Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is an American hit list . The list includes the 200 best-selling music albums in the United States and is published weekly in Billboard Magazine . ==History [  edit ] == Billboard began in 1945 with the Top 5 Popular Album Chart, which appeared irregularly until early 1956. Only in March 1956 the first weekly list began, the Best Selling Popular Albums. The size of this list ranged from a top 10 and a top 30. In 1957, the list was given a fixed size of 25 titles.

In 1959 the album list was divided into separate lists for mono and stereo LPs. This lasted until August 1963.

In 1960 there was a further split in Action Charts (for albums that were recorded up to 29 weeks) and Essential Inventory lists (for albums that were recorded for longer than 29 weeks).

In March 1961, the Action Charts and the Essential Inventory lists were again combined in one mono and one stereo charts. The size was 150 titles for mono LPs and 50 stereo LPs.

From August 1963 the sales data of mono and stereo albums have been combined into one overall album chart. Initially, the size was 150 titles in 1967 to grow to a top 175. As of May 13, 1967 the album list is a top 200. Top LP's name changed in 1967 to its Top 200 Albums in 1984 and since 1992 The Billboard 200. ==[Rules  edit ] == Long time wielded Billboard different rules to determine which albums admitted were excluded on the Billboard 200. Thus too old albums. This so-called catalog titles were put in a separate chart when they were eighteen months old and had sunk to a position below 100. Including albums that never quite stood on the Billboard 200 but already had eighteen months of age, could return (no longer) in the list. This could sometimes lead to strange situations. So did Michael Jackson immediately after his death in 2007, the three best-selling albums in the US, but these were not in the top of the Billboard 200 since the albums were many years old. This rule was abolished in 2009 and since then regularly appear older albums on the Billboard 200. (In October 2014 for example, was 40 years old Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd in Billboard, the 883e week).

Another now abolished rule stipulated that only albums that were widely available, were included in the list. In recent years, however, it is becoming more common for an album exclusively in a store or online only, is available. These albums were not admitted until 2007 until the Billboard 200. The rule was dropped when the Eagles were the best selling album in the US with Long Way Home, which could be purchased only at one store. Billboard acknowledged that no justice was done with this line of well-selling albums as The Eagles, after which the policy was changed.

Nowadays it is no longer matter how old an album and where, and in what form, it is available. With some regularity are recorded albums that are in digital form only sale.