The day after Billboard announced they’re factoring in YouTube streams when determining an album’s chart status, Radiohead suddenly uploaded their entire discography to YouTube.
Does this include deep cuts, remix albums, b-sides and rarities you ask? You bet your ass it does!
Radiohead’s discography was uploaded to YouTube the day after Billboard announced YouTube streams will now assist in determining an album’s chart status.
Fans are already sceptical if this move was a band or label led decision. You’d think a band like Radiohead would withhold the bulk of their sought after discography from money grubby liaisons, but XL Recordings did acquire their back catalogue in 2016.
The band haven’t said anything as of yet and there’re complete album/remix and b-sides compilation playlists that were last updated two days ago (at the time this was published.)
In 2015, Thom Yorke addressed the issue of YouTube seizing control and profiting off the creative works of artists, even went as far as to compare Google and YouTube to Nazi Germany. So yeah, it’s not just you… the scepticism is completely understandable.
The first of many changes to the Billboard charts coming over the next year, Billboard will also factor in video plays from music channels such as Apple Music, VEVO and TIDAL. However, they will not be factoring plays from “user-generated content” such as cover videos or memes.
For those who’re indifferent to the significance of the US Billboard charts, it’s still nice to have high-quality YouTube audio clips of the band’s back catalogue.
