WesWhite

Only a very tiny fraction of the money spent on any single sales will have gone to Shelter - *the band* said that they would give *some* of their royalties from the sales to the charity. The label have pledged nothing from it and nor has anyone else. The money people spent on disqualified singles, which was several hundred thousand pounds, could instead have been added directly to the total that was voluntarily given by campaigners at http://justgiving.com/ratm4xmas. It was a brilliant campaign but some of the silly techniques used were stupid wastes of money that only lined the labels' and retailers' pockets.

Good use and bad use. About half of the total sales were said to have been disqualified and I think the plainly ludicrous multiple gifting that went on might well have been part of that. Worst thing about that is we could have more than doubled the money to Shelter with the amount people spent on disqualified single sales!

I think it's meant as a joke, but that they'll actually do it...

Don't forget all those Good Friday Church services could be a factor... ; )

Agree about how well written this piece is, too : )

Okay... so it's an April Fool... but seriously why the hell *aren't* they doing that? I'd have started doing that two years ago if I was them!

NotMyself - I do agree about shutting out newer songs. My thing's all about new music.

I'm confused by all these comments about campaigns distorting the charts. You could equally argue that any label's marketing campaign distorts the charts, as that a grassroots group of people does. Some of these campaigns work and some don't, just like some traditional marketing campaigns work and some don't - it depends on the strength of the song and the story, just like commerce does too. The only difference is it's determined from the ground up rather than top-down by the labels and radio stations. I'm really curious to know whether most Buzzjackers love or hate the idea of my own 'Storm the Charts' group, where the songs that are going to be chosen are coming from a large pool of applicants - half chosen by the public and half by panel - I'm hoping we'll help some really good music and I think that certainly the public voted tracks will have a mandate. I hope this is a group some of you might be interested in, but I'll understand if some of you hate it too! http://bit.ly/chartstorm is the link.

I don't like enough of them to vote :P

When music doesn't chart on real merit, is if there are crappy megacorporations behind every track in the charts.

White Stripes - My Doorbell +20 points Britney Spears - Do Somethin' 19 KT Tunstall - Suddenly I See 18 Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc. 17 Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl 16 Amerie - 1 Thing 15 Girls Aloud - Biology 14 Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor 13 Sugababes - Push The Button 12 Gorillaz - Dare 11 Chemical Brothers - Galvanize 10 Kaiser Chiefs - Oh My God 9 Good year.

Watch Delirious? - climbing fast now that the Christian Music for Easter Facebook group has sorted its links out, up to 120 and 176 from nowhere overnight (and 330 or so an hour ago)

Haha, oh dear that's not so good for them then! Sadly I don't think Bulmer's Pear is exempt from the hike...

Having 45,000 Christians in a group doesn't mean you've got 45,000 fans... :P I barged my way to the front at an instore performance of theirs, by accident, once. I was trying to get to the CDs beginning with 'A'. Anyway looks like Wurzels went to 210 on iTunes but no sign of Delirious? As a Westcountry atheist I know which side I'm on. Just.

'Christian Music Toping the UK Charts': http://www.facebook.com/invadetheairwaves?ref=ts - 45,469 fans and rising fast 'Campaign to get The Wurzels to No1 in protest of Cider getting a 10% tax!': http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=112832208727212 - 42,900 members and rising even faster Who will win...? :teresa:

If anyone's wondering (not assuming that anyone is, but just for interest) - how the tracks I mentioned at the beginning of the thread are doing, that the 'Let's get a Genuine unsigned band in the charts' facebook group have been downloading this week - They've both had top 100 sales ranks on Amazon for most of the week, currently one is at #4 in 'Dance and Electronica' on there and the other is #1 in 'Jazz' and #4 in 'Rap' I think if they managed two top 100s overall they'd be quite happy, but I've only seen one of them make a brief appearance in the iTunes top 1000 when I've looked, so - well, you know. This is a different group from my own Facebook group 'Storm the Charts' which has been in the media a bit this week, to avoid confusion.

I posted about a Facebook group trying to get two tracks by Unsigned artists in the charts this week; my thread seems to have been deleted and I'm not really sure why. They are 'If I Ruled The World' by Destination and 'Charlatan Old Boy' by Digital Earth - the former has currently got an Amazon sales rank of 298; and there are 2 versions of the latter both around the 1,000 sales rank mark on there. I'd be grateful for the knowledge if anyone notices if they appear anywhere in the iTunes chart, even in the lower reaches. Thanks.

Thanks Ben, this is what I thought was the case, good to have it confirmed.

Am I right to think that the old week stops at midnight Saturday and the new one begins immediately on Sunday morning? As on the Official Chart Company's infopack at http://www.theofficialcharts.com/infopack.php it says "compiled at 1.30pm" - that doesn't mean that the sales count til then, does it?

1 (top). Goldfrapp - Lovely Head 2. Radiohead - Pyramid Song 3. PJ Harvey - This Is Love 4. Basement Jaxx - Where's Your Head At 5. Muse - Feeling Good 6. Bjork - Pagan Poetry 7. System Of A Down - Chop Suey! 8. Eve & Gwen Stefani - Let Me Blow Ya Mind 9. Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You 10. Victoria Beckham - Not Such An Innocent Girl Oh wait am I too late? Whoops.

+40 Beyonce - Crazy In Love +39 All Saints - Pure Shores +38 Sugababes - Freak Like Me +37 Lily Allen - The Fear +36 Ting Tings - That's Not My Name +35 Gnarls Barkley - Crazy +34 Gorillaz - DARE +33 Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor +32 Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out Of My Head +31 Leona Lewis - Run +30 Britney Spears - Toxic +29 Christina Aguilera - Beautiful +28 Eminem - Stan +27 S Club 7 - Don't Stop Movin' +26 Destiny's Child - Survivor +25 Beyonce & Shakira - Beautiful Liar +24 Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love +23 Sugababes - Round Round +22 Will Young - Leave Right Now

10= Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor 9= Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out Of My Head 8= Lily Allen - The Fear 7= Spiller ft Sophie Ellis Bextor - Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) 6= Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down 5= Eminem - The Real Slim Shady 4= Kanye West - Stronger 3= Nizlopi - JCB Song 2= Billie Piper - Day And Night 1= Sugababes - Push The Button What an odd bunch.

Hi Ricky. It would be a great answer to my questions, it would make everything far easier, but it seems to contradict the information I found this morning. http://www.theofficialcharts.com/infopack.php : "Chart Rules - Ensure that your release complies with the chart rules for both physical and digital formats Registering Formats - You must ensure that you register your physical formats with Millward Brown and your digital formats need to be registered with CatCo [Catco is the old name for ppl - Wes]. This is to ensure that all sales are tracked and allocated to your release correctly." http://www.ppluk.com/en/Record-Companies/repertoire/ : "Benefits of PPL Repertoire Database ...2.Your digital releases will be available for inclusion in the Official UK Charts... " I've emailed both the occ and ppl though so hopefully they'll be able to advise as well.

This is better! I couldn't vote for the ones I loved in heat one because I couldn't find enough to make 10! : p 1 All Saints - Pure Shores 2 Beyonce - Crazy In Love 3 Kylie Minogue - Slow 4 Gorillaz - DARE 5 Leona Lewis - Run 6 Eminem - Stan 7 Lady Gaga - Bad Romance 8 Christina Aguilera - Beautiful 9 Britney Spears - Toxic 10 Destiny's Child - Independant Women Pt 1

I'd vote but I can't find 10 I like enough. :P