Billboard has released their response to allegations made by 6ix9ine yesterday claiming that the media outfit and Nielsen Music cheated him out of the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 chart this week.
On Monday, Billboard addressed the 24-year-old rapper’s cheating claims by breaking down how this week’s chart numbers were worked out. The article recently published by the media brand details what Tekashi claims are discrepancies with his streaming and airplay calculations.
“Overall, ‘Stuck With U’ drew 28.1 million U.S. streams, 26.3 million in radio airplay audience and 108,000 sold in the tracking week,” the article reads. “‘Gooba’ had 55.3 million U.S. streams, 172,000 in radio airplay audience and 24,000 sold.”
The report goes on to refute Tekashi’s claim that Billboard and Nielsen Music allowed Ariana Grande’s team to purchase a significant portion of the song’s sales with “six credit cards,” so as to make the number 1 spot.
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“Billboard and Nielsen Music/MRC Data conducts audits on all sales reported with access to purchase-level detail, and works with data partners to recognize excessive bulk purchases and remove those units from the final sales total,” the article continues. “All titles this week, as in every week, were put under the same scrutiny.”
Also in the article is further explanation of the variance between global and domestic streams. While 6ix9ine did receive record-breaking YouTube views for the music video for “Gooba,” the 180 million views the rhymer boasted about on social media were not all domestic, according to the website. An audit conducted by the publication filtered out the global streams that do not apply to their domestic chart, lessening his numbers significantly.
Following the drama, the Billboard wasn’t the only party to protect themselves from Tekashi and his allegations on Monday. Yesterday, after he made the No. 3 spot on the Hot 100, 6ix9ine made public statements via his Instagram page insinuating that Billboard and Ariana Grande had connived to make Justin Bieber’s “Stuck With U” the No. 1 track on the chart. His statements later attracted responses from Ariana, Bieber and Scooter Braun, their manager, who all stressed that they ethically earned the top spot on the Hot 100. “Overall, ‘Stuck With U’ drew 28.1 million U.S. streams, 26.3 million in radio airplay audience and 108,000 sold in the tracking week,” the article reads.
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