I must say, I like it a great deal when a large corporation like Beatport comes out with a press release stating what’s wrong and what they’re doing to deal with it. It shows transparency in the company and a genuine desire to keep the artists/producers/labels on their toes.
They deliver quite the verbal beatdown on any who might consider trying to “fluff” their views.
First, if you’re artificially boosting your sales to fake the demand needed to score a favorable chart position, you’re robbing someone else, someone more deserving, of that same spot. You’re doing more than cheating. You’re stealing. You’re lying. You’re taking false credit for something you didn’t earn, and you’re hurting someone else by doing so.
Second, chart-boosting rarely works. There are some very easy and obvious clues that help us spot the scammers. These scammers talk a good game, but they’re really just preying on the desperation of aspiring DJs in order to line their own pockets. More often than not, the money spent on these scams is just wasted.
Third, you might get caught. There’s nothing the music industry hates more than an exposed fraud. Do you really want to chance short-term gain for long-term embarrassment?
Their vigilance is commendable. When a site commands as much attention as they do, it’s important to hold your distributors to a higher standard. A full-time team sifts through submissions and detects any anomalies that might suggest tampering or otherwise buffoonery affecting sales and views. And with good reason: there has been an increase in services providing these deals for promoters.