Interesting article about how Billboard allegedly helps artists manipulate their charts.

Thoughts?

Yes. This has been ongoing but now more than ever because STREAMING and all that and different platforms and tie in deals like "Buy this energy drink and also my cd comes with it" and that counting as a "music sale" its really all a numbers game now because labels really are meaningless at this point, they are more for catalogs and things like that. I mean back in the day with Mariah's "LOveryboy" single, she was selling that CD SINGLE in some stores at 50 cents while other artists were selling them 1.99 and as comedian Dennis Miller said "Two of shit, is still shit". I did music retail in the soundscan days (when music sold) and Soundscan was introduced as this "Whats really selling" type thing, and though it was tracking that, i can HONESTLY say that 30-40% of things were bogus, numbers were manipulated through false register rings at some chains, in other places some releases were not even counted.

Well, I remember in Mariah's case, Sony would overstock many of her singles and instead of sending them back, they got permission to deeply discount them.

phillymonster said:

No they would never do that would now would they?

We know some of those numbers are skewed. That's why I laugh when

fanboys of some of these artists brag about how many records they sold

as though that determines the artistic merit of said artist.

I know.."5 billion streams" like...ok but no one actually really buying them records though

Free listens just don't equal merit for me

There is only one chart in 2019 and that's the Spotify Global Top 50.

paisleypark4 said:

I know.."5 billion streams" like...ok but no one actually really buying them records though

Free listens just don't equal merit for me

Yeah I dont think people really get it, they see a million views and think wow those people are getting paid! Well they are not. On youtube, it would take 2.5 Million views (full) to earn the artist 1500 dollars. Which is not including all the others that take from that first, if an artist didnt write the song they get less, if they are on a label they really get less. On Spotify it would 400K streams to earn that 1500, the 1500 was a marking they used basing that on being a minimum wage paying job, But again if an artist didnt write produce play on the record, they are not making anything. In terms of the other streaming services, Amazon is equal to Spotify, iTunes is about 100K less to get to 1500, and then Tidal is about 50K less than Apple, but again you better be writing your own stuff or your screwed, if you got co writers and samples and producers you better have another job, or you will need about 50 million streams to live.

kitbradley said:

phillymonster said:

Well, I remember in Mariah's case, Sony would overstock many of her singles and instead of sending them back, they got permission to deeply discount them.

Same with Destinys Child. I remember at Sam Goody they were selling Detiny Child singles for 50 cents. And they would always ask the customers did they want to buy it? Very irritating.

Yes this was the infamous "WAR" because Mariah had left sony, LOVERBOY was on EMI, Destinys Child was showcasing Beyonce, and at the time Sony and EMI were dumping the singles on Sam Goody, and making sure they had them on the counter on displays and people walking around with them, they checked up on the stores constantly, it was the BIGGEST BS thing I ever saw, trust me I worked there during that time so I know. We all were like if they can sell a crappy song for 50 cents why cant they cut the wholesale prices on full cds, which is what drove Sam Goody and Tower out of business, the labels would never budge on COSTS! which is what the consumers never understood.

Please don't ask this question because "All I Want For Christmas Is You" went #1