For decades, the Billboard charts have been treated as the ultimate scoreboard for success in music. But what happens when the biggest music platform in the world walks away from the chart entirely?

In this Pillow Talk Edition of The Sleepover, Sleep breaks down YouTube pulling its data from Billboard, Billboard increasing the weight of streaming, and why these two moves may signal a much deeper shift in how music success is measured. Using a hypothetical breakdown of BTS’s Map of the Soul: 7, Sleep explains how YouTube views once helped tell the full story of an album’s impact, and what it means now that those views no longer count.

The conversation expands into what this shift could mean for music video budgets (especially in visually driven genres like K-pop), why YouTube’s move may be a strategic leverage play tied to ad revenue, and how industry power players like Lyor Cohen understand and influence measurement systems better than most. We also unpack the uncomfortable reality of streaming’s “gold rush” — where revenue is booming, but artists, producers, and songwriters often feel left out.

Finally, Sleep asks the question many creators are quietly wrestling with: should artists still be chasing charts, or should they be chasing hearts — building sustainable communities that allow them to live and create outside of mainstream validation?

This isn’t about cheating.
It’s not about bots.
It’s about who gets counted — and who doesn’t.

Quick disclaimer:
The sound didn’t record properly the first half of this episode, so I had to re-record.
Unfortunately, I made the rookie mistake of watching myself on the flip-out monitor the whole time.
So if my eye line feels… adventurous, please know I’m not cross-eyed.
Just humbled by technology.

-💤