DJs bought their own music on iTunes to boost chart rating... w/ stolen credit cards

I am pretty sure this is the source of mgmt's success.

Anybody who worked for a major label back in the day can tell you stories about being called at home and told to buy ten copies of an album on the way in to work.

Before they had soundscan to calculate sales, they would literally bribe stores with free product to report sales on something tbat wasnt selling. When soundscan first came on line. Meatloaf and Pink FLoyd shot straight up and they had to create a special catalog chart. They also found out that NWA and country music both sold and nobody really admitted it.

There were big scandals in the UK where they even rigged the charts to keep God Save the Queen from hitting number one.

Apparently self published motivational speakers are notorious for buying their own books at Amazon to boost their rankings and increase their speaking fees. They then just resell them at their lectures and turn a profit anyway.

Gangsta!

DJs should learn how to actually play instruments. Then they could call themselves artists. Until then, they're nothing more than musical mechanics.

Soundscan doesn't collect true sales data -- its not a one to one ratio. Instead, some stores are "weighted", meaning that in certain areas where there is a substantial gap between the population and amount of record stores, one actual sold copy may be scanned in at 2 or 3 - sometimes more. If you're slick enough, you can figure out where the weighted stores are, sell them your records, then purchase them back just to jack up your soundscan and resell to another buyer. Costly, but gets the numbers up. Its shady, but that's the music biz for ya.

I dated a girl that was on a "Street Team" for a major label. When certain new releases came out, she had to drive around town and buy multiple copies from every store in town. She would then ship them back to the label to get reimbursed. They had kids doing that in every city in the country.

The label could resell the product, and charge the extra cost to the band as "promotion costs." Win-win for them.

can you explain why our favorite bands never got to get their records played on commercial radio stations?

I think it is cheap but pretty funny.

When considering which acts to book, record, distribute, broadcast, or retail, avoid these shady characters. The second comment describes how products, that are preferred over these DJs', get buried. These DJs should have to work in a plant that recycles cutouts.

"DJs should learn how to actually play instruments. Then they could call themselves artists. Until then, they're nothing more than musical mechanics."

Enough said. But of course there will be some schmuck who will come on here and think he is some sort of "musical genius" because he uses Fruityloops, Reason, or Ableton. They "produce" garbage that is completely comprised of other people's samples and do not know an iota about music theory, let alone playing an instrument.

It's ok though, electronic music and DJ culture has been on the decline for almost a decade now. Once everyone from the 90's who went to raves where that garbage was played realized when they stopped doing E that the only reason they could tolerate the music was because of the drugs, they came to their senses.

Of course, there are a couple sheep hanging on while everyone else has gravitated back to live bands and acts (i.e. people with actual talent, who write their OWN music); these idiots probably think they will still be relevant 5 years from now and that Obama is doing a great job as a president. LOL!