On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 at 22:40:13, Chris Brown  
wrote in uk.music.charts :
>>
>> I trust downloads more as a reflection of actual
>> "FAN MERIT" of a record than airplay. Airplay is
>> incredibly dodgy.
>
>Whatever fan merit is

I'm guessing he means : due to the popularity of music, via word of 
mouth, rather than what radio or record companies tell them to like.

Already some artists have emerged via the MySpace/YouTube route - Colbie 
Caillat for example, big almost everywhere (except the UK, alas) now.
>
>> Payola is Paying to get your own records played!
>> Fake fans ringing on air to ask to play the last
>> dire record...AGAIN! DJs and Radio programmers recieving
>> brown envelopes full of cash.
>
>More to the point, some sponsored plays are actually still legal. Not that
>that's necessarily bad in itself, but they really shouldn't be part of the
>chart calcualtion.

Exactly.
>
>> Sure the record companies can buy their own records
>> off the download services. But there are Millions of
>> artists on there, they can't eclipse everyone and they end
>> up spending more money they have to recoup.
>
>Which is true, although it wouldn't be the first time record companies spent
>money they shouldn't have.

Not to mention artists presumably get less money that way, than from 
genuine sales.
>>
>> GATEKEEPING is what allows the horrible Reality TV star to release
>> another terrible but somehow successful Album! It works like this.
>> Most shops STOCK JUST THE TOP 40 RECORDS. Anything else and
>> you'll have to trek far to some specialist music store.
>
>In my experience no multiple retailer actually stocks *the* Top 40, although
>some might have *a* Top 40.

They *can't* stock the full T40 now, as a number of them are invariably 
not on physical release.
>
>> So via <COUGH> RELATIONSHIPS with Retailers, buying their own records
>> and
>> , actual sales,massive advertisement,the lowering of the amount of
>> records
>> required to enter THE TOP 40, Major labels use their finacial muscle
>> to
>> get them into these temples to get the big Second wave  of sales.
>
>That doesn't add up - how does buying their own records *reduce* the number
>of sales involved?

I've already refuted his point about lowering the sales level to enter 
the T40, as you've probably seen.
-- 
Paul Hyett, Cheltenham (change 'invalid83261' to 'blueyonder' to email me)