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Does anyone know if buy back still happens?


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Old 22-01-2011, 18:17
Jo09
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Back in the days it was alleged that record companies ued to buy their artits single to get to no 1 and make their artists popular. Didn't think it was true until one chap from the 80s admitted it. Just wondering in the digital era whether this still happens. I wouldn't put it past some companies.
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Old 22-01-2011, 18:49
Carmen Queasy
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There's rules in place now which prevent mass buying. I think it's one or two singles from the same place only and anything after that will be voided (from the same person). If anything suspicious is seen (like hundreds bought from the same card) then the chart company can exclude the song from the chart altogether.

Further to that, it'll require a lot of debit/credit cards and a lot of man power to buy enough to make a difference. I doubt there's enough people to go round record shops and buy the single over and over again.
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Old 22-01-2011, 22:31
Jo09
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Thanks Carmen!
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Old 22-01-2011, 23:10
Carmen Queasy
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I tried to find the rules on the Official Chart Company's site, but I couldn't, but I found this link:

http://jedwardgenius.*********.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=releases&thread=1353

Sorry for the link but the rules are in that post anyway, so it gives you an idea at how much harder it is for record companies to buy lots of copies.

Digital Spy seem to have blocked the link, but replace the *s with p r o b o a r d s (no spaces)
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Old 23-01-2011, 10:15
TommyGavin76
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I am fairly sure it still happens, but it's against chart rules. I'd have thought with digital sales it would be easier now.
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Old 23-01-2011, 13:52
Jo09
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I guessed that going into shops and buying baulk hard copies had ended. But with tweenies being paid to big up artists n all I wondered whether they had cracked it. A few suspect no 1s make slighty suspicious. Does Itunes stop multiple copies being purchased?
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Old 23-01-2011, 14:08
Carmen Queasy
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It'll undoubtedly still happen but because of the rules in place it's much harder to bulk buy. If they were found out - which is much easier with digital music - they could invalidate all the previous sales from everyone.

Fans mass buy, but when they do they are careful of how they do it because any more than 3 tracks in one transaction (1 in some cases) can invalidate the sale and count as just one copy.

I read that iTunes only allows 1 copy to be used as a "stat" for the charts, and every other copy is just counted with that one (no matter when you buy it - on the same account, of course). The general rule, I believe, is you can buy 3 copies and they'll all count, but any after that and they won't.

The reason it used to happen is because being high in the top 40 gets you recognised and it's a good form of promotion, but the chart company put rules in place to prevent people buying their own records en-mass and skewing it that way.
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Old 23-01-2011, 14:38
eugenespeed
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I guessed that going into shops and buying baulk hard copies had ended. But with tweenies being paid to big up artists n all I wondered whether they had cracked it. A few suspect no 1s make slighty suspicious. Does Itunes stop multiple copies being purchased?
What you're referring to there is Street Teaming. I used to be a street teamer in my early 20's, and boy, did I promote some crap.

I didn't get paid financially, but rewarded with free gigs, backstage passes and free CDs.

Some of the bands I helped promote were Scissor Sisters, The Futureheads, Clea, The Webb Brothers, Gillian Welsh, and a few more.
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Old 23-01-2011, 16:38
Motorbiking
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I guessed that going into shops and buying baulk hard copies had ended. But with tweenies being paid to big up artists n all I wondered whether they had cracked it. A few suspect no 1s make slighty suspicious. Does Itunes stop multiple copies being purchased?
If you buy more than three hard copies in one transaction, it only registers as three, even if you buy 30. You have to queue again and buy another three and so on. The fact that it's time consuming and that you'd eventually be spotted is the deterrent.

Itunes have a limit to the amount of downloads of any one item to one address/account that count as sales but it's quite a high limit and it is perfectly feasible to inflate a song's chart position by orchestrating a campaign well without even having to involve that many people.
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Old 23-01-2011, 16:50
Carmen Queasy
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If you buy more than three hard copies in one transaction, it only registers as three, even if you buy 30. You have to queue again and buy another three and so on. The fact that it's time consuming and that you'd eventually be spotted is the deterrent.

Itunes have a limit to the amount of downloads of any one item to one address/account that count as sales but it's quite a high limit and it is perfectly feasible to inflate a song's chart position by orchestrating a campaign well without even having to involve that many people.
I believe the OCC set digital downloads to 3 songs in the same transaction as well. I read somewhere that iTunes limited it to one, but I am unsure.
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