BTS Reaches No. 1 on Billboard Artist 100 Chart | Billboard News

The Billboard charts have long been the gold standard by which musicians measure their success, but as recent tantrums by the likes of Nicki Minaj have highlighted, the rising influence of streaming services is upending that model — and giving die-hard fans a way to manipulate the data. A recent release by the Korean pop group BTS prompted its superfandom, millions strong across the globe, to do just that by launching a sophisticated campaign to make sure the boy band reached No. 1.

The strategy employed by the so-called BTS Army went largely like this: Fans in the US created accounts on music streaming services to play BTS's music and distributed the account logins to fans in other countries via Twitter, email, or the instant messaging platform Slack. The recipients then streamed BTS's music continuously, often on multiple devices and sometimes with a virtual private network (VPN), which can fake, or "spoof," locations by rerouting a user's traffic through several different servers across the world. Some fans will even organize donation drives so other fans can pay for premium streaming accounts.

"Superfans of pop acts have long been doing this sort of thing," said Mark Mulligan, managing director of the digital media analysis company MIDIA Research. "But if a superfan has decided to listen nonstop to a track, is that fake? If so, how many times do they have to listen to a track continuously before it is deemed 'fake'?" One BTS fan group claimed it distributed more than 1,000 Spotify logins, all to make it appear as though more people in the US were streaming BTS's music and nudge their album Love Yourself: Tear up the Spotify chart, which in turn factors into Billboard's metrics.

I mean come on like dammm they deserve it

They are amazing congrats we are proud A.R.M.Y'S BTS your hard work is really paying off

💜💜💜💜

Good job guys Keep it up 👍👍 let keeps the world know you all that who you really are to be …and you really deserve this what you have been waiting for…and i wish you guys good job and good luck for your destiny….that you have been prepared for… thank you very much for reading this …annyeong hee gyeseyo😊

OH MAH HOLY SHI-😍😍😍🔥⚰️

LITTERLY BTS NEWS!❤️😂 BUT NO HATE! KEEP LOVING THEM BILLBOARD!!

I’m proud to be a fan of the most amazing people in the world

BTS IS THE BEST

CONGRATS BOYS YOU DESERVE IT! 💜💜💜

That's awesome
Congrats

In conclusion Min Yoongi can see the future

I’m so proud of our little mochis 💕

Congo BTS✌WE LOVE U ❤

I can't- I'M SO DONE. BTS IS TAKING OVER AND I LOVE IT. FUCK. ING. HELL. I. AM. SO. IN. LOVE! 💜💜💜💜💜

Congrats to our hardworking cute boys may the Lord bless you😇😇🎉🎉🎉🎉

I'm feeling really happy now, no words to describe 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

👏👏👏👏

I love BTS 😭💜.

Billboard news is just a bts fanpage

YESSSSSS OF COURSE!!!! 💜💜💜♥️♥️♥️♥️💗💗💖💖💖BTS!!!💗💖💕💛💚💓💘❣️💝💞💙💜❤️💗💖💖

LEGENDS ONLY.

Someoneeee told me in billboard comment section of last week: u wish girl (for no.1) and i said: i wish and tadaaa it will omgggg

Armyyyyyyyy btssssssss 💜💜💜

💜💜💜💜💜