In news that will have record labels scrambling,
YouTube Music has cracked down on rampant chart manipulation by
banning this new pay-for-play. Yesterday morning, they announced YouTube will no longer allow paid views and advertising to influence its YouTube Music Charts. Only view counts coming from organic plays will be accepted. This means that labels will no longer be able to spend fiercely on video advertising in order to boost up the views of their artists’ newly debuted songs. Ha! I don't think this news will affect artists like
Adele, Taylor Swift and
Drake. But artists like
Ciara and
Ashanti may be hurting from this. The biggest problem in the music industry has always been payola, and I think other streaming outlets should follow suit. Actually, if it was up to me, streaming being used to determine a song's popularity (and to bump up sales) would be banned completely. Anyone can play a video on accident (I know I've done this a lot), or just leave the room. Streams are not accurate in measuring how hot a song is. Oh how I miss the authenticity of the 90s!
