Yummy is Cringe [Op-Ed]

…and the marketing tactics are indicative of a larger problem.

“Yeah, you got that yummy-yum

That yummy-yum, that yummy-yummy”

By now you’ve probably heard the catchy but cringey song, willingly or forcefully. Maybe you’re a Belieber. Maybe your favorite influencer randomly posted about it on their social media accounts while you were blissfully looking for memes. Either way, you’ve heard it.

Additionally, you’ve probably heard about the controversy surrounding Justin Bieber’s latest release. If not, here is a quick synopsis: In an attempt to get his song to the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the singer posted multiple videos and social media posts, which included this now-deleted “fan-made” graphic below:

Creating a playlist with “Yummy” on repeat. Playing the song at a low volume while you sleep. Suggesting using a VPN service to place the fan's location in the US, if they are located outside the country, so that streams will count toward US Billboard numbers. What?! A lot of these marketing tactics remind me of a desperate type of hypnosis. Everything about this is strange. You could expect this ploy from a rookie artist but not someone of Justin Bieber’s stature. This coming from a veteran of the music game and his manager/music industry power player, Scooter Braun, (who sourced these fan-made Beiber fan accounts) feels wrong. 

Well, Bieber wasn’t the only artist to do so. A few weeks later, Selena Gomez, did something similar for her new album, “Rare”. Note: Gomez stated on her Instagram account that her begging fans to stream and buy her album felt “unauthentic”. Another huge mainstream artist who used this approach in the past is Chris Brown. These artists have one thing in common…they are housed under Universal Music Publishing Group, which has been accused of dabbling in the murky practice of artificially inflating streaming numbers with bots and streaming farms. It’s funny that this comes in the wake of the largest technology groups, record labels and music publishers (including Spotify, Amazon, Universal Music Group, Warner Music and Sony Music) agreeing to a “code of best practices” to combat inflated music streaming numbers. This agreement was implemented in June of 2019; seven months later this these occurrences arise (Justin and Selena’s back to back.

These unsavory practices are not new within the music industry. The first thing that comes to mind is payola being used to get songs played on the radio and atop major music charts. However, this latest controversy highlights a bigger problem within the industry. What is a stream really worth? Are the reported numbers accurate and unbiased? According to an article in the Financial Times, “These bots pose as human listeners, inflating streams by up 4% and costing the music industry $300 million a year by one account.” At a recent industry conference Entertainment Lawyer, Jordan Bromley spoke on the matter and how it relates to record companies and artists. ”They don’t have the data at their disposal to know how many streams have been purchased, or what that dollar amount equates to.” 

Here’s another question that speaks to the state of music. If all of the smoke and mirrors resulting in fraud are commonplace in the streaming era, how many or few people are listening, or even paying any attention to the artists’ bodies of work? That’s another topic for another day.