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Members of BTS pose for a photo at a press conference held in Seoul for the release of their new single “Butter” on May 21, 2021. (provided by Bit Hit Music)

Billboard chart watchers are tuning in to see the impact that recent changes to the music magazine’s ranking system this year will have on K-pop acts such as BTS.

As of Jan. 11, Billboard altered its system to exclude multiple downloads of the same track from its calculations, which now recognize only one download per week.

Previously, up to four purchases of a single digital track were recognized for a single user (account) per week. The rule change means that only one purchase per week will be recognized.

Additionally, the ranking system will not count albums that sell for less than US$3.49 or EPs (eight or fewer tracks) that sell for less than US$0.39. This means that albums and EPs selling for lower prices will not be included in sales figures.

The lower-priced albums tend primarily to consist of remixes of previously released songs.

The new rules were applied to the entire Billboard chart system — including the Hot 100 singles and Billboard 200 album charts — as of Jan. 11. The magazine did not provide any particular reasoning for its decision.

But the new rules appeared aimed at reining in bulk purchases by a particular act’s fan base and the excessive issuance of remixes.

Screen capture from the Billboard site

Some are already voicing fears about what impact Billboard’s rule change could have on BTS and other K-pop acts’ chart performance. If duplicate downloads from a single account are not counted, that reduces the relative percentage of performance based on downloads and increases the percentages based on streaming and radio airplay.

While US-based acts rely heavily on streaming, K-pop acts, which boast powerful fan bases, have performed particularly strongly in downloads.

According to an annual report on the US music market in 2021 published by Billboard and MRC Data, which calculates figures on US album sales, the BTS song “Butter” was the most downloaded track last year, with around 1.89 million downloads.

In addition to “Butter,” the Digital Song Sales chart — which reflects downloads in the US market — also had BTS at No. 3 with “Permission to Dance” (400,000 downloads), No. 6 with “Dynamite” (318,000), and No. 7 with “My Universe” (290,000) last year. “Butter” was the only track to be downloaded more than a million times last year — 3.8 times as many downloads as the second-ranked track, “Fancy Like” by Walker Hayes.

Along with BTS’ hits last year, Lisa of the group Blackpink landed on the Hot 100 with her solo tracks “Lalisa” and “Money.” The girl group Twice also reached No. 83 with their first English-language single “The Feels.”

A promotional photo for Lisa of Blackpink’s solo album “Lalisa” that was released on Sept. 10, 2021. (provided by YG Entertainment)

An official with one major music agency noted that there had been “criticisms that [Billboard] is trying to protect US artists after K-pop acts began reaching the top spots on Billboard.”

“Given how Billboard rankings also have an effect on things like the American Music Award selections, we’re watching to see how this develops,” the official added.

By Jung Hyuk-june, staff reporter

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