Photo of Kanye West performing, by Jerritt Clark/Getty
Kanye West's latest album, The Life of Pablo, is currently on course to top the U.S. charts after being widely released to streaming services last week.
Industry forecasters' projections suggest the record could top 90 million streams (60,000 album equivalent units) by this Thursday's cutoff. And because it's not currently available for purchase outside of West's website, it would mark the first time an album hits No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with little to no actual sales.
As we previously reported, Billboard adjusted its chart formula in November 2014, allowing 10 individual track purchases or 1,500 streams of an artist's music to be counted as an album equivalent unit.
Prior to last week, Pablo was somewhat clumsily released in February before being recalled by West so that he could make changes to the record.
At press time, Billboard has yet to comment on the possibility of Pablo becoming a sales-free chart-topper.