Calling Bullshit On iTunes

My love for iTunes is pretty well documented on this blog, I think. I use it almost exclusively for (legal) music downloading, and only twice in its existence have I noticed a technical glitch that affected my use of the site. But earlier this week I saw a series of events that I've seen a couple times now, and I think it needs to be pointed out.

Earlier this week Apple started running ads for its new ultra-slim MacBook Air and Leopard, its new OS. As is often the case in Apple commercials, there's some mindless poppy song in the background. In this case its "New Soul" by Yael Naim. This week when the iTunes page was updated with the new releases for the week, "New Soul" magically leaped to #1, without any previous appearance in the Top 100. In fact, prior to its appearance in an Apple ad, Yael Naim's catalog was only available in the French iTunes store. And I'm supposed to believe that based on a 30 second clip of a song in an Apple ad, millions of casual music fans leaped out of their seats to download a track by an unknown international artist, enough to propel that song into Billboard's Hot 100? Yeah, right.

I don't call conspiracy lightly. I don't believe the moon landing was faked. I sure as hell don't believe 9/11 was a government plot. The only conspiracy I've ever truly considered viable was the Kennedy Assassination, and that was after weeks of research in my senior year. But I can't help but believe that Apple might be trying to boost publicity for the MacBook Air by padding the download count on "New Soul".

I doubt it would be the first time, too. A similar thing happened to Feist's "1234" shortly after those annoying iPod video nano ads dropped (I don't know if that song went to number 1 though), and contrary to what my roommate wants to think, Feist was not big outside of indie circles prior to "1234". It also happened with U2's "Vertigo", but I'm more likely to believe that's natural based on the fact that U2 is in fact big enough to pull that kind of success that quickly without help from an iTunes ad and shady business from Apple. Then there are other random immediate successes, i.e. "Bubbly" and "Low", which seem pretty inexplicable (neither song was in the Top 100 before its sudden rise to #1), but since they weren't used to sell any Apple product, this could probably be explained away by radio play or other fair practices.

In closing, please don't immediately think this is the whole truth and that the iTunes Top Songs Chart is corrupt. It may be, it may not be...but based on what I've seen this week and in weeks before, I think there's plenty of evidence to call bullshit on some of Apple's practices. Just something to keep an eye on when you buy from iTunes from now on.

U2 - Vertigo [iTunes]

==TJ==