Deftones' 'Around the Fur' Clears a Year on the Billboard 200

Deftones' 1997 album 'Around the Fur' has become the first full-length release by the band to spend a full year — 52 weeks — on the Billboard 200, America's most competitive albums chart.

Deftones have crossed a line no album of theirs had reached before. Around the Fur, the band's second full-length, has now spent a full year on the Billboard 200 — the weekly ranking of the 200 best-performing albums in the United States, and the roster every label, legacy act and debut artist competes on at once. As Forbes Business reported, it is the first Deftones album to manage a year on the chart.

Why a year on the chart is a commercial milestone, not a nostalgia note

The Billboard 200 is not a sales chart in the old sense. It is a consumption chart: pure album purchases, track-equivalent units from song downloads, and streaming-equivalent units from on-demand plays are folded into a single weekly figure. That structure changed what longevity means. An album from the 1990s no longer needs shelf space at a retailer or a radio campaign to keep charting. It needs to be played — steadily, week after week, by enough listeners to out-consume the newest releases fighting for the bottom half of the list.

That is the harder test, and it is why a year of weeks matters. Chart debuts are bought with release-week marketing. Chart persistence has to be earned by demand that nobody is paying to create. For a rock record released decades before streaming existed, a year on the 200 is a statement that the audience is renewing itself rather than aging out.

How catalog streaming rebuilt the economics of 1990s rock

The mechanics behind this kind of run are well understood inside the music business, even when the individual chart lines look like curiosities. Streaming pays per play, in perpetuity, and it does not distinguish between a song released last month and one released in the previous century. Once a back catalog title finds a durable place on playlists, in algorithmic recommendation and in the listening habits of a generation that discovered it after the fact, it produces a revenue stream with almost no marginal cost attached to it.

That is the logic that has driven a decade of catalog acquisition, with investment funds and major labels paying multiples of annual royalty income for rights to songs from the 1970s through the 1990s. The asset case rests on exactly what Around the Fur is now demonstrating: that consumption of an older record can be stable, predictable and long-lived rather than a decaying tail.

Heavy rock and its adjacent genres have been particular beneficiaries. Short-form video has repeatedly pushed decades-old guitar music back into circulation with younger listeners, and the albums that benefit tend to be the ones with a reputation that outlived their commercial peak — records that critics and musicians kept citing long after the release cycle ended. Around the Fur sits squarely in that category.

What the run says about the band's wider catalog

One detail is worth holding onto: this is the first Deftones album to reach a year, not the band's only charting title. A career catalog behaves like a portfolio. A single record achieving unusual longevity tends to pull attention toward the rest of the discography, because listeners who arrive at one album through a playlist rarely stop there. For an act still touring and recording, that spillover has practical value — it raises the floor on streaming income, it strengthens ticket demand across markets, and it makes any future rights transaction more valuable, because buyers price durability rather than a single good year.

It also reframes how a band of this vintage is valued. An artist whose income depends on the release cycle is exposed to whether the next record connects. An artist with a catalog title compounding weeks on the Billboard 200 has something closer to an annuity underneath the touring business.

The market backdrop for entertainment assets

The wider tape gave no particular direction at the end of last week. At the most recent close, on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA: SPY) finished at $769.35, down 0.23% on the day from a prior close of $771.10, inside a session range of $768.31 to $775.30. The Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq 100, closed at $716.43, off 0.65% from $721.11. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (NYSEARCA: DIA) closed at $535.06, essentially flat at -0.03%.

Those are index-level moves and say nothing about any single music company. They do frame the environment in which catalog assets are being priced: a broad market drifting sideways, with the technology-heavy benchmark the weakest of the three on the day. Investors weighing music rights against other yield-like assets are doing so without much momentum in either direction from equities.

What to watch in the coming weeks

Three things will tell you whether this is a durable trend or a spike. First, whether Around the Fur keeps adding weeks rather than dropping off after the milestone — chart runs often continue quietly once they clear a psychological threshold, because the underlying streaming demand does not know about the threshold. Second, whether other Deftones titles begin appearing or climbing, which would indicate discovery flowing across the catalog rather than concentrating in one record. Third, whether the pattern holds across 1990s rock generally, which is the variable that actually matters for anyone pricing catalog rights.

For the band, the practical read is straightforward. A record released in the 1990s is now competing on the same weekly chart as everything released this year, and holding its place. That is not a legacy footnote. It is a demand curve that has refused to flatten, and in the streaming economy that is the single most valuable thing a back catalog can have.

Key facts

• Album: Deftones — 'Around the Fur'
• Milestone: First Deftones full-length to spend a year on the Billboard 200
• Chart: Billboard 200, described as America's most competitive albums roster
• Market backdrop (close, Aug. 28, 2026): SPY $769.35 (-0.23%); QQQ $716.43 (-0.65%); DIA $535.06 (-0.03%)

Frequently asked questions

What milestone did Deftones just reach?

'Around the Fur', the band's second full-length album, has spent a full year on the Billboard 200. It is the first Deftones album to accumulate a year of weeks on the chart, which Billboard compiles weekly from the 200 best-performing albums in the United States across purchases, track-equivalent units and streaming-equivalent units.

How does the Billboard 200 measure performance now?

The chart combines three inputs into one weekly consumption figure: pure album sales, track-equivalent units from individual song downloads, and streaming-equivalent units from on-demand plays. That structure allows older catalog records to keep charting on listening activity alone, without retail placement or a new marketing campaign behind them.

Why is a year on the chart harder than a high debut?

A debut position is largely bought with release-week promotion and pre-orders. Persistence is different: an album has to keep out-consuming new releases week after week with no paid push. For a record from the 1990s, that means the audience is renewing itself rather than simply aging.

What does this have to do with catalog music investing?

Streaming pays per play indefinitely and treats old and new recordings the same way. Funds and major labels have spent years buying back-catalog rights on the assumption that consumption of older titles is stable and predictable. A 1990s album holding a year on the Billboard 200 is direct evidence for that assumption.

Does one album's run affect the rest of a band's catalog?

Usually, yes. Listeners who discover an artist through one record through playlists or recommendations tend to explore further, which lifts streaming across the discography. That spillover supports touring demand and raises the valuation of any future rights sale, because buyers price durability across a catalog rather than one strong year.

What were the major US indexes doing at the last close?

As of the last trade on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026, the S&P 500 tracker SPY closed at $769.35, down 0.23%; the Nasdaq 100 tracker QQQ closed at $716.43, down 0.65%; and the Dow tracker DIA closed at $535.06, down 0.03%. Markets were closed at the time of writing.

Sources

• Deftones Hit A Year On The Biggest Albums Chart For The First Time — Forbes Business

Photo: Jonathan Cooper · Pexels Licence — source