The label put a 3:38 second (the length of the song) loop of ‘Rockstar”s chorus on their YouTube page. The loop has been viewed over 66 million times — or more than a million times a day since the song dropped.
Plays of chorus-only video now count as an official chart-qualifying stream, just like a remix would
So it would seem that Republic had figured out a way to put ‘Rockstar’ on YouTube without really putting it on the completely free service. There are no other official versions of 'Rockstar 'on YouTube, and the chorus-only version offers links to paid streaming services.
Now Migos and Motown are trying exactly the same trick with the brand new Migos featuring Cardi B and Nicki Minaj track 'MotorSport'.
As far as we can see that's the only official version of the track on YouTube. It's also notable that both Republic and Motown are under the Universal umbrella.
Now the question is why all of these people are listening to these chorus-only versions of songs.
[Related: Migos drops 'MotorSport'.]