Can we rig the charts??!!

[inglorious01]

I remember a few years ago, John Ottway's fans asked him what he wanted for his birthday and he said another hit. So, his single Bunsen Burner went into the top 10 after all the fans bought multiple copies of it.
I was wondering if this is possible with downloads since the guys seem to have had a bit of difficulty getting the cds out to the shops recently??

I'm thinking some sort of stop gap single, not off the current album, or the first single off the next album. Maybe then The Wildhearts could do a similar thing to what Radiohead are doing and let the fans then decide how much they want to pay for the next album? Just a thought!

[spoon_of_grimbo]

i can't see the wildies doing the radiohead thing tbh. since round records is owned by the band, they'll see a lot more money from album sales than if they were on another label, and it probably makes for a significant portion of their income. radiohead are a multi-platinum band the world over, and as much as they'd have you believe they're still "suffering for their art," the fact is, they could retire several times over on what's in their bank accounts. the wildhearts, it would be safe to say, are not is this sort of position, and thus need the money that they'd get from album sales.


as for the buying multiple copies of a single, it's a nice idea, but i really don't know how many people would actually do that, unless it was done at xmas and everyone bought it for a present for people...

[fluffygrue]

Depends what the reasoning behind it would be.. If it were a) to promote the Wildhearts to the mainstream.. then it might be cheaper to just do some conventional promoting. If it were b) to get the band some money, it might be easier just to send them some cash. Or beer.

[inglorious01]

Well, several reasons really.

The band are long overdue a top 10. It would get them some media attention and hopefully a top class record deal. Any profits they make can go towards the next or future recordings.

[nuno75]

I've already bought the physical CD single from Amazon, plus both availble versions of the full single from iTunes: the "single" (two tracks) and the "EP" (three tracks).

[firedup]

I think its a great idea for the next single. 10 copies each (1000 people?). That should be enough to easily get a top 10 hit. At 79p each, I'm willing to buy 10 for £7.90 to guarrantee a hit!

[Rancidpunk_76]

Just great, ordered my copy of the single from Amazon (just over £4 with postage) due to the fact that no high street stores were stocking it. I go into virgin today and they've now got loads of copies on the shelf..... a week late..... for only £2.

Oh, and i'm still waiting for my copy to arrive from Amazon.

[wez_wildheart]

still fucking WAITING on HMV Belfast ringing me to tell me its in

this was tradition since i was 14 years old. I never missed an album or single on the release date

i had plans of sitting in the listening chair, can of beer listening to to the BSides

bugger HMV right up the chuff

[geordierussell]

still fucking WAITING on HMV Belfast ringing me to tell me its in

this was tradition since i was 14 years old. I never missed an album or single on the release date

i had plans of sitting in the listening chair, can of beer listening to to the BSides

bugger HMV right up the chuff

I would chck with them. The fuckers cancelled my order for no reason.

[wez_wildheart]

what happened there mate? did you order it inside the shop or online?

thanks a million for the heads up!!!!

[JasonH]

You can't just "rig the charts", there's loads of checks & balances in place to prevent it happening. Otherwise everyone would be doing it!

Of course you can run a campaign to promote the single to more people, and you can multi-format the single for multiple genuine individual sales. But, in general, multiple purchases aren't counted towards the chart - purely for the reason that it would then be so easy to rig.

Every week the download sites produce two sets of stats for the chart compilers - how many of each song they've sold, and to how many unique customers. It's the latter figure that the compilers use. So you can download a song a million times, but if you only do it from one computer then it will only count as one sale.

Same with multiple purchases in a shop. You can get away with a couple of each format, but beyond that the transaction will be ignored.

Unless there's a genuine reason for an unusual peak in sales - such as an instore signing event - any suspicious sales patterns are more likely to lead to an investigation and disqualification of the single from the charts.

Trust me on this...