Billboard has forever been the boss of music metrics. And now, Billboard has introduced a new chart to their litany of rankings called the “Social 50“, which makes up the most popular artists in terms of mentions on social networking sites.
This chart will rank an artist’s popularity using a formula that combines weekly follower additions, page views and song plays on MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, iLike and Facebook.
It will be interesting to see if the Social 50 closely matches iTunes and CD sales, or if it gives a glimpse of some indie artists that are more effectively interacting with their fan base than those artists who are part of a larger record label.