Birmingham: It's Not Shit

Its all very well Midas and their management trying to perpetuate this ridiculous debate under different names.
Tha facts are they were disqualified.
They then said it was a computer fault.
A few days later they came up with this ridiculous selling sim cards at gigs story.
Ask yourself this....

90% of sales from Sim cards (reported in music week) with CONSECUTIVE numbers. So they bought a shed load of sim cards themselves which they admit to.
Only 1.5% of these sales were followed up, as in they people who bought them actually downloaded the music.
NO ONE on their myspace mentions the Sim cards. People even from their own circle have come forward and said that they saw NO ONE selling sim cards at gigs.
They then said that they only sold them in the last week leading up to release. 
So they sold 3000 copies via sim cards, at gigs????
To use one of their simcards you would have to have an open phone or the same network, that automatically means only around a quarter of the audience (and thats being generous) would be able to use the sim cards.
And how many people do u know at gigs who dont have any credit on their phone but are willing to spend 5 pounds on buying a Sim Card.

The sad facts are this is a band so behind the times that they spent a fortune trying to rig the charts thinking they would get attention.
They were categorically BANNED from the charts for cheating.
They then concocted this ridiculous story.

And the problem is, everyone who knows them knows this is a lie, everyone in the music industry know they cheated. The only people they are trying to convince are the people on here and they do this by posting follow ups pretending to be fans.
So in effect they are just lying to themselves and no one else cares AT ALL.

If they had walked away instead of coming up with this ridiculous story i think people would have had at least some respect for them.

As it stands, their management publically lying just makes them look totally ridiculous.

Sorry , but it had to be said. Put this to bed lads , you have been caught and the OCC were totally right to band you for downloading your own single.

If you had really sold 3000 you would not be annoyed as you would have made your money back easily.
But you are annoyed arent you, because this desperate plan backfired.

Pathetic

As Jon Perkins said "...pretty hypocritical of the chart company to make Midas any sort of example. They should be lauded for best practice, not punished for being creative."


The previous week to the release the band were applauded in Music Week for their invetive DIY techniques. Then as soon as tey start making waves the single gets pulled from the charts? Hmmm....



John M

Well, as you point out, why would people want to buy a USB data card with songs on it? Very strange some of these digital sales methods...


But if it means money in the pot, and it's legal, then I don't think it's fair to punish artists for making the most of the new technologies available - although Dubber disagrees!

Right, cool. Seems unduly complicated.


Oh how I long for the days of popping into Swordfish on a Monday for the new releases.

It's selling a currency - a method of purchasing the tracks - rather than the tracks themselves. You sell a sim card with £5 credit on it, and the customer then texts a pre-order code for the track and it's variants ("redshoes" to 78789) and they get a weblink back where they can download the track. The band themselves aren't making the sale - it's processed by a chart-return retailer, in this case 7digital.com

Nice to have everyone commenting, you all seem to be big Midas fans... so tell me - how do you sell music via a SIM card? I can't figure it out at all.

Midas are definately one of the best and dare I say original sounding bands in the region - I have watched them for a while now and they get better each tinme I see them..They are great guys and always have time for people. I wish them well!

It's fascinating to read everyone's opinion on this!


http://newmusicstrategies.com/2007/08/31/more-stuff-thats-still-true/ - Andrew Dubber thinks all bands should be banned from the charts.



http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/?p=596 - Pete Ashton thinks that the industry can't keep up with new digital sales methods



http://www.musicweek.com/features/feature_page.asp?featureid=15267 - Music Week praises them for pushing the boundaries.



I personally think that whilst rules are there, bands should be free to use them however they feel, and it's pretty hypocritical of the chart company to make Midas any sort of example. They should be lauded for best practice, not punished for being creative.

As a fan, I was very disappointed when I discovered on 26th August that Midas where disqualified from the official charts.


Looking at the bands myspace (www.myspace.com/midas) they have sold out many gigs and therefore they have a big fanbase, so obviously they have sold records which got them into the charts. To me it seems that it is a one sided story because Midas have not yet had the chance to explain the misunderstanding and therefore I disagree that they have been disqualified from the charts.



Member Kris Lloyd says "We've worked extremely hard to achieve sales, and it seems we're being victimised for using the very methods we've been praised for by the industry. We have a fanbase of over 20,000 fans, so in fact only just over 10% of our fans have purchased this single.”

I was very disappointed to hear on Friday 26th august that Midas were disqualified from the UK charts by the OCC as they tried to sell their newest single “redshoes“ which was released on Monday 20th. I think this is a disgrace-a one sided story they need to ask the fans their opinion on the issue. Midas already have a big fan base and it will get even bigger as the band is outstanding and every single member puts their all into their music they should deserve credit. All of the members are really gutted about this but mostly for their fans as they are the ones who brought the single, it seems like dead money.


“we feel in this case, they’ve acted as police, judge, jury and executioner.” said by the lead singer-Kris Lloyd.



At the end of the day the band loves doing what they do and people like what they hear and want to hear this is why they sold as many singles as they did. Midas have a lot more to give. They only needed this chance to get heard and it was thrown back in their faces. Watch out to hear more from them because they are a band who give up.