Did Chart Topper Kris Wu Just Game iTunes?
Kris Wu, a Chinese-Canadian actor, singer and former member of EXO, topped the iTunes song chart on Monday. For almost 24 hours, Wu had all 5 tracks in the Top 5 with the exception of Ariana Grande’s just released single “Thank U, Next." But Wu's success appeared under some unusual circumstances and according to one source, won't count towards this week's chart tabulations.
Kris Wu is wildly popular in China, but not well known elsewhere. Here's how Variety describes the scheme:
"First, his album hadn’t yet been released in China, where the label purportedly purposely held it back so it could come out on Wu’s birthday, Tuesday, Nov. 6. Typically, albums come out on Fridays worldwide, as per the global release date change instituted in 2015. But in the U.S., it was already available on iTunes, released by Interscope Records on Nov. 2…"
"It’s not hard to see how fans from China, with a population of more than 1.3 billion, could impact a chart so swiftly but how were those living in the famously curtained country, which doesn’t even have access to Twitter, able to make a purchase on a U.S. platform? And was it a grassroots fan effort to flood the iTunes store or did the album’s backers manipulate the system in order to generate buzz for their new act? Another source surmises that there was “a plan to game the U.S. system to gain traction in the U.S. and mobilize a new audience.”'
Either way, Variety is reporting that these sales will not count toward the Nielsen Billboard charts. Apple has not yet commented.
Scooter Braun, whose client Ariana Grande's release was overshadowed by Wu's stunt, first expressed consternation in a now deleted tweet, and then seemed to accept another explanation.
