Billboard Recognises The Power Of TikTok With Official Top 50 Chart

A new weekly music chart has joined the ranks at Billboard, chronicling the Top 50 songs heard on TikTok every week.

Plainly named the TikTok Billboard Top 50, the weekly chart will list the most popular songs on the social video sharing platform “based on creations, video views and user engagement” (according to Billboard themselves). Notable, though, is that the chart will only cover metrics generated by TikTok’s userbase in the US, and will not reflect a song’s popularity on the platform in any other territory.

The chart will be released weekly on Thursdays, with the first edition going live last week. The inaugural #1 spot went to SkeeYee by Sexyy Red, who said in a statement shared with Billboard: “I am so excited that so many of my songs are charting on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart,” said Sexyy Red. “I always knew I would be a No. 1 type of artist, so I want to thank all my fans on TikTok for running my music up! I’m just being me on TikTok and people love it.”

Rounding out the first-ever Top Three are Doja Cat (with Paint The Town Red at #2) and Taylor Swift (august at #3), while Sexyy Red has another three songs in the overall chart – Looking For The Hoes (Ain’t My Fault) at #19, Face Down (a joint effort with MCVERTT and Ferg) at #27 and Mad At Me at #50.

Alongside its home on the Billboard website, the new chart will be directly accessible on TikTok – users can find it by pressing the round icon on the bottom corner of the app and then locating the ‘Music Charts’ tab in the top right.

Celebrating the chart’s launch in a press statement, Ole Obermann – TikTok’s global head of music business development – said of his platform’s milestone partnership with Billboard: “TikTok is already the world’s most powerful platform for music discovery and promotion, and each week our passionate community of music fans drives songs onto the Billboard charts. It therefore made perfect sense to partner with Billboard to create the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart. The chart gives a clear picture of the music that is being listened to on TikTok, and consequently starting to trend on DSPs and other services.”

The sentiment was echoed by Billboard president Mike Van, who said in a statement of his own: “We are thrilled to partner on the first Billboard chart on TikTo. At Billboard, we are constantly evolving our charts to reflect how fans engage with music and connect them more deeply with the artists they love. We see a clear opportunity to recognize the way music discovery on TikTok is shaping popular culture and are proud to offer this tool to the industry, while offering brands a new way to engage with music fans at scale. You’re not [#1] until you’re [#1] on Billboard.”

Head here to see the first-ever TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart.