Top Latin Albums is a record chart published by Billboard magazine and is labeled as the most important music chart for Spanish language, full-length albums in the American music market. Like all Billboard album charts, the chart is based on sales. Nielsen SoundScan compiles the sales data from merchants representing more than 90 percent of the U.S. music retail market. The sample includes sales at music stores, the music departments of electronics and department stores, direct-to-consumer transactions, and Internet sales of physical albums or digital downloads. A limited array of verifiable sales from concert venues is also tabulated. To rank on this chart, an album must have 51% or more of its content recorded in Spanish. Listings of Top Latin Albums are also shown on Telemundo's music page through a partnership between the two companies. Before this, the first chart regarding Latin music albums in the magazine was published on the issue dated December 30, 1972. Then, all Latin music information was featured on the Latin Pop Albums chart, which began on June 29, 1985, and is still running along with the Regional Mexican Albums and Tropical Albums chart. The Latin Pop Albums chart features music only from the pop genre, while the Regional Mexican Albums chart includes information from different genres like duranguense, norteño, banda and mariachi, and the Tropical Albums includes different genres particularly salsa, merengue, bachata, and cumbia. In 2005, another chart; Latin Rhythm Albums was introduced in response to growing number of airplays from reggaeton. On the week ending January 26, 2017, Billboard updated the methodology to compile the Top Latin Albums chart into a multi-metric methodology to include track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent albums units.
Regional Mexican Albums is a genre-specific record chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. The chart was established in June 1985 and originally listed the top twenty-five best-selling albums of mariachi, tejano, norteño, and grupero, which are all sub genres of regional Mexican music. The genre is considered by musicologist as being "the biggest-selling Latin music genre in the United States", and represented the fastest ever growing Latin genre in the United States after tejano music entered the mainstream market during its 1990s golden age. Originally, Billboard based their methodology on sales surveys it sent out to record stores across the United States and by 1991 began monitoring point-of-sales compiled from Nielsen Soundscan. Musicologist and critics have since criticized the sales data compiled from Nielsen, finding that the company only provides sales from larger music chains than from small shops that specialized in Latin music—where the majority of Latin music sales are generated. The magazine decided to rank Latin music recordings in August 1970 under the title Hot Latin LPs, which only ranked the best-selling Latin albums in Los Angeles (Pop) and the East Coast (Salsa). Before the chart's inception, musicians' only chart success was the Texas Latin LPs section where regional Mexican music was more prominent. Beginning in November 1993, Billboard lowered the rankings from twenty-five to fifteen positions on its Latin genre-specific charts, while the Top Latin Albums expanded to fifty titles. From July 2001 until April 2005, the chart increased to twenty titles and then lowered back to fifteen titles. Since 2009, the Regional Mexican Albums chart list the top twenty best-selling albums determined by sales data compiled from Nielsen SoundScan.
Latin Pop Albums is a record chart published on Billboard magazine. It features Latin music information of the Pop music genre. Established in June 1985, this chart features only full-length albums and like all album charts on Billboard, is based on sales. The information is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan from a sample that represents more than 90% of the U.S. music retail market which includes not only music stores and the music departments at electronics and department stores, but also direct-to-consumer transactions and Internet sales. A limited array of verifiable sales from concert venues is also tabulated. On the week ending January 26, 2017, Billboard updated the methodology to compile the Latin Pop Albums chart into a multi-metric methodology to include track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent albums units.
