A group of (Podshow-affiliated) podcasters have mounted a campaign to “Bum Rush the Charts” on March 22. In the spirit of “bringing the Media Man to his knees,” these podcasters want to show the Big Media how powerful we “little” podcasters are, by pushing an independent-label band, Black Lab, to the top of the iTunes charts for one day, March 22.
Thinking back to the rah-rah spirit with which I undertook podcasting in 2005, I’m inclined to shout “Yeah!” and hold my right fist in the air, thumb and pinky finger extended in a “rock-on” posture. We’ll show them who the powerful people are in the music biz. This is the quaint world-view I held about 9-12 months ago.
Then I reflect on it, and start to wonder: just exactly who is going to be impressed by this? As I mentioned yesterday, the media landscape is already fractured by virtue of the simple reality of the marketplace. I don’t think Big Media really cares about whether Black Lab shoots to the top for one day.
“The Charts” used to mean the Hot-100 charts published in Billboard or Record World. Everybody in the radio/music biz knew about those charts.
Who knows anything at all about the iTunes Music Store charts? Did you even know there was such a thing? Does it matter?
This really seems like a mostly empty gesture. It will do two things, neither of which is necessarily bad: it will give Black Lab a goodly boost in income for a day; and it will give the Podshow club something to talk about on Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code for the next three weeks.
But I don’t think it will really change the music business at all.
If you want to participate, it’ll cost you 99¢. Here’s the link:
By taking part I would be supporting:
a) only one random band, when there are more deserving bands out there
b) Apple Inc (who get most of the 99c, thanks to their iPod monopoly)
c) Podshow & Adam Curry
d) most importantly: DRM, as used by iTunes.
You’re hardly going to shake the industry by buying in to its abuses. No thanks…
Ah yes, the Apple DRM scheme! I forgot all about that one!
I’m going to post something tomorrow about the “one random band” aspect. I quite agree with that, the more I think about it.