It is now widely known that Lady Gaga's new single, "Applause," is trailing behind some other recently released singles, particularly Katy Perry's new single, "Roar." When last reported, Gaga's single had garnered around 200,00 downloads, whereas Perry's had gained over 500,000, and counting. According to The Huffington Post, Gaga therefore reached out to her little monsters directly to try to promote her new song, a practice that some have found unprincipled.
Last week, the 27-year-old pop star held a contest to entice her fans to buy multiple copies of "Applause." Gaga told her Twitter followers that the two fans with the most "purchase/gift screenshots, radio requests, 'Applause' selfies/video" will fly to London to meet her, and will attend the iTunes Festival to watch her performance of the new single.
Gaga continued her mission to get "Applause" to the top of the pop charts by tweeting a link to watch the song's new music video. Though the tweet has since been deleted, the original link Gaga sent allowed users to watch the video 150 times in a row.
Bill Werde, the editorial director of Billboard, publicly expressed his distaste for Gaga's methods, considering them cheap tactics to bump up the song's popularity. Werde took to Twitter to denounce Gaga's actions. "I just hate to see anyone try to game the charts, be it fans or artists," Werde wrote. "It's not in the spirit of what we do, celebrating success."
Werde also tweeted: "We count multiple views per person. Go to Vevo and keep watching a video on your own and we count it. An artist tweeting out and facebooking a link that enables a fan to hit play and leave their computer is not in the spirit of what we chart."
Werde sent out another series of tweets in succession, specifically speaking out against "playlisting."
"1. It is fine to self-promote, send links to fans, etc. my objection is to playlisting. It seems some fans are unaware such a link was sent. 2. By "playlisting" I mean a link to "watch" the same video 150 times: roughly 9 straight hours of the same vid."
Werde took the time to dispel the misconception that he personally dislikes the singer. "3. I've been/remain a fan of gaga's. I have previously tweeted my affinity for Applause. None of this has anything to do w chart integrity," Werde wrote.
"Applause" is Gaga's first single off her upcoming third album, "ARTPOP," which is set to debut in November.
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