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, albums must have at least 50% 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 chart, 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.