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Wikipedia:Record charts

This guideline provides guidance about the suitability of music charts for inclusion in Wikipedia articles, both in article prose and in the standard tables of charts. It does not provide specifics of formatting tables, which is the subject of Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Record charts.

General guidelines

Suitable charts

A chart is normally considered suitable for inclusion if it meets all of the following characteristics:

  1. It is published by a recognized reliable source. This includes any IFPI affiliate, Billboard magazine, or any organization with the support of Nielsen SoundScan. Recognized national measurement firms, such as Crowley Broadcast Analysis for Brazil or Monitor Latino for Latin America, are legitimate sources of charts.
  2. It covers sales or broadcast outlets from multiple sources.
  3. It is static, that is, the data in the chart cannot change. This excludes dynamic "all-time" charts, such as the ones published by Hung Medien.

Single-vendor/single-network charts

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  • WP:SINGLEVENDOR
  • WP:SINGLENETWORK

Charts which rank material from a single vendor or network are generally unsuitable for inclusion in articles. They should never be placed in discography tables or tables of charts. They may occasionally be mentioned in article prose if special circumstances warrant it. "Special circumstances" include notable controversies alleging chart manipulation, or cases where eligibility requirements prevented standard charts from recognizing the sales. This would include, for example, the noted resurgence of Michael Jackson related sales at the time of his death, when many chart rules prevented any of his album sales from being credited towards a chart position. Similarly, some charts representing the home country of the artist or composer (this can mean country of origin, country of residence, official nationality or any country where the artist or composer has lived for a substantial part of their lives) or releases with a strong link to the country in question (e.g. Eurovision entries), can be included if no other suitable charts can be located.

Note, however, that while single-network charts do not satisfy the charting criterion, some network charts may fulfill other NMUSIC criteria instead. For example, CBC Radio 2's Radio 2 Top 20 chart in Canada is not considered a pass of the charting criterion, but does constitute a pass of NMUSIC #11 as proof that the artist has been placed in rotation nationally by a major radio or music television network. Do not use this chart to support statements about specific chart positions or weeks-on, do not create or maintain "List of number-one hits on the Radio 2 Top 20" articles, and do not include it in discography listings as a record chart — use the chart solely to support statements about airplay on R2.

Dependent ("component") charts

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  • WP:CHARTMATH

Charts are frequently related to one another mathematically. For example, the Billboard Hot 100 is derived by weighting positions on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay, the Billboard Hot 100 Sales and Digital Songs, and the Billboard Hot 100 Streaming Songs. This means that in the vast majority of cases, any song that charts on the Billboard Hot 100 can be presumed to have charted on the other charts, and specifically mentioning the position will simply clutter an article. In unusual cases, the subordinate chart can be mentioned: take, for example, a single which had no airplay because of objectionable content, but still charted extremely high on the composite chart due to sales. This would be unusual enough to potentially warrant mention.

Examples of dependent/component/mathematically related charts:

Certifications

Certifications should be sourced directly to certifying agencies, most of which provide a searchable database. When such a database is not available, other reliable sources may be used, but they must directly state that the certifying agency has granted the certification. Many popular press articles will contain statements such as "... has gone gold ..." or "... has gone platinum ..." based on a sales figure, when, in fact, the certifying agency has not yet verified those sales and granted a certification.

Chart trajectories

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  • WP:CHARTTRAJ

A song/album's chart trajectory should not be included in an article as this constitutes an indiscriminate collection of information. Chart trajectories may be mentioned in the article text when there is sufficient reason to do so (for example, a song debuted at number 100, became a sleeper hit and peaked at number 1). Key facts, some examples being the debut position, number of weeks spent at peak position, and/or number of weeks in total on the chart may be mentioned within the article text, but should not be included as routine data for all charts.

Charts with more than 200 positions

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  • WP:OVER200

In general, chart positions over 200 should not be listed, as this usually represents a minor amount of sales and is considered excessive detail. This applies to any chart, be it single or album, weekly, yearly, decade or all-time.

Deprecated charts

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  • WP:BADCHARTS

Websites to avoid

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  • WP:BADCHARTSAVOID

Recommended charts

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  • WP:GOODCHARTS

The following charts are recommended for use, although some archives of these charts are specifically deprecated. These are charts which are believed to meet all requirements for inclusion, and have reliable, licensed archives of positions which allow for stable and reliable referencing.

Many reliable charts are not included on this list, primarily due to archiving problems. The Romanian Top 100, for example, appears to be a reliable chart, but no stable searchable archive is available. These charts can be included so long as care is taken in providing a reliable source for the information.

If only the latest version of a chart is published online, please add it to Wikipedia:Record charts/List. The list is archived to the Wayback Machine at least twice every week.

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Nielsen SoundScan International

Many countries have a digital songs chart compiled by Nielsen SoundScan International and published in Billboard Magazine in the Hits of the World page.

Acceptable charts

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  • WP:OKAYCHARTS

The following charts are acceptable and are deemed as reliable sources for use. However these charts do not have a searchable database or are archived by the website. In order to prevent WP:LINKROT, the source must be manually archived using the Internet Archive or another similar service.

Billboard charts

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  • WP:BILLBOARDCHARTS
  • WP:USCHARTS

For a complete list of Billboard charts and general information see Billboard charts.

In the United States Billboard publishes songs and albums charts based on data from Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BDS. This guide is designed to help editors to determine which charts are acceptable for use on Wikipedia in which circumstances. Below is the chart matrix for this purpose.

The guide contains the official and current names for the charts as of April 2010, with the exception of the Mainstream Top 40 (Pop Songs), also known as either the Mainstream Top 40 or the Pop Songs chart. On Wikipedia, it is located at a page using both names (one as a disambiguator). When listing the chart in chart tables list it exactly as its page is named: Mainstream Top 40 (Pop Songs).

Billboard magazine is the provider of US charts; however, its use on Wikipedia when mentioning charts should be limited: i.e., charts should simply be referred to as US followed by the chart name. The only two exceptions to this rule are the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200, which should include Billboard as it is a part of the actual chart name.

Sourcing Billboard charts

As with all record charts, you should first try to source each chart directly from the Billboard.com website. Ideally, the citation should link to the Billboard page for the song in question, through the artist's discography / chart history page there.

Note, however, that the Billboard archives are sometimes incomplete, particularly on older and/or lesser-known artists. Any of the books by Joel Whitburn may also be used to verify chart positions.

On singles discography tables, do not add 100 to a Bubbling Under peak if the song never entered the corresponding chart [i.e., Billboard Hot 100 and Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, or Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (do not add 50 to a Bubbling Under peak on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs after October 2012)]. Doing so would violate WP:SYNTH by creating information not directly supported by the source (i.e., the notion that the Bubbling Under chart is an extension to the main chart and the position). It should be indicated as an uncharted song with a footnote to indicate the Bubbling Under peak. In the song's article, just indicate it as a Bubbling Under peak, so long as it is verifiable. If an artist has had Bubbling Under entries but no songs that entered the Hot 100 proper, or has had multiple Bubbling Under entries, discography tables may use a separate "Bubbling Under" column to save on footnotes.

Also, when creating singles tables, do not include charts on which the artist has never appeared—a Hot 100 column is not mandatory if the artist never charted on the Hot 100.

It is recommended that you use the {{single chart}} template where possible.

Song charts

Album charts

Notes
  1. ^ Since October 20, 2012, Billboard's "hot" charts use the same methodology to measure sales, streaming activity, and airplay on all monitored radio stations as used for the Billboard Hot 100.
  2. ^ a b c In October 2012, Billboard revamped Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs to include digital sales, streaming and airplay from all radio formats in its methodology, introduced the similarly-formulated Hot R&B Songs, and employed the same changes to already-existing Hot Rap Songs chart. Entries on the Hot Rap Songs chart prior to the issue dated October 20, 2012, when the changes took effect, can be listed regardless of other chartings.
  3. ^ Prior to December 7, 2013, the Christian Songs chart was an airplay-only chart. Since then, Hot Christian Songs uses the Hot 100 methodology and the original Christian Songs was rebranded as Christian Airplay, measuring airplay from only Christian music radio stations.
  4. ^ Billboard uses the names Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay interchangably for the only existing country music chart between January 20, 1990 and October 20, 2012, at which point the chart tracked only radio airplay. The Hot Country Songs name was also used before January 20, 1990 for the same chart. On October 20, 2012, Hot Country Songs was reformulated to include digital sales, streaming, and airplay from all radio formats, while the existing airplay-only format was transferred to the Country Airplay name. From October 20, 2012 onward, both charts may be used per consensus.
  5. ^ Prior to October 20, 2012, the Latin Songs chart was an airplay-only chart. Since then, Hot Latin Songs uses the Hot 100 methodology and the original Latin Songs was rebranded as Latin Airplay, measuring airplay from Spanish-language radio stations. From October 20, 2012 onward, both charts may be used.
  6. ^ Prior to October 20, 2012, R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay served as the airplay component to the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart; therefore, for entries before that date, R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay should be added only if a song did not chart on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
  7. ^ a b Billboard defines "Latin music" as any music sung predominately in Spanish. Thus any Spanish-language song is eligible to rank on the Hot Latin Songs chart regardless of genre. Although the Latin Pop, Tropical, Regional Mexican, and Latin Rhythm are subcharts of the Latin Airplay chart, per consensus, they are treated as distinct genres of Latin music.