JAY-Z's album 4:44 finished first on the album chart for the second week in a row this week.
However, those numbers are being called into question, with growing voices in the industry criticizing the way Tidal -- the streaming service JAY-Z owns -- has been reporting their plays.
In the first week of wide release for Jay-Z’s 4:44, total reported streams to SoundScan [Nielsen] were 122m, which was 68m more than the same streaming services reported to BuzzAngle. Similarly, two weeks prior, DJ Khaled won a race with Imagine Dragons for #1 when SoundScan logged 17m more streams than BuzzAngle. Industry insiders have confirmed that both Apple Music and Spotify, the leading streaming services with over 90% combined share, reported the same numbers to both chart services.In other words, Tidal seems to be inflating the numbers of their preferred artists to Nielsen, which is used to determine the Billboard charts.
[Related: Check the first week projections for JAY-Z's 4:44]
HDD adds that "there is a growing call from the industry to boot Tidal as a reporter to SoundScan."