Chartfixer shut down, speaks to TMN

08 June 2010

by Nathan Jolly

After causing ARIA such a massive migraine last week, the controversial Chartfixer website appears to have shut up shop. Its website simply states 'Chartfixer is closed'.

There’s no word yet on why the so-called ‘legit’ business has disappeared, but before it did, we managed to conduct an interview with the mysterious man behind Chartfixer last Friday. This is what he had to say.

With the furore surrounding Chartfixer, we contacted the mystery man behind the service and gave him an opportunity to justify his company’s operations. He wouldn’t speak to us on the phone, so we relied on email answers; a shame considering how many questions were dodged. For the purposes of this interview we’ll refer to the man as CF.

TMN: How long has the site been in operation for?

CF: Around two months.

TMN: What did you think about the Today Tonight story?

CF: Today Tonight’s story wasn’t too bad and means I don’t have to invest in a marketing video.

TMN: What has been the upswing in traffic in the past few days?

CF: Around a 100-times increase in visitors.

TMN: You claim 5000 downloads/$30k will score an artist a top twenty single. However as Tim Kelly (GM UMA) pointed out, this week it would have cost close to $100,000 to get a #1 single, and if it dropped like a stone week two it’d be pretty obvious it was a ‘fixed chart’.

CF: I never designed Chartfixer with getting a musician to #1 in mind. The intention was to give musicians a way to nudge their way into the lower part of the Charts (Top 80-40). The aim is to help a musician get their song some radio airplay for one week and then let the music-buying public decide whether the song should sink or swim. A bad song is always a bad song.

TMN offline: This is not what he claims in his FAQs, it’s all about the fame, the high chart, the ease.

TMN: Why all the anonymity? If it is a legitimate operation and, as you say, legal, then why the secrecy?

CF: Ironically, I am not one to crave the limelight.

TMN: Our investigations have revealed Chartfixer is registered to host Godaddy in the US, the website itself is hosted by Take 2 in the US, and the business registered to it, DomainsByProxy, is a deliberately shrouded company. Your company’s details are hidden from public record. How shy must you be?

CF: GoDaddy is the largest and most highly respected ISP in the world and I have to disagree with what you say about DomainsByProxy. DomainsByProxy is used by people that do not want to have their personal details such as their home address put up on the Internet.

TMN: As Stephen Peach (CEO ARIA) suggested to The Music Network last week, the activity is not legal under ARIA chart rules which specifically preclude artists/managers/agents/labels/etc from these practices. TMN also understand whilst it may not be a federal violation, it certainly means any suspicious charting activity will be investigated by ARIA and appropriate measures will be taken. What is your response to this statement?

CF: I have no issues with ARIA

TMN offline: That’s kind of not the point, they have an issue with YOU.

TMN: Today Tonight name checked two major label artists that use the site. Do you have safeguards in place to ensure the anonymity for your clients?

CF: The client themselves will always remain anonymous. In terms of the actual song, Chartfixer protects the songs by offering multiple songs for download simultaneously.

TMN: It’s indicated that the site requires downloaders to hand over iTunes account details. Effectively handing over your credit card. Is this correct?

CF: At the moment, the Chartfixer mechanism is tied to iTunes, meaning downloaders have to provide iTunes account details. The downloaders full credit card information can not be viewed within iTunes so the information is safe… Having said that, it would be good to unhook the relationship between Chartfixer and iTunes and move to another online music store that allowed Chartfixer to verify someone had bought a song without them having to provide any account details.

TMN: As an influential music media point, The Music Network is in a position to promote these Chartfixer artists. However we’d make a point of deriding any artist promoted by your company. What if TMN ran a Chartfixer chart?

CF: (nothing)

TMN: So, if an artist pays $30,000 for 5000 sales, you are making $6 per sale, $3 of which you pay downloaders. You take the other half right? More than both the artists and the downloaders. Does this run counter to your claim that this an artist service?

CF: The prices for Chartfixer were changed around five days ago as I hope to be offering as much as $5. A $3 payout meant downloaders received around $1.31 profit which was not so enticing to everybody. $5 would give the Downloader a profit of $3.31 so Chartfixer could hit its sale targets much quicker. Another option I am examining is to pay $4 to the Downloader, which is still a fair profit, and instead reduce the costs to the musician.