Earlier this week, there was a report that Post Malone's label Republic used a YouTube trick to help get the Post featuring 21 Savage track 'Rockstar' to number one the Billboard chart.
The label put a 3:38 second (the length of the song) loop of the 'Rockstar''s chorus on their YouTube page. The loop has been viewed over 42 million times — or more than a million times a day since the song dropped.
According to Billboard's new criteria, YouTube streams count towards a song's overall streams, and plays of Post Malone's chorus-only video would count as an official chart-qualifying stream.
So it would seem that Republic has figured out a way to put ‘Rockstar’ on YouTube without really putting it on the completely free service. (There is no official version of the proper song on YouTube.)
Malone has been pushing back on Republic's YouTube hack as being the reason why his track went number one.
well the song is good so probably not the only reason why
— Beerbongs & Bentleys (@PostMalone) October 17, 2017
whenever you live your dreams everyone wants to try to take it away from you.
— Beerbongs & Bentleys (@PostMalone) October 18, 2017
fuck you.
— Beerbongs & Bentleys (@PostMalone) October 18, 2017
[Related: Youtube hack helped Post Malone's Rockstar go number 1.]