The Evolution of the Billboard Charts: Hot 100, Catalog Albums & Streaming With Keith Caulfield | Billboard On the Record

What does it take to land a song on a Billboard chart? Billboard’s managing director of charts & data operations, Keith Caulfield, joins host Kristin Robinson to unpack the evolution of the Billboard charts. From the origins of the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 to the modern formula of blending radio, sales and streams, Caulfield breaks down how his team evolves alongside the industry. Caulfield digs into why catalog albums keep finding new life, how Billboard determines an artist’s genre and how artists like Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen and Drake achieve so many No. 1s. From artists releasing multiple vinyl variants to the comeback of CDs and cassettes, Caulfield explains how today’s musicians are using every format, and every fan connection, to make chart history.

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Billboard On the Record is a podcast in partnership with SickBird Productions. 

Kristin Robinson:

Ask any musician what they dream of, and somewhere on that list is probably a Billboard No. 1. But here’s the thing: Almost everyone has a theory about how the charts work, but very few people really know what goes into it. So this week, we’re going to set the record straight. How do the Billboard charts actually work? Welcome back to On the Record, a music business podcast between Billboard and SickBird Productions. As always, I’m your host, Kristin Robinson, and today we’re going to dive into all things Billboard charts. Even if you’re not in the music business, you’re probably familiar with our charts. The Hot 100 is the gold standard for measuring the success of singles, and the Billboard 200, which is our albums chart, measures the success for full bodies of work. Whether that’s an EP, a full album, or even a deluxe, but if I had a dollar for how many times I get asked by my friends about how the Billboard charts work… I don’t know exactly how much money I would have, but it would be a solid amount of money. And the truth is that as a music business reporter at Billboard, I’m in our editorial department, not our charts department, so I honestly don’t have a lot of answers to give people, but I do know someone that does and that’s our guest today. His name is Keith Caulfield, he’s the Managing DIrector of Charts & Data Operations for Billboard, which is a very long title to basically say that he is the mastermind behind the Billboard 200.

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