美国国家公共电台 NPR YouTube Views To Be Calculated In New Streaming-Oriented Billboard Albums Chart

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Harry¹ Styles' "Fine Line" is topping Billboard²'s album charts.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIGHTS UP")

HARRY STYLES: (Singing) Shine, step into the light. Shine, so bright sometimes. Shine...

CHANG: Holding that spot is a coup³ for any artist. It used to be that an album would get there by selling the most physical albums. Over the years, it's gotten a lot more complicated, though. Now Billboard needs to consider things like Spotify plays, MP3 downloads and, starting tomorrow, YouTube streams. Chris Molanphy is a chart analyst⁴ and pop critic at Slate⁵, and he joins me now to explain all of this.

Hey.

CHRIS MOLANPHY: Hi, Ailsa. How are you?

CHANG: Good. So why is Billboard making this change?

MOLANPHY: It's part of a long term evolution of the album chart away from, as you say, pure sales to a consumption model. So now, rather than simply tracking you at the moment you buy an album, they're tracking how much you're consuming an album in the weeks to come. It's not all about opening a movie, where, you know, all we care about is the box office in the first weekend. It's not all about the sales in that first week. Now we care about how it's being consumed on these platforms like Spotify.

CHANG: How much it's being listened to...

MOLANPHY: Exactly.

CHANG: ...Like, that being maybe a more accurate reflection of how popular the music is.

MOLANPHY: Precisely⁶.

CHANG: How big of a deal is YouTube in the music industry right now?

MOLANPHY: It's a pretty big deal. Depending on the audience, it may account for up to half of the consumption of any given genre⁷. And it depends on the audience. Hip-hop is very strong in YouTube. Latin music is very strong in YouTube. And you know, if you're going to get a full and accurate representation of the way music is being consumed - not just at the song level but at the, you know, full artists level, which is what the album chart aims to measure - you kind of eventually need to bake YouTube into the album chart, as counterintuitive as that sounds.

CHANG: OK. So if YouTube is going to be such an important component⁸ of measuring where you're going to land on the Billboard charts, how might this reshape the way music is marketed going forward?

MOLANPHY: Well, you know, I can see a scenario⁹ where an artist might want to do multiple versions - official versions of a video. And just when an album is starting to flag a little on the chart, you put out a new version of a video. And that gives it a new, you know, boost of life. You know, albums are not so much totemic objects anymore. They're kind of like marketing¹⁰ campaigns. You know?

So when an artist moves from period to period in their career, they are moving from - say, if you're Taylor Swift - the "Reputation" period to the "Lover" period. And you are trying to aggregate¹¹ as much attention for that project while it's your current album project. This YouTube rule just sort of aggregates¹² one more stream of data to add to Spotify, to add to Apple Music, to add to the download that tells people this album is being consumed and it's commanding the culture.

CHANG: So seems like, in a lot of ways, this Billboard rule-change is just a reflection of how differently people are consuming music these days.

MOLANPHY: Right. I mean, think about it. Most folks are not walking into physical record stores anymore. Many people are not even really downloading the iTunes way anymore.

CHANG: Yeah.

MOLANPHY: Streaming is the future. It has been the future for some time. YouTube is an important component of that. And this is just Billboard doing what it's always done. It reflects the way people are actually consuming music, dating back to the era of 45 rpm singles all the way to the present day. You have to keep these charts evolving to make them current with the way music is being consumed.

CHANG: That is Chris Molanphy of Slate.

Thank you so much for coming in to the studio today.

MOLANPHY: My pleasure, Ailsa.

1 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

2 billboard   

n.布告板，揭示栏，广告牌

参考例句：

• He ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business.他把精力投入到父亲的广告牌业务中。
• Billboard spreads will be simpler and more eye-catching.广告牌广告会比较简单且更引人注目。

3 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

4 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

5 slate   

n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订

参考例句：

• The nominating committee laid its slate before the board.提名委员会把候选人名单提交全体委员会讨论。
• What kind of job uses stained wood and slate? 什么工作会接触木头污浊和石板呢？

6 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

7 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

8 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

9 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

10 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

11 aggregate   

adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合

参考例句：

• The football team had a low goal aggregate last season.这支足球队上个赛季的进球总数很少。
• The money collected will aggregate a thousand dollars.进帐总额将达一千美元。

12 aggregates   

数( aggregate的名词复数 )； 总计； 骨料； 集料（可成混凝土或修路等用的）

参考例句：

• Snowflakes are loose aggregates of ice crystals. 雪花是冰晶的松散凝结。
• Our airplanes based in Europe should be included in the aggregates. 我们驻欧飞机应包括在总数内。