Artists should be aware of a new company tyring to prey on the naivety of young artists by fleecing them of their hard-earned cash.
Chartfixer.com is a new service based in Australia offering to fix the ARIA chart to give you a chart position by paying anonymous downloaders to buy your song.The chartfixer fee starts at $4500 for 750 down, which they say may be enough o reach the Top 100. This week, that payment would have been outside of the Top 100.
Spend an outrageous $30,000 and will "buy" 5000 units of your single, enough they say to get a Top 20. (This week it would have made it no. 23).
What is disturbing about this company is that they claim to be "your ticket to fame and fortune". That statement is completely misleading. There is no ticket to fame. Fame is a by-product of hard-work and dedication. If fame can be bought for $4500, everyone would be doing.
The Chartfixer website says it is being trialled in Australia "before being unleashed upon the world". It says the UK and America will be their next markets.
They claim the service is legal. Maybe it is, but the service it provides a completely dishonest representation of an artist's value.
I do not believe that Chartfixer as a business model will survive, but not because it will be run out of town. As a company offering something so silly as "fame and fortune" for a fee, I don't believe there will be enough vulnerable victims to fall for this crap.
Okay, so lets say they hook that "one in every crowd" victim. Victim 1 spends $4500 and does get to no. 100. So what? No one cares and you are out of the chart one week later.
Let's say Victim 1 has $30,000 to spend. You get a song at no. 23, no-one in the business believes in you because you appeared from nowhere, and one week later you are a: gone or b: need to spend another $30,000 to maintain the scam.
It is always disturbing to see vultures appear in the music industry with the sole aim of preying on innocent victims who do not know any better.
Who Mr. Chartfixer is remains a mystery. There are no names mentioned on their site. A whois look-up of their URL reveals they have hidden their registration information.
Spread the word on these guys. They are bad news.
Watch the Today Tonight Music Scandal report here
