Google escalated its conflict with Penske Media Company by asserting that YouTube will cease submitting streaming information to Billboard charts beginning January 16, 2026.

The transfer marks a dramatic new entrance within the ongoing battle between the tech large and the media conglomerate that owns Billboard, Rolling Stone and Selection.

YouTube’s world head of music and Hip-Hop veteran Lyor Cohen stated the platform refuses to simply accept Billboard’s methodology that weights subscription streams larger than ad-supported streams.

“We imagine each fan issues and each play ought to rely equally,” Cohen wrote in a weblog put up on Wednesday.

The dispute comes simply months after Penske Media sued Google in federal court docket over AI overviews. The September lawsuit alleged that Google illegally makes use of Penske’s journalism to energy AI summaries with out consent whereas lowering visitors to their web sites.

Billboard up to date its chart guidelines Monday to slender the hole between paid and free streams from 1:3 to 1:2.5. However YouTube demanded equal weighting for all streams no matter whether or not customers pay for subscriptions.

“Billboard makes use of an outdated formulation that weights subscription-supported streams larger than ad-supported,” Cohen stated. “This doesn’t replicate how followers have interaction with music right this moment and ignores the huge engagement from followers who don’t have a subscription.”

The streaming methodology combat represents the most recent escalation in a broader conflict between Google and Penske Media. Penske alleged that Google forces publishers to permit their content material for use in AI-generated summaries as a situation for showing in search outcomes.

The corporate stated about 20% of Google searches linking to its websites now present AI overviews, with that proportion anticipated to rise.

“We now have a duty to proactively combat for the way forward for digital media and protect its integrity – all of which is threatened by Google’s present actions,” Penske stated within the lawsuit.

The media conglomerate reported that affiliate income had dropped by greater than a 3rd from peak ranges by late 2024, as search visitors declined. Penske attracts 120 million on-line guests month-to-month throughout its properties.

Google defended each disputes, saying AI overviews assist customers uncover content material, whereas YouTube information will proceed to move to Luminate, Billboard’s major chart supply.

Billboard responded that it hopes YouTube will rethink and acknowledge “the attain and recognition of artists on all music platforms.”

The chart firm stated it measures fan exercise appropriately primarily based on client entry, income evaluation and trade steerage.

YouTube paid the music trade over $8 billion previously 12 months, in line with Cohen, and now each side seem dug in for a protracted battle that would reshape how tech platforms work together with media firms.

Associated