Mariah Carey’s “E=MC2” is fading back into obscurity after its four day run up the iTunes charts. Number nothing on Sunday, number 1 on Monday, number 18 tonight on iTunes. Where will it be tomorrow? Falling, falling, falling.
Meanwhile, now that the fan bases for 80s divas have figured out how to game iTunes, the competition is fierce. Madonna’s “Bedtime Stories” from 1994 is number 1 tonight, no number to back it up. Just a faked surge in sales. Even better, Madonna’s really dreadful “American Life” is suddenly number 14! From Friday to Tuesday night it sold 4 copies. FOUR. Someone went out of their way today to throw a few bucks at it. The numbers will be in tomorrow.
These aren’t beloved albums that sold well in the first place. They were terrible and were not big hits. They are obscure. Maybe that’s what makes the game interesting to the players, like the 17 year old kid Rolling Stone found in Connecticut.
The Michael Jackson fans have launched their own campaign to make “Invincible” a hit. So far there’s no sign of it. But by the morning, who knows?
iTunes has said nothing so far. But these are scams, and they reveal iTunes’ security issues. If someone thought it through, the next thing would be gambling on an album’s chart position. Now that would be interesting.
