RS Methodology

Data

The Rolling Stone Charts publish song and album data, compiled from dozens of U.S. retailers and service producers, on a daily basis. Because of the breadth of suppliers and their individual reporting time frames, chart data for the week as a whole should not be considered finalized until the following Monday, when Rolling Stone will announce the official week tallies. Our independent analytics firm, Alpha Data, formerly known as BuzzAngle Music, populates numbers each day into the RS Charts within a seven-hour processing period of each day's transactions, with a target availability in the system of 12 PM Eastern Time.

How Rankings Work

Albums are ranked by Album Units, a number that combines audio streams and both digital and physical purchases, using a custom weighting system. Songs are ranked by Song Units, a number that combines audio streams and song sales, also using a custom weighting system. Album and Song Units are holistic, multilevel metrics that attempt to present the most reflective picture possible of what's happening in music. For a detailed look at the ranking algorithms that govern our charts, please visit our General Methodology page.