Must Read: Martin Mills on Billboard Streaming Charts

In case you haven’t noticed, Billboard and The Official Charts have begun including streaming in measuring chart ranking.  Now think about that for a minute–in a world where artists like Taylor Swift are windowing with great success how can you ever think that it’s a good idea to use streaming as a way of measuring success?  There’s deeper reasons for why streaming is at best a premature but even if you don’t have time to think about the deeper reasons, the mere fact that it is becoming increasingly obvious that streaming can be a null set for an increasing number of artists would make you question that wisdom.

As Martin Mills said in a must-read recent speech (“MARTIN MILLS: NEW BILLBOARD CHART RISKS DUMBING DOWN MUSIC“):

Generally speaking, independent labels work principally with album artists, the majors, since their main marketing tool is airplay, primarily with artists capable…