Wednesday, August 21, 2013 6:49am ET by  
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Billboard boss criticises Gaga over 'unfair' video hits

Billboard editorial director Bill Werde has questioned Lady Gaga's apparent effort to inflate hits on her new video.

The company's Hot 100 chart now includes views from official videos online, such as lyric videos and full music clips.

Gaga recently released her comeback single 'Applause' and she has been encouraging her fans to spread the link and continually watch the track's video.

Speaking on Twitter, Werde suggested that fans are also being encouraged to watch YouTube playlists containing the video on repeat, meaning that the clip may rack up an unfair amount of views. He said:

"We count multiple views per person. Go to VEVO and keep watching a video on your own and we count it. An artist tweeting out and facebooking a link that enables a fan to hit play and leave their computer is not in the spirit of what we chart."

He added: "Please keep this in context. Streaming is only a portion of Hot100 and surely overwhelming percent of views have been well-earned. I just hate to see anyone try to game the charts, be it fans or artists. It's not in the spirit of what we do, celebrating success."

Werde later concluded: "1. It is fine to self-promote, send links to fans, etc. my objection is to playlisting. It seems some fans are unaware such a link was sent. 2. By "playlisting" I mean a link to "watch" the same video 150 times: roughly 9 straight hours of the same vid. 3. I've been/remain a fan of gaga's. I have previously tweeted my affinity for Applause. None of this has anything to do with chart integrity. 4. I'm not suggesting we'll discount credible views. I suspect (but wont know til AM) YouTube antispam tech will take care of playlisting."

 

 

 

 

 

Watch the video for Lady Gaga's 'Applause' below: