The music industry is about to go through a major transformation and we will be witnessing it in the next year or two. Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one who is so amazed by these changes. I guarantee you that if John, George, Elvis and Michael ever came back, they would be shocked to learn that Billboard has added a whole new feature for charts that has nothing to do with the sales of songs.

Starting in May, Billboard, the world renowned music trade publication, will be ranking songs being discussed and shared the most on Twitter. The real-time charts will be published on Billboard.com as well as through the publication’s Twitter feed.

Having been a Billboard reader for decades, this change is mind-boggling because the entire music industry lived and died on the weekly sales charts. In order to rank on the top of the list, you had to achieve more sales that week than any other artist.

Now the whole complexion is changing when Billboard starts showing which artists and songs are being discussed the most. Sales will still be reported too but chatter is going to have a major influence on popularity.

This is going to be an interesting journey in music because Twitter, like all social media, can be manipulated by users who have millions of followers. One good tweet can have a huge impact on trending and future Twitter conversations. Read more about it in The New York Times.

From where I stand, this is going be a very interesting new twist in the music business. I will report any new findings