THE BIBLE AND YOUTUBE: A CLAIRE-IFICATION

In a recent piece for NBC News online, senior media editor Claire Atkinson breaks down Billboard’s decision to keep YouTube streams out of the Top 200 albums chart and to revise its Hot 100 to give paid streams greater weight than ad-supported audio and video. “The decision is a blow to Google’s YouTube, which had hoped to broaden its representation and was in talks with Billboard about being included in the album charts,” Atkinson wrote.

The piece details the longtime beef between YouTube Head of Music/rodeo clown Lyor Cohen and Apple Music’s Jimmy Iovine; the latter had argued fiercely for greater weighting of paid streams and the exclusion of ad-supported video on the Bible charts. “How can the record industry let [equivalent weighting of paid and free streams] go down? It is not in their interest to promote a free tier,” Iovine told Atkinson, and took a shot at YouTube as “fake news,” referring to its openness to manipulation.

Atkinson's report also notes that YouTube’s ad revenue for 2017 is estimated at $3.5 billion.

Check out the whole piece here.