With the rise of music streaming services, such as Spotify and Jay-Z’s Tidal service, the views and shares of Billboard, as well as their competitors, articles have had a dramatic decrease in the last year. However, I present to you a possible solution to u-turn that decrease, a hypothetical Billboard streaming service. (Below)

Yes, Billboard has attempted a similar project in the past, Billboard Radio, which failed in a horrible fashion, but a streaming service would require nowhere near as much traffic to be “worth it” for the company.

The only issue is, “would you, their audience, use the service?” I asked various music listeners on campus their thoughts and I received good responses from both extremes:

Q: “I know many of you are very accustomed to listening to music via Spotify and do not tend to visit music news websites, but hypothetically, if Billboard were to launch a streaming service via their website, featuring their charts now and in the past, as well as other music, would you be more inclined to visit their website, to both read articles and use this service?”

A: “I think I would likely use their streaming service and it would be a strong incentive for me, as well as others, to read their articles.” – Mitchell Shin

A: “I don’t care for Billboard or their opinions, therefore I have no interest in their website’s articles. I mostly listen to alternative, which isn’t overly popular as top 40 music, so the website has little to no use for me.” – Nick Wodeshick

Both valid points, but what side do you fall on, would a Billboard streaming service be useful to you?