products across media platforms,” PMC CEO Jay Penske said in a statement. “What’s imperative and exciting about our new Rolling Stone Charts is that it will present a transparent, granular and real-time quantification to accurately reflect listeners’ evolving interests and give insight into worldwide trends.”

PMC bought a majority stake in Rolling Stone two years ago, and became full owner of the property earlier this year.

The new charts will rely on data from analytics firm Alpha Data (formerly BuzzAngle Music), which was founded in 2013 and launched in 2016. PMC made a strategic investment in the company last year. Among other features, Alpha Data tracks daily sales, streaming and airplay of songs, artists and albums.

Three other weekly charts that will launch Monday are the Rolling Stone Artist 500, ranking the most-streamed artists; the Rolling Stone Trending 25, a list of the fastest-moving songs based on a number of metrics; and the Rolling Stone Breakthrough 25, which will look at artists who have entered the charted for the first time.

News of the new charts was first reported by Vanity Fair on Tuesday.