Eles mandaram uma carta pra Billboard.
Dear Billboard,
1,000,000 1st week sales of GaGa (with the $0.99 deal) are NOT the equivalent of an artist 10 years ago with 1,000,000 sales. At this rate, Gaga will outsell Celine Dion, Madonna, Mariah Carey in 10 years if she makes deals like these. Michael Jackson has rolled around in his grave, because his TOP selling album status may be ruined by your ignorant, silly and inappropriate policy.
You have to take into consideration that when artists like The Beatles, Whitney Houston, Eminem, Britney Spears, Usher, Shania Twain, Taylor Swift, 50 Cent, Norah Jones.. and all of the other artists who have has first week impacts over over 1,000,000 unit sales to consumers that there was NO SPECIAL DISCOUNTED PROMOTION for them. It's almost as if Gaga's taking advantage of the rules that have been set by the powers-that-be. This is why you have a lot of angry fans on your hands, especially Britney Spears & Eminem fans. You have someone who made a thunderous boom onto the music scene and left her mark with one of the highest debuts ever. That title is in danger of being stripped or lessoned because for two days (or even more) Amazon decided to virtually give the album away. In a sense it is completely not fair.
At the end of the day selling a brand new album at 99 cents means fans can afford to buy 100 copies for just under 100 bucks. IMAGINE 10,000 GAGA FANS BUYS 100 COPIES EACH ==> 1,000,000 COPIES ALREADY That basically gives her the #1 spot without her even trying to get it. Where is the pride in that? f**king PATHETIC! Almost ANY artist with a brand new album selling at 99 cents could accomplish massive first week sales and a debut number one. Its basically CHEATING.
The richest artist of the year (like GaGa) selling an album for $0.99 is the same as an artist who started from scratch and can not afford all these advertisments and plays things fair and sells an album for, let's say $9.99 ?? I'm sorry but your policy is UNFAIR.
And if GaGa truly wanted to give her fans the "treat" if an album in a more accessible way, she might as well leak her albums, and keep making money off tours if that's the case, but it is CLEARLY not the case, for it is obvious that the 1st week SALES is very important for GaGa and her team, and to make such a drastic and DESPERATE change is sad. This 0.99 cents album is totally ridiculous how a new artist with low budget is gonna compete with this kind of "politics" a new artist cant sell his album at 0.99 cents, this is basically so unfair to other artists that sold 1 million in a regular price
And a sign of Billboard's "go with the flow"and inconsiderate arrangements. Both GaGa and Billboard will be remembered for this policy change, because it minimizes the efforts and 1st week sales of many other artists who have earned their legendary figures and 1st week debuts. Billboard is joining the rest of the corporate-driven industry, where money talks. It is not artists and untalented individuals who ruin art and music, it is policy changes and last second behind-the-scenes decisions like yours who reduce legends' and icons' status. The digital era is inevitible, and one must deal with it rationally, not in biased methods of business making. Billboard has always been a respectable chart, and has been losing the respect from critics and even artists.
It's the fact that artists like Eminem, Usher, Shania Twain, 50 Cent, Norah Jones, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and others actually WORK hard to sell a $12+ album to their fans which ends up breaking records and selling 1,000,000+ and in comes this desperate ass try from Gaga to sell her 99cent album just to break the record. Yes, Gaga's album may be some-what good, but it's the actually work we're talking about here and the fairness of it. Your only asking for all this hate yourselves. So don't complain when people attack you on Twitter.
The industry is CORRUPT and it's all about Payola $$$. I guess the record industry isn't about quality anymore, but about how many records you can break by virtually smashing albums down America's throat. Ah well. The decline from first week to second will be another record that Gaga breaks...
Music politics is all this is. The media, Billboard included, are all strapped in on the Gaga train and money or something that is of value for BB is obviously being exchanged. The $.99cent sale of this album is nothing more than a ploy from Team Gaga to get her to break records and join that 1+million first week debut list. That's all. It's ridiculous and desperate for a debut week. With this I wish Beyonce would do the same thing, she deserves it as well. So does Katy, Rihanna and so on. TRYING HARD desperately selling her album for .99cents. With that price most artists could venture into the 700k+-1+million stream. It's ridiculous and Billboard knows it. You guys are always playing music politics.
Speaking about the situation with Britney's 5th studio album, Blackout. The Eagles had a choice. They chose to sell that album exclusively to a store that Billboard does not count AND has never counted for decades. They even willingly signed an agreement stating they would not be counted toward the regular Hot 200 album chart. So they change it last minute, for The Eagles? That is what you call unfair. That is what you call unprofessional.To change the rules of something that's been set for years and years and years, basically since day one of the chart starting in 1945 just because one band decided to not sell the album in a way where they would be counted, is not fair at all. They had a choice, they made that choice. You don't change the rules in the middle of a board game do you? Especially when the winner is about to be announced!
PS: All companies that have distributors sell their products have contractual terms for the price floor in which their product can be sold at or terms that require negotiation for major promotional activities. This prevents the original companies from losing brand value. In a normal sales transaction, both Amazon and the record profit on a sale to a customer and in order for both sides to forego that profit, there has to be an agreement on either side.
This means that Universal/Gaga is making a cut on the backside of the Cloud Service and a payment for the loss of revenue/price differential. Universal had to sign off on the promo plan and it likely included another check, on top of their normal cut, given the magnitude of the event.
Not to mention Gaga was giving out FREE codes to people with Farmvillle to download the digital album as well when they came to her cd signing the other night.
FANS OF MANY ARTISTS ARE SPREADING THIS LETTER EVERYHWERE. WE HOPE YOU WILL CONSIDER CAREFULLY AND WILL HAVE A GREAT DECISION (not counting those Amazon 0.99$ sales) FOR FAIRNESS.
THANKS & BEST REGARDS,
Início
