Billboard Opening Up Their Website

Billboard is opening up their charts to everyone.

For chart junkies like me, this is great. No longer are we beholden to firewalls; now we can track songs as much as we like! Bwah!

Billboard is also going to spruce up their other online offerings (downloads, streaming, the like), and start a new chart based on user-generated ratings. This could be interesting, as it's possible we can see some funky outliers not represented on other charts. But it's been pretty well-established that top iTunes downloads mirror other top hits on the Hot 100, and even the Hot 200 Albums (though they do not necessarily reflect top singles). Most likely, the online buzz will be representative of things that are already out there--and the current listing bears that out. Lady Gaga, the Black Eyed Peas, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Kings of Leon, and some American Idols are already all over the airways, and this mix--taken from any Top 20 currently played on the hit stations--is standard. Even the "breakaway" songs--from ads or soundtracks--quickly get swallowed up and become staples.