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Shop Boyz track meets surprise rival on Hot 100
05/18/2007 10:10 PM, Reuters
Jonathan Cohen
Strong radio airplay has helped push
"Party Like a Rockstar" by Shop Boyz onto the Billboard Hot
100. But in an inadvertent move, it's also helping an obscure,
similarly named song sell tens of thousands of downloads and
emerge as a rival on the charts.
While Universal Republic holds back the online launch of
the Shop Boyz song (on OnDeck/Universal Republic) so the label
can push a "vingle" (video and single) promotion with iTunes
that starts May 22, Hard Hood Records' Freak Nasty has stepped
into the breach with its song "Do It Just Like a Rockstar."
With a different name, hook and melody, the song isn't a
copycat. But consumers are confusing the two tracks just the
same -- in part because digital services like Apple's iTunes
have been listing Freak Nasty's song as "Party Like a
Rockstar."
Though users on the iTunes message boards were quick to
declare the song an imposter, Freak Nasty has sold almost
30,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. As of May 16,
the track was among the top 20 tracks on iTunes and top three
at the store among hip-hop tracks.
Thanks to strong sales, it also is running neck-and-neck
with the Shop Boyz version on the charts. The Shop Boyz come in
at No. 54 on the Hot 100 this week vs. No. 56 for Freak Nasty.
The Freak Nasty track is distributed to digital services by
San Francisco-based Independent Online Distribution Alliance.
IODA CEO Kevin Arnold said the discrepancy between the official
title and the listed title online is the responsibility of the
act's label, Hard Hood Records. But he acknowledged that it may
not be an accident.
"For lots of independent artists, one way of marketing
these days is passively via search engines. People will title
their songs and albums to be things people will search for --
whether it's a current song or a classic song," Arnold said.
Representatives of Hard Hood and Freak Nasty could not be
reached for comment.
For their part, Universal execs said they aren't concerned.
Universal senior VP of urban music Elise Wright said the Shop
Boyz track has sold more than 347,000 units as a ringtone, and
the label is expecting big sales when their version finally
hits iTunes.
This isn't the first time that the lack of online
availability of a hit single has created a window of
opportunity for similarly named and alternative versions of a
song. As major labels cut back on releasing singles, deliberate
copycat singles were a trend in the mid- to late '90s for radio
hits like Aqua's "Barbie Girl," the Cardigans' "Love Fool" and
Eiffel 65's "Blue (Da Ba Dee)." And in February of this year, a
Jae Millz remix of Mims' "This Is Why I'm Hot" briefly popped
up online ahead of the original and sold more than 60,000
downloads.
Reuters/Billboard
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