Twitter Connects With Billboard to Create 'Hot Trending' Music Chart

Twitter and Billboard have joined forces to create a real-time music chart powered by social media engagement.

The online platform announced the partnership Wednesday, during its Digital Content NewFronts presentation. Billboardexplained the chart, dubbed the Billboard Hot Trending, will be a daily ranking of music-related trending topics, “including buzz around new releases, awards show, and festival moments, music nostalgia threads and more.” This means the Hot Trending chart won’t necessarily reflect the most-streamed records, but rather those that are generating the most online discussions.

“This is all tied to conversation,” Sarah Rosen, Twitter’s head of entertainment partnerships, told Bloomberg earlier this week. “This is another cool way to slice and dice music data that’s different from what they are doing with all the other charts out there.”

The chart will be supported by advertisements across Twitter and Billboard platforms, as well as exclusive content like editorial coverage and video. It’s unclear when the chart will officially launch.

“Advertisers can align with the hottest trends in music and the most buzzworthy topics,” Billboard President Julian Holguin told Bloomberg. “Moving at the speed of culture is hard to do, and this chart can help advertisers take part in that.”

Twitter also announced content deals with outlets like NBCUniversal, Tastemade, Refinery29, and Genius; the latter partnership will center on the online series Verified, and will implement content like Twitter polls, Q&As, and more.

Stay tuned as more information about the ventures becomes available.