Billboard Is About To Make Big Change To Its Album Charts

The most important album chart is about to get an important new metric.

The Billboard 200 will soon start counting Youtube views as part of an album's sales plus streaming total. User-generated clips incorporating music will also count as streams.

According to Hits Daily Double, notorious music executive Lyor Cohen -- who recently left 300 to become YouTube's Global Head of Music -- pushed Billboard president John Amato to make the change.

The new format should trigger all sorts of accusations of chart manipulation.

On the other hand, it should also encourage your favorite rapper to put all of their album cuts on YouTube.

And everybody likes free music.

[Related: Lyor Cohen leaves 300 for YouTube.]