The Fight To Be #1 On iTunes
03.21.07 - 02:17pm
Is it based on “artist’s greatness” or simply “artificial media.” This is the question a group of renagade podcasters called Bum Rush The Charts are trying to answer and a point they are trying to prove by organizing a push for Black Lab, an independent rock band, to #1 on iTunes music charts.
Their goal is for 50,000 purchases of the song on Thursday in a move they hope will push the song to #1. Their statement is to demonstrate the power of podcasting. They wish to get respect from the major record labels who are reluctant to share recordings with the podcasters due to fears that the consumer will get the music for free.
In response to the push, a spokesman for Apple said that simply having so many songs bought wouldn’t allow the song to go #1. “It’s a lot more complicated than just taking a snapshot of the previous 24 hours worth of sales,” the spokesman said.
The statement has done little to still the movement. Mark Yoshitmoto Nemcoff, the podcaster who came up with the idea said “We’ve touched a nerve among podcasters and podcast listeners, who all seem to get it. They all seem to understand that this is a way to prove the power of podcasting and the podcasting audience.”
Andre Mayer, a Canadian Broadcasting reporter thinks differently writing “When it comes to art, quality should be the only determiner of greatness.”
Black Lab leader Paul Durham fired back stating that Fergie’s “Glamorous” being at no. 1 showed that iTunes chart topping was already driven by “something other than quality”.
“For me, this Top 20 represents a total artificial product of juggernaut marketing on the part of major labels,” Durham said last week from his studio in Los Angeles. “If we go to No.1, it’s going to be a totally artificial thing, but it’s certainly not going to be any more or less artificial than what the major labels do.”
Whether it will reach number one or not we’ll have to wait and see - the “push” however has already brought the podcasters a lot of the attention their looking for.
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