However, even if it’s only 50% of the sales, i understand why OCC would disqualify them.

It seems to me that a lot of people are lying or hyping the truth to get their point across and as usual, it’s hard to get down to the truth in the music industry.

Midas’ next move will show what they are made of. Either they soldier on with touring or they try to sell their story to The Sun.

Also, when/what was the first incident The Judge is referring to?

1. 16 week preorder period – usual flurry of activity the first few weeks from family and core fans, buying mainly via credit / debit card option and texts from a number of phones numbers

2. SIM option introduced for just last 3 week period = 90% of total sales – I think not, even Midas could muster a few more than 200 sales in 13 weeks? They sold 1000 CDs last time around from a variety of outlets.

3. High unlikley that a store full of people were all planted by the band…with people unable to get to the launch its highly likely and quite common for people to by more than one copy of what was after all a limited run of just 500.

4. As soon as Midas were advised of a problem the SIM card option was stopped by the band – despite 2 more sold out gigs during the week of release.

I can understand the OCC and Mill’Brown asking questions but on balance they have not in my view taken all factors into account – how could they it was a last minute call?

I suspect the sample check made targeted a very narrow period that would not providea true picture of events?

The findings in isolation and Peters comments are understood but make for the reasons mentioned absolutely no sense – no matter what gets printed in the press?

Just my balance view looking at the big picture and factoring the bands very real and easily tracked populariy……Little Civic Wolves/ Rock Cafe Gis sold out and of course MUSIC WEEKLY FEATURE ON BIRMINGHAM MUSIC listing midas as one of the few bands to fill the small -medium (BarFly) makes these figures and 90% claim plain silly?

The Music week – a couple of weeks ealier had praised the band for their innovation.

The charts are meant to be a weekly representation of what is popular, so stockpiling sales over a longer period of time longer than a week does therefore fudge the lines somewhat. However, the current OCC rules DO allow you to count digital pre-sales and (the last time I checked) DON’T set a time limit on that pre-sale period. They are therefore inviting people to try such stunts, so you can’t really fault Midas’ management for giving it a whirl.

Incidentally, Elton John got away with a similar scam around 18 months ago whereby punters were invited to buy a lottery ticket in order to win a chance to meet Elton, and by purchasing the ticket also ‘bought’ a download. Elton went to Number 1 unchallenged and presumably the 6 runners-up got to meet Elton twice! Boom-tish.

My advice to Midas would be to milk this free publicity for all it is worth as it’s probably more valuable to them.

They are (with respect) a totally unknown band who are getting talked/written about on the knitting circles of the interweb. This is surely better than spending 7 days in the top 40 and then dropping off the radar completely…which is what would have happened with their single.

I’d never heard of them before this story broke, but I have now, and presumably so have lots of other people. I’d say that was job done. I may even listen to their tunes!

As an aside, I disagree with the growing notion that the singles chart is an irrelevance…but that’s another story and, in any case, I like POP!

Good luck to Midas in the future.

The OCC does not accuse Midas of attempting to hype the charts, but instead states their decision was made on the basis that they had “no sight of the original transaction.”

There’s a general rule when quoting facts and figures that you back them up. It’s sometimes known as “citation”. This is done to make your facts and figures actually useful rather than mere heresay.

I am no fan of the band, just an impartial and interested observer. Right now the Midas folks have the balance of my sympathies. You need to do a bit more to even get close to them in that regard.

Gimme the evidence. Innocent until proven and all that.

1. 90% of sales came from sequential mobile phone numbers. (Are there any real fans out there… oh yes 10%).

2. Less than only 1.5% of the 90% sales redeemed. Understandable that people wouldn’t want to keep listening to emo trash.

3. Witnesses stating multiple copies purchased at HMV’s.

Yes your right, it is the cheating untalented band Midas who need to get some genuine fans and not waste money hyping. Getting persanlity implants would be much more useful to these guys.

Live by the sword, die by the sword. I doubt these guys could ever chart with genuine sales and they deserve all the bad press they get.