Drake Insists the Music Industry Is Cooked After Billboard Change

Drake is calling the music industry "so cooked" after Billboard reversed course on its decision to exclude YouTube streams from its charts this week.

On Wednesday (Nov. 11), Drizzy hit his Instagram Story with a screenshot of an article about the change, which walks back a decision from January of this year.

"Wtf this game so cooked," he wrote with a shocked-face emoji.

YouTube announced its return to the charts on Monday (Nov. 9) after pulling its streaming data in January 2026 over disagreements with Billboard's formula, which gave more weight to paid subscription streams than free, ad-supported streams.

"We are returning to the Billboard charts starting in 2027. Billboard's new methodology better reflects how fans engage with music today across both subscription and ad-supported services," YouTube's Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen, said in a blog post.

Following YouTube's announcement, Billboard announced that effective Jan. 16, 2027 (based on data gathered on Jan. 1-7), the Billboard 200 chart will tally one album consumption unit as equivalent to 1,500 ad-tier streams or 1,000 paid subscription-based official video and audio plays from a project's tracklist. Currently, the Billboard 200 considers each album consumption unit as equal to 2,500 ad-supported streams or 1,000 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs on an album. Each album consumption unit equals one album sale or 10 individual tracks sold from an album.

Check out Drake's reaction to the news that YouTube streams will again be counted toward Billboard chart rankings below.