You may have seen the above graphic doing the rounds online last week, it was created by Laidback Luke’s label, MixMash Records, and offered a free refund to anyone who bought his latest track via Beatport and emailed the label with their receipt.
The main intention for this promotion was to game the Beatport charts – plain and simple. You buy the track they give you your money back and they get a higher Beatport position.
Well, it seems like a lot of people, including Beatport, aren’t too happy with the tactic have quite rightly kicked up a fuss and subsequently got the track’s chart position reset. The most galling part about the whole scam was just how blatant it was. Check out the screen grab from the label’s Facebook post below.
Beatport has since released a short statement when DJ Mag approached them about gaming of the charts.
“While conducted in the open from a reputable label with no history of artificially influencing sales, the campaign impacted Beatport policies regarding chart eligibility. Out of fairness to other labels, Beatport had no choice but to remove the track from the store as a result. The decision to remove the track in question was not to punish Mixmash Records, Laidback Luke, or Tujamo, nor should it be seen as an accusation of any wrongdoing against any of the parties involved. The track was re-added shortly after with a new track ID to reset the chart position.”
Laidback Luke also commented about the track’s chart removal: “I am disappointed that my latest single is being penalized, but look forward to the discussion it will hopefully create on new ways of promoting music for the future & how they should be treated.”
So there you go, you cannot offer refunds in the hope of getting a Beatport number 1.