YouTube is changing its policies on music video views in response to dissatisfaction over legitimacy.
YouTube is a major factor for music artists and fans. It’s considered the most popular platform to watch music videos and earning the largest debut in 24 hours for a music video on YouTube is a huge achievement. However, dissension among fans began after efforts to gain the record were overshadowed by paid advertisements.
The tipping point came once Indian Rapper Paagal earned 75 million views in 24 hours beating out record holders BTS and Taylor Swift. The rapper bought ads that embedded the videos across media platforms to elevate his view count. Techweez explains, "Buying ads to increase the views of your video is a common practice among music labels and if the video ad is watched by Youtube users even for a couple of seconds, the Google-owned video hub counts it as a view."
Opinions were forming against paid ads in order of fairness. YouTube recently released a statement regarding their decision to omit paid ads from the view count. "We are no longer counting paid advertising views on YouTube in the YouTube Music Charts calculation. Artists will now be ranked based on view counts from organic plays." They state, "Videos eligible for YouTube’s 24-hour record debuts are those with the highest views from organic sources within the first 24 hours of the video’s public release. This includes direct links to the video, search results, external sites that embed the video and YouTube features like the homepage, watch next and Trending."
You can read their full statement at YouTube’s Blog.
