American music chart leader, Billboard, has suddenly announced a significant change to their main singles chart, the 'Hot 100', that may pose a new challenge for K-pop artists.

Billboard has unexpectedly decided to exclude official artist websites, frequently used by local K-pop fans, from the chart calculations. This move has sparked discussions within the music industry, some speculating that Billboard might be raising the 'bar' for K-pop singers.

According to industry insiders on July 11th, Billboard, in a recent announcement, has stated that it will be excluding D2C (Direct-to-consumer) websites from its chart calculations.

D2C websites are not multi-artist platforms like iTunes or Amazon Music, but rather official online stores where specific artists sell their music and albums exclusively. Examples include 'BTS Official' (www.bts-official.us) or 'Taylor Swift Official Store' (store.taylorswift.com), typically known as official homepages.

The 'Hot 100' chart takes into account music and official music video streaming, radio airplay, and physical single album and digital download sales.

These official websites have often acted as 'channels' to boost digital single download sales for the 'Hot 100' chart. This is done by offering digital singles at prices below one dollar, releasing new versions with altered cover images, or selling remix versions.

Apart from BTS, many K-pop stars like BLACKPINK, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Stray Kids, SEVENTEEN, and NCT, who have had success on Billboard, own such official US websites.

K-pop fans have managed to achieve impressive results by focusing on music downloads through these official websites, in contrast to relatively weaker streaming and radio airplay.

For instance, the recent K-pop 'Hot 100' number one, Jimin's 'Like Crazy', sold an equivalent of 254,000 in downloads and CD singles during the ranking period of March 24 to 30. Compared to this week's 'Hot 100' number one, Olivia Rodrigo's 'Vampire', which sold only 26,000 copies, it's evident how much 'power' K-pop holds in the download and CD market.

Thus, Billboard's abrupt decision to remove these official websites - a major source of digital downloads - from their chart calculations this month, could be seen as 'raising the bar' for K-pop artists.

The fact that Billboard has been progressively tightening download-related regulations over the last few years adds weight to this interpretation.

Last year, Billboard significantly reduced the number of downloads per person for a specific song from four to one, eliminating duplicated downloads from the tally.

Pop music critic Kim Do-heon said, "Billboard likely views the practice of achieving 'Hot 100' number one through fandom downloads as undesirable, given the shift towards streaming in the US music market. Among these, many are K-pop artists. It seems like it's time for the K-pop industry to explore new strategies in response to market changes."

An executive from a major agency said, "Fans will find another way to respond."

However, it's worth noting that fandom downloads through official websites are not exclusive to K-pop, as local pop stars like Nicki Minaj also utilize them. Therefore, some argue it's not entirely fair to view this as a 'restraint' on K-pop.

Another executive from a large agency said, "This measure should be seen as an attempt to guarantee the fairness of the charts."

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