RS CHART:
IS IT SOUP YET?

Rolling Stone insiders say they’ve worked out the various issues plaguing the launch of their ballyhooed chart and that it’s finally ready for its debut. Said issues include getting the green light from the major DSPs and the labels, as well as nagging problems regarding the sharing and weighting of the data.

The venerable, Penske-owned mag initially announced that they’d debut the chart on 5/13, only to experience one embarrassing hiccup after another.

The new model will include various features and significant metric adjustments—which the Bible has been talking about doing for more than a year now but has failed to implement in the face of strong criticism from all parts of the business for doing nothing. Since Energy-Drinkgate a few weeks back, there’s been talk among the Billboard brain trust about nailing down the limiting of bundling and D2C by January of 2020, but thus far, no one has a clue as to what any of that will look like.

One constant conundrum has been the vetting problem of YouTube data and its lack of substantiation—along with the old “I’m jacking the algo for you, buddy” bullshit.

It ain’t over till it’s over, buddy.