Youtube changes view-count mechanism after Badshah broke BTS record

Youtube announced that it will not count paid views while forming music charts after weeks of silence over Badshah's new record.

Youtube is changing the way it brings videos, more specifically music videos, into its top charts. The Google-owned service recently said that it will no longer be counting "paid advertising views" while forming the top videos charts. The move by Youtube comes just a few weeks after an Indian rapper Badshah claimed to have broken 24-hour viewership record with his song called "Paagal" by crossing 75 million views in 24 hours, surpassing BTS.

Badshah later revealed that a significant portion of the Youtube views on "Paagal" came from paid advertising but defended that he is not the "only one" who does it. Even Youtube, which is usually very gushy about new records, was also silent about Badshah's feat, hinting its unhappiness.

YouTube currently allows users to boost views through Google advertising and it's all legal but apparently the search giant doesn't want the quality of its charts to be influenced with paid views. Badshah purportedly also used advertising platforms other than Google to further expand the reach of the music video of "Paagal" which led him to such a humongous view-count in less than 24 hours.

In a statement about the recent update, Youtube said, "In an effort to provide more transparency to the industry, we are no longer counting paid advertising views on YouTube in the YouTube Music Charts calculation. Artists will now be ranked based on view counts from organic plays."

Badshah's record made many BTS fans unhappy and Youtube's step is certainly in the right direction but it is yet to be seen how well it can track advertising done from platforms other than Google.