Billboard Launches Social 50 Chart

Billboard is expanding its chart offerings to include a new chart, the Social 50. Presented by ZYNC from American Express, the Social 50 chart will track and rank the most active artists on the world’s leading social networking sites including MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and iLike. Data from these sites will be tracked by Next Big Sound, a provider of online music analytics and insights.

The Social 50 will rank each artist’s popularity through a formula that blends artist page views, song plays, and additions of friends/fans/followers on a weekly basis. It will emphasize friends and fan behavior above other metrics and will include a unique metric which measures the ratio of page views to fans. The inaugural chart slates Rihanna as the top artist, followed by Justin Bieber, Eminem, Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj, respectively, in the top five.

“The Social 50 provides a weekly snapshot of the artists that music fans engage with the most in the social arena, which in today’s world is a significant validation of their investment in an act,” says Silvio Pietroluongo, Billboard Chart Director.

“We continue to adapt the way we chart the changing landscape of music,” adds Bill Werde, Billboard Editorial Director.  “The Social 50 is yet another step in the evolution of Billboard and an important response to our changing times.”

The Social 50 will be updated on Billboard.com and Billboard.biz every Thursday and in each issue of Billboard magazine.