Dan Bull's Free Single Hits The Charts

from the not-bad dept

Mon, Apr 30th 2012 12:25pm — Mike Masnick

Last week we wrote about Dan Bull's experiment to release a song, "Sharing is Caring" for free via The Pirate Bay (and other sites) and to see if he could still get it to show up in various charts. As we discussed, it definitely was making its way onto the lists of Amazon UK's top hip hop sales. And, on Sunday, the official UK charts came out -- with Sharing is Caring coming in at number 9 on the Indie singles chart and number 35 on the RnB singles chart.

In both cases, "Sharing is Caring" was the top new entrant on both of those charts. While some will say that not making the pop charts suggests this was a failure, it sure looks like a ton of folks were happy to support Dan's effort. As for the US charts, those have a weighted system that includes radio airplay, meaning that there's simply no way Dan could get listed, because he's not going to play the payola game to get on the air. Either way, it was a great experiment, and a job well done by Dan.

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Filed Under: dan bull, indie, music charts, rnb, sharing is caring
Companies: the pirate bay

35 Comments

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arcan, 30 Apr 2012 @ 12:27pm

but but piracy is bad. they must have hacked the system to get it up there
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Rikuo (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 12:33pm

Latest news...UK Court orders the 5 largest ISPS in the UK to block Piratebay. "Its for the Artists!" they say.
Ergo...this artist who deliberately released his music on the Piratebay, now can't service his customers.
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That One Guy (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 12:52pm

Re:
Thank you for that, really. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be banging my head against the wall to try and knock that particular bit of stupid out.
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gorehound (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 12:55pm

Glad you mentioned the PAYOLA SYSTEM.It is the only way those big RIAA Traitors get their status.Not by the Art they do but by the Record Label paying off Radio to play them more than someone else.
Boycott the MAFIAA !
Support & Buy INDIE Stuff
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2012 @ 12:59pm

Congratulations, Dan.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2012 @ 1:06pm

Re: Re:
Judging by your comment you have quite a bit of history with head injuries, perhaps you should stop.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2012 @ 1:14pm

Re:
This is Bull!
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That One Guy (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 1:17pm

As long as I'm going to be banging my head against a wall, may as well play village idiot here for a bit and beat the trolls to posting. Let's see how many shill 'points' I can rack up...

Just like Marcus to completely miss the point. And btw I'm still waiting for you to publicly post every detail of your life and job to establish your credentials, and until you do I'm just going to ignore everything you say.

But see, none of that actually counts, because he's completely skipped out on posting on Authorized channels!

Obviously since he didn't go the smart route and signed up to get his music distributed by (whoever is in place of the RIAA over there) his music is completely terrible, since everyone knows if you're signed up to a major label that means you're a good musician!

The only possible way he could have gotten that high up on his own was having a bunch of pirate freetards just downloading the file multiple times, and since they probably used Big Search to find it Google is once more encouraging people to steal from artists.

(I take it back, that was actually kinda fun, though still made my head hurt to read it after)
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Ye Dumb Olde Phartes Hater, 30 Apr 2012 @ 1:21pm

Three Words
Streisand Effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

Duh.
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That One Guy (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 1:21pm

Re: Re: Re:
Cushy, tie-dyed foam on that section of the wall. The idea is to replace the stupid with some random crazy.

Without the padding, and reading all the usual shills on this site, as well as the 'brilliant' business decisions made by the RIAA/MPAA/other 'entertainment' overlords, I'd have knocked holes in every inch of my wall long before now...
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2012 @ 1:22pm

luckily Dan ran his trial when he did. with the UK High Court issuing the ruling to force ISPs to block TPB, he may well not have had such a success. considering a reason behind the ruling was

'Sites like The Pirate Bay destroy jobs in the UK and undermine investment in new British artists',

makes you wonder how the hell Dan and others ever make any money at all! a better comment would be that the money grabbing fuckers in the BPI cant bear to have any artist make the charts or make money unless a large proportion of it goes to the industries first!
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2012 @ 1:23pm

Re:
Yeah, Marcus is wrong, rather than advise you stop, please continue until you're completely brain dead. Not long to go!

Well done Dan, a shame so many morons still fail to grasp how the industry really works hence see how significant this is.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2012 @ 1:24pm

Re:
You're not very clever, just thought you should know.. 'cause you seem to think you are, and that's not going to work out well for you.
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Simon, 30 Apr 2012 @ 1:26pm

yes but...
Yes, but this would never work for people without bovine based surnames.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2012 @ 1:26pm

Streisand Effect post evidences recursion.
Mike - you trendsetter, you.
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dniMretsaM, 30 Apr 2012 @ 1:33pm

Yeah, but...
Even though Dan was able to get on the charts without the help of Big Media, it's obvious that it won't work for any other artists.
----------------
Seriously, though, huge congratz to Dan Bull!
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2012 @ 1:55pm

Re:
Very insightful post, my friend. Down with Big Search!
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Overcast (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 2:45pm

It's not about copyright - it's about the RIAA's fear of just this.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2012 @ 2:46pm

There are exceptional cases in all areas. Dan Bull is a loud mouth, he has learned how to suck up to the online social media types and blogs (like this site) and has positioned himself to be the "hero of the tardian masses".

Wait for the week 2 results, where the song completely disappears.
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Overcast (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 2:46pm

"As for the US charts, those have a weighted system that includes radio airplay"

LOL, Radio - what's that? Is there 'free' music there? Is that legal?

OMGz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MUSIC IS FREE ON THE RADIO!!! THE ARTISTS ARE **DOOMED**!!!!
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Overcast (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 2:49pm

Oh and by the way - I'm making yet more CD purchases from Amazon today, because I...

HEARD MUSIC FOR FREE ON PANDORA!!!!

OMGz!!!!

IT was FREE!!!!

But it prompted me to buy CD's - HOW CAN THAT BE?!?!?!?!?!?

lol
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2012 @ 3:28pm

Re:
Clearly this is the work of Anonymous. Surely this latest cyberterrorist activity proves that we need even more draconian regulation and legislation regarding the Interwebs. Think of the children! If you are against censorship, you're with the pedophiles!
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RadialSkid (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 4:03pm

Re: yes but...
If that doesn't end up in the funniest comments tally at the end of the week, I'll be very disappointed.
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RadialSkid (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 4:06pm

Re:
There are exceptional cases in all areas.

As always, it only works for artists his size, smaller, or larger.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Apr 2012 @ 4:18pm

Re: Re:
No, it only works under certain circumstances, and doesn't appear to have legs.

It's more of a nose tweak concept, and getting everyone from social media sites to push it (Hi Mike!). It's nothing more and nothing less than that.

As a business model, it's lacking.
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Torg (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 4:27pm

Re:
>Wait for the week 2 results, where the song completely disappears.

Oh, good, a particular claim that's easily testable. Very well, let's see where this goes in a week.
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RadialSkid (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 4:34pm

Re: Re: Re:
No, it only works under certain circumstances

Much like a label contract. Remind me, what percentage of label acts don't recoup? 94%, is it?
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apauld (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 6:03pm

Re:
Wait for the week 2 results, where the song completely disappears.

and considering the his country is now forcing ISPs to block access to the site, you may be right; just not for any of your reasoning, or rather lack of reasoning.
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apauld (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 6:08pm

Re: Re: Re:
and doesn't appear to have legs.

It's more of a nose tweak concept, and getting everyone from social media sites to push it (Hi Mike!). It's nothing more and nothing less than that.

I would like to see the data, that you apparently have found, that proves his music career will not be better in the long run for doing this. Please post your data and/or a link to where said data can be found.
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AzureSky (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 7:09pm

Re:
hope its not RIAA lables your buying from......
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 7:31pm

And I halped! /shake'n'bake kid
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G Thompson (profile), 30 Apr 2012 @ 9:35pm

Re: Re: Re:
It's more of a nose tweak concept, and getting everyone from social media sites to push it (Hi Mike!). It's nothing more and nothing less than that.

As a business model, it's lacking.[emphasis added]

I bolded your comment to show just how absolutely stupid your actual comment is, well unless you have never heard of the concept of MARKETING ever before.

Getting sites to push something either by asking them too AT NO COST and then for Word of mouth to occur so other sites do it so it gets a certain viral push behind it is the wet dream of any marketer.

Though hey what does anyone know, you have decreed that it's a horrible business model. You sure you never sold buggy whips in another life?
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Anonymous Coward, 1 May 2012 @ 7:56pm

Dan Bull? Every morning I call up his brother Red. And we drink alone.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 May 2012 @ 8:08pm

So a one off novelty song charts, so what? How about you chart one EVERY week?
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Birkin, 17 Sep 2012 @ 6:13pm

So sharing the resouces is great. I love this. I often share resources with others.
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