Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Acknowledging the ever-increasing number of unsigned, independent artists, Billboard unveiled a new top-50 weekly chart on January 20 that aims to shine light on lesser-known artists and buoy careers.
Launched on Billboard.com, Billboard Uncharted is an evolution of last year's Dreamseekers launch, a subscription program (costing around $100/€73 a year) for unsigned artists allowing them to upload their music to the web and track their exposure on a range of outlets, including Twitter, blogs, and radio. Billboard applied those metrics to create a Dreamseekers chart, listing the top bands.
The new Uncharted ranks popularity based on a formula of online exposure incorporating streamed plays, page views, and fans according to MySpace Music as well as sources tracked by online aggregator Next Big Sound, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, ReverbNation, SoundCloud, iLike, Wikipedia, among others.
Uncharted will capture 50 artists across various genres of music, including country, rock, hip-hop, and Latin. To qualify, artists must be registered MySpace Music artists and have not previously appeared on a major Billboard chart, such as the Hot 100 or Billboard 200.
Occupying the No. 1 slot on this week's Uncharted ranking is hip-hop solo artist Traphik, described by Billboard as a "California-based Thai-American rapper known for his comedic YouTube videos and rhymes." Other artists in the top five include DJ BL3ND, Colette Carr, Javier Jofre, and the Deadlies.
For Billboard, the new initiative is one way to attempt to stay relevant in an industry flooded by new technologies and outlets, such as The Hype Machine, Last.fm, Twitter, and others, that help artists build buzz.
http://www.billboard.com/#/charts/uncharted
For a taste of Traphik, watch his clip poking fun at Black Swan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EellsPFv84&playnext=1&list=PLAE381C448E85DA19&index=36
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments