Hard News by Russell Brown

Chart boosting as you've called it is older than EDM and would no doubt stretch back to the very first compiled chart I'd wager. If anything you've got to hand it to some genres and the people within those genres in their being able to build businesses around fixing things on a chart -beatports moans ring hollow to my ears as does a huge chunk of the souless crap they peddle

Is buying votes any worse or different than asking people to vote the audiences lottery wheel of funding? Yes is the answer but only by degrees I'd suggest in response... @peace got a vote outta me today, I love the musical road they travel...

Is it all that different than "paying" for a free download with a like?

Gaming the system ain't new... it just seems to be resident in a certain part of Mexico city currently - if only I could say the same for EDM

oh yeah... Ron Hardy mix from 87 - its a sunny day, whats not to like?

http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=415

So Beatport makes a margin on all those fake downloads (the artist is just recycling their cut, possibly with the record company participating in the hyping cost if the musician has a very sweet deal).

Crocodile tears?

Found a Lorde remix on Cousin Cole's SC page,and this gem by Misun, singer from Washington DC, re-edit with STEEL DRUMS. Love it. Free DL too... https://soundcloud.com/nacey/misun-july-cousin-cole-nacey

Heh. Of course you’d have found those much sooner if you’d only paid attention to my blog last year :-)

So Beatport makes a margin on all those fake downloads (the artist is just recycling their cut, possibly with the record company participating in the hyping cost if the musician has a very sweet deal).

Crocodile tears?

I think they're genuinely unhappy about it -- as evidenced by the no-second-chances policy they're applying -- because it smothers any real buzz that might be indicated by their organic sales. It wrecks their credibility.

The actual sales figures in dance music are small, but showing up in these charts is a way to get DJ bookings, which are far more lucrative. That's why DJ/producers will pay a company to generate sales that appear to have come from many different individuals.

Chart boosting as you’ve called it is older than EDM and would no doubt stretch back to the very first compiled chart I’d wager.

Oh, sure, but it seems like it’s becoming pervasive.

Is buying votes any worse or different than asking people to vote the audiences lottery wheel of funding? Yes is the answer but only by degrees I’d suggest in response… @peace got a vote outta me today, I love the musical road they travel…

There’s a reason that hip hop acts have won so many TheAudience wildcards – they can mobilise their fans on the internet very effectively. But that’s very open.

Is it all that different than “paying” for a free download with a like?

Very different. You’re engaging with an individual listener. It’s a one-to-one exchange.

Gaming the system ain’t new… it just seems to be resident in a certain part of Mexico city currently – if only I could say the same for EDM

Some of these guys have nearly 20 million followers. If the single biggest source of Likes for every single one of them is a Facebook hype-shop in Mexico City, that starts to smell pretty bad.

Hey, here’s a thing.
At 6pm on Tuesday at AUT, called
Pull Down the Shades: Why Chris Knox is Fucking Brilliant!

That's Tuesday the 27th (not next Tuesday)
- just to clarify...
:- )

That’s Tuesday the 27th (not next Tuesday)
– just to clarify…

Thanks for the save. Crucial date information accidentally omitted from the sentence there …

Toy Love poster (with sundry Wellingtonians). http://www.upthepunks.co.nz/wiki/index.php?title=File:Section2a_03.jpg

I'd say in relation to dance music its been over a decade of some gaming the system, its the target that moves the underlying motive always being the same - used to be way more about motivating a audience to vote/like/preview

Its not like the retailer in question isn't against manipulating their chart themselves , (or I would wager most online retailers), - its the fact others are doing so out of their control that makes them grumpy

tbh I find it all quite bemusing... and a little punk rock plus very music biz

gorra post a couple of things I found today.

my new favourite Elvis video...

the sweetly groovy Caravelles...

and some funky Yugoslavian jazzsters

showing up in these charts is a way to get DJ bookings, which are far more lucrative

Good point, which translates to us getting "top international DJs" who turn out to be a bit meh.

Or, missing out on the hyped people due to distance and dollars, which may be a good thing...

yes and no - most promoters know who are real talented at their craft... they also know who sell tickets - the two are often not the same

Generally though we've been well served for a long time by our local promoters, they serve up a good mix of the musically awesome and the popularist and market them accordingly (clue - one market is often targeted via the use of girls in bikinis on promotional material)

Invisible string band...

my new favourite Elvis video…

That's Brains, from Thunderbirds, with contact lenses...

thems fightin' words, Brains could never bust out that Elvis moonwalk - gonna have to practice that at home.

Some of these guys have nearly 20 million followers. If the single biggest source of Likes for every single one of them is a Facebook hype-shop in Mexico City, that starts to smell pretty bad.

That's roughly the population of Mexico City. So either they do an awful lot of touring around the Distrito Federal or "starts to smell pretty bad" is unnecessarily polite.

As if EDM’s aesthetic crimes weren’t enough, there’s a growing recognition that the celebrity DJ culture is not what it seems. The online dance music store Beatport has posted this furious open letter about the increasing prevelance of “chart-boosting” – DJs and producers paying a company to buy their tracks so they can use “"Beatport number one!” for bragging rights.

Methinks they doth protest too much. I may be old but this post is the first time I've even heard of Beatport. Mind you, I don't listen to EDM, so there you go. #getoffmylawn

self-explanatory really...