Currently, over 550,000 people have agreed via facebook to purchase "Killing in the name" in an effort to get it to number one over the X-factor single this Christmas. But will it be enough? Some are skeptical. So here are 5 ways to guarantee we actually manage to put Rage Against the Machines "Killing in the Name" at the top spot this Christmas.
For more information on this campaign go here. ----> http://bit.ly/64J0wY
1. It doesn't stop at joining the group.
For this to work it isn't enough to just join the facebook group. You have to be proactive, and the majority of people in the group have to actually buy the track. Realistically we need at least 70% of people in the group to purchase to stand a chance of pulling this off, and as it stands (Based on last years Jeff Buckley campaign) only 60% are likely too.
So what can we do about this?
Well, first of all you can buy the track yourself, this may seem like an obvious one, but several people have already admitted that they have no intention of buying the track because they don't believe it is possible, but quite frankly, with attitudes like that we won't. Everyone needs to do their bit for this cause, and since it's only 99p, there is hardly much of an excuse.
Secondly, you could personally contact the people you know on facebook who are already in the group to make sure they are actually going to buy it, don't pester or irritate them, but politely ask them if they intend to buy it and remind them it's only 99p. If they tell you they have no intention of buying it maybe ask why and try and convince them otherwise.
Remember not to be aggressive, but definitely try to encorage people to part with the 99p to increase the overall percentage of people doing this. This really is the deal breaker, if we all contacted the people on our friends lists who have signed up we would definitely be able to achieve our goal of getting Rage to number one!
2. Blitz social networks and mass tweet.
Another obvious one, but one I'm not sure people are listening to. Invite everyone, not just the people you think are most likely to be apart of this. You have nothing to loose from spreading the word to absolutely EVERYONE in your contacts list and posting several statuses about it. Also, no matter what social networking tool you use, use it to promote this group at absolutely every opportunity you get, the more people who are aware the better.
Mass tweets are another good tool. I've been using the majority of my time using the facebook page and this blog to organise mass tweets for the last few days. I see twitter as our biggest untapped market. We have not yet been in the trending topics and once that happens we will make hundreds of thousands of people aware of us at one moment. It's an incredibly powerful tool and we haven't yet capitalised on it.
So I have been organising mass tweets at 9am, 2pm and 7pm every day since I joined. This involves everybody posting the phrase "ratm4xmas" within the exact same minute to attempt to get it into the trending topics. And with 570,000 people in the group this should be easily achieved. But as of yet, no matter how much I post about it on the facebook group only a few hundred people are actually tweeting at the two times I have layed out.
So please, spread the word, tell everyone and actually tweet at these specific times, when it happens and we actually break into the trending topics we will gain alot of attention and support very quickly. It's really worth doing.
For more information on this please visit this link -------> http://bit.ly/8nBZFx
3. Stop with the abuse!
By all means contact every media outlet you can, but please, be polite and represent the group well. I've read all sorts of horrible things people have said about DJ's or groups/sites people have contacted and failed to get a response from. These people are not obligated to help us, so please be polite and do not insult them. It doesn't matter if they refuse whatever your request might be, there is no need to go cursing their names. It does nothing to help our public images and might even cause groups who simply don't want to get involved to start actively campaigning against us.
This also applies to the less educated individuals who post on the facebook page itself. If someone posts something negative about the group don't be abusive, be kind and calm and explain your position properly. Try to persuade not insult. Remember, these are all potential sales that you throw down the toilet when you call the guy who doesn't think we can do it a "Wanker".
4. Wait until the 14th.
At this moment we cannot get confirmation of when the various sites start counting sales for the next week. And we have had all sorts conflicting information about weather we can buy on the 13th or not, so to be absolutely sure we are no wasting our purchases. Buy on the 14th instead.
It won't do us any harm to simply wait an extra day as long as the same amount of people purchase.
UPDATE: Just got word from the man who started this all Jon Morter and he seems to have finally received the official word from the company running the UK chart.
They have confirmed that we can start purchasing from 00:01 on Sunday 13th. They have confirmed it will count toward the chart so no need to worry about this!
5. Purchase from the right places.
Again, may seem like an obvious one but certain places on the internet down count towards the chart, amazon for example, right now the four main confirmed sources for purchase are... play.com, Itunes, HMV or 7 Digital. But there are more. The point is don't just go buying from any old seller you find online. Get links directly from the facebook page itself to ensure you are buying from someone who's sales actually count towards the chart.
And finally, be sure you are buying the right version of the track. Some people have reported that certain album versions of the track might not count, so again, to be sure buy from links found on the official site.
UPDATE: Jon Morter also informs me that the charts people told him it doesn't actually matter what version of the track you buy, it all gets collated into one title at the end of the week, even if several different versions are in the top 100 iTunes downloads for example.
So, there you have it, some advice to help make this campaign a success.
My appologies to those of you who found this article condescending or felt I was stating the obvious, after a few days of reading posts on the board it just became very obvious to me that some people weren't doing all the things they could, so I felt this post would help.
Once again, keep fighting!
The more united we are, the stronger we are!
Thanks for reading.
-- Dan
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
RATM4XMAS Mass Tweet
As most of you are aware from my last post, I'm supporting the Rage Against the X-Factor campaign. If you want to know more about it read this. http://bit.ly/64J0wY
To help promote this campaign people have been trying to get it into the trending topics on Twitter by tweeting the phrase "ratm4xmas" as much as possible. But it's not working because for that to work people would roughly have to do it at the same time and everyone is struggling to organise such a thing.
So I am proposing an organised mass tweet at 09:00, 02:00 and 07:00 (British Time) everyday starting on the 10th of December and continuing until the 19th.
If you feel lazy and don't want to write out a tweet just copy and paste the following and post it on your twitter at either 9:00, 2:00 or 7:00 everyday from now until the 19th.
"Help us stop Simon Cowell from hijacking the Christmas number one again this year! For more info ---> http://bit.ly/inthename #ratm4xmas"
Or you can just add "#ratm4xmas" to any old tweet.
If it works it will give the group an absolutely massive boost.
The more organised we are, the stronger we are. So let's do this!
Thanks for reading.
-- Dan
Next Mass Tweet: 2:00 PM on the 11th of Dec.
To help promote this campaign people have been trying to get it into the trending topics on Twitter by tweeting the phrase "ratm4xmas" as much as possible. But it's not working because for that to work people would roughly have to do it at the same time and everyone is struggling to organise such a thing.
So I am proposing an organised mass tweet at 09:00, 02:00 and 07:00 (British Time) everyday starting on the 10th of December and continuing until the 19th.
If you feel lazy and don't want to write out a tweet just copy and paste the following and post it on your twitter at either 9:00, 2:00 or 7:00 everyday from now until the 19th.
"Help us stop Simon Cowell from hijacking the Christmas number one again this year! For more info ---> http://bit.ly/inthename #ratm4xmas"
Or you can just add "#ratm4xmas" to any old tweet.
If it works it will give the group an absolutely massive boost.
The more organised we are, the stronger we are. So let's do this!
Thanks for reading.
-- Dan
Next Mass Tweet: 2:00 PM on the 11th of Dec.
Monday, 7 December 2009
Rage Against the X-Factor
It's not often I find myself getting behind any kind of cause, but I can't help but get behind this one.
Let me explain, for the past four years, Simon Cowell has hijacked the the coveted position of Christmas number one. You might be wondering how?
Well, by scheduling his reality TV show "X-Factor" so it ends just before Christmas he has been able to abuse the popularity of the show to guarantee that the winner (someone he represents) makes it to Christmas number one.
After god knows how many weeks of television and newspaper exposure these acts, talented though some of them maybe, are easily making it to number one in the singles charts even though they don't deserve it. They aren't acquiring this position honestly and for four years they have deprived more deserving acts of this place.
If this keeps happening, slowly but surely the position of Christmas number one will slowly become worthless/meaningless and loose all prestige and another British tradition will die.
I say this needs to stop, and many others agree with me.
In fact, lots of other people agree with me. So many in fact that people are rallying together to get Rage Against the Machine to the number one slot this Christmas just to show Simon Cowell he can't cheat his way to number one.
From December 13th nearly 400,000 people have agreed to buy Rage Against the Machines "Killing in the Name" from digital sources like iTunes and Play.com in an attempt to show Simon Cowell that he can't buy his way into the number one slot at Christmas. They can be found on Facebook at this link... -----> http://bit.ly/inthename
Now, I know some of the X-factor singles profits are going to charity, but don't worry, the people supporting this cause have set up this fund raising group as well to make sure this cause doesn't deprive any charity of money. It can be found here. ----> http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas
And, both singles are with different companies who are both ultimately owned by Sony. But all companies involved have to run independent of each other by law. So a company Sony own will see profit, but the label Cowell runs will see nothing from people purchasing "Killing in the Name"
And just to clarify, this has nothing to do with who earns what.
It's not about money or an anti capitalist agenda.
It's about stopping someone using the popularity of a TV show to gain exposure not available to other artist to tip the scales unfairly in the favor of an act they represent getting to Christmas number one and depriving more deserving artist from getting it.
So please spread the word, through your blog, through your Twitter, through your facebook or through literal word of mouth. It doesn't matter, just alert as many people as you think might actually get behind this movement as you can.
It would cost no more than 99p for somebody to actively take part in this, it doesn't even matter if you already have the song, it's 99p to send a very clear message to Simon Cowell.
"You can't buy your way into our charts."
That is all.
-- Dan
Edit:
We are not getting anywhere with this casual tweeting of RATM4XMAS.
So I am proposing an organised mass tweet at 2:00 and 7:00 PM (British Time) everyday starting on the 10th of Dec and continuing to the 19th. For more info go here.
http://bit.ly/8nBZFx
Let me explain, for the past four years, Simon Cowell has hijacked the the coveted position of Christmas number one. You might be wondering how?
Well, by scheduling his reality TV show "X-Factor" so it ends just before Christmas he has been able to abuse the popularity of the show to guarantee that the winner (someone he represents) makes it to Christmas number one.
After god knows how many weeks of television and newspaper exposure these acts, talented though some of them maybe, are easily making it to number one in the singles charts even though they don't deserve it. They aren't acquiring this position honestly and for four years they have deprived more deserving acts of this place.
If this keeps happening, slowly but surely the position of Christmas number one will slowly become worthless/meaningless and loose all prestige and another British tradition will die.
I say this needs to stop, and many others agree with me.
In fact, lots of other people agree with me. So many in fact that people are rallying together to get Rage Against the Machine to the number one slot this Christmas just to show Simon Cowell he can't cheat his way to number one.
From December 13th nearly 400,000 people have agreed to buy Rage Against the Machines "Killing in the Name" from digital sources like iTunes and Play.com in an attempt to show Simon Cowell that he can't buy his way into the number one slot at Christmas. They can be found on Facebook at this link... -----> http://bit.ly/inthenameNow, I know some of the X-factor singles profits are going to charity, but don't worry, the people supporting this cause have set up this fund raising group as well to make sure this cause doesn't deprive any charity of money. It can be found here. ----> http://www.justgiving.com/ratm4xmas
And, both singles are with different companies who are both ultimately owned by Sony. But all companies involved have to run independent of each other by law. So a company Sony own will see profit, but the label Cowell runs will see nothing from people purchasing "Killing in the Name"
And just to clarify, this has nothing to do with who earns what.
It's not about money or an anti capitalist agenda.
It's about stopping someone using the popularity of a TV show to gain exposure not available to other artist to tip the scales unfairly in the favor of an act they represent getting to Christmas number one and depriving more deserving artist from getting it.
So please spread the word, through your blog, through your Twitter, through your facebook or through literal word of mouth. It doesn't matter, just alert as many people as you think might actually get behind this movement as you can.
It would cost no more than 99p for somebody to actively take part in this, it doesn't even matter if you already have the song, it's 99p to send a very clear message to Simon Cowell.
"You can't buy your way into our charts."
That is all.
-- Dan
Edit:
We are not getting anywhere with this casual tweeting of RATM4XMAS.
So I am proposing an organised mass tweet at 2:00 and 7:00 PM (British Time) everyday starting on the 10th of Dec and continuing to the 19th. For more info go here.
http://bit.ly/8nBZFx
Friday, 4 December 2009
Been away
For those of you wondering what has happened to this blog, things sort of got away from me after we performed at Edinburgh Festival. And I do intend to get it running with regular updates again, but first it's probably a good idea to catch people up on where I have been and how Edinburgh went.
I went to Edinburgh ready to perform, only to discover once I got there exactly how frightened and nervous I was. Even at the time, I couldn't find any words to accurately articulate exactly how scared I felt, so what chance do I have of finding them now?
I was so worried that the material wasn't good enough, that it wasn't going to be funny and that the crowd wouldn't respond at all, and it would be awkward and embarrassing.
At one point I even contemplated in my mind, how possible it would be for us to pull out of the gigs.
But as predictable as this sounds, as soon as I was there and was faced with the prospect of actually doing it I was absolutely fine. We went on stage and our first show was a success.
For completely the wrong reasons, but still a success.
It seems our performances were a little rusty and people were responding to the bits between sketches and all the improvised stuff, but not the sketches themselves.
Our second show didn't go as well, it was raining heavily outside and we had only managed to pull in a very small and drenched crowd. Which made me rather nervous and way more prone to fuck ups, and even worse, pointing out those fuck ups in a desperate attempt to validate myself and get at least a cheap laugh. This was a huge mistake and I should never of acted like that.
This was my personal low point of the week, I really blew it that day, and even now, I can't apologies enough to the other guys for these mistakes.
But that's when it all changed, with two days practice under our belt, on the third day we went out to one of our largest crowds and absolutely nailed it.
Not only was every sketch getting laughs and in all the right places, we were really starting to enjoy ourselves. In some way's I think I fell a little bit in love with that audience while on stage, those utterly wonderful people made every single second spent preparing that show worth it in an instant.
The fourth gig went just as well and did nothing but raise my spirits even more. The fifth gig brought us yet another rain swept audience that put in a good effort but ultimately didn't connect with the material as the previous two crowds had. But it was at this point that I realised that sometimes that just happens. Out of our control, we were just as good on stage as we had been the two previous days and yet we had a much more reserved reaction. I learned not to beat myself up about it.
The final day was an odd mix, the crowd found themselves somewhere in the middle, they laughed more often than the two soaked and small audiences but still seemed a little detached from the material, laughing occasionally at some gags but leaving us with nothing but awkward silence at others. Almost as if they weren't really paying attention all the time.
The week itself was excellent, when we weren't rehearsing, rewriting or performing we spent our time in pubs reading the audience reactions to our show they left on the appraisal forms we handed out at the end. Which were positive in the majority, and hilariously insulting in the minority. My favorite negative reactions included
"A scathing indictment of our education system."
and
"Better than going to work..."
Other than that we went and experienced some of the amazing things that festival had to offer. We saw and met comedians Matt Kirshen and Carl Donnelly as well as seeing all sorts of weird and wonderful free shows from unknowns like ourselves.
My highlights were...
Seeing Casper improve every night in regards to his stand up. His acting was always spot on, but he struggled on the first night with his stand up because of his nerves, and it was truly amazing to see his confidence grow to the point where he would just walk on and completely own that stage on the final couple of nights.
Meeting Matt Kirshen, he's a bit of a hero of mine and was an absolutely amazing on stage and a really nice guy off.
Living with all four guys for the week was a damn good laugh, there were some amazing moments, such as Casper asking us if a blue shirt would work as a black shirt.
Some amazing "On Stage" mistakes such as Casper getting his line mixed up and proclaiming he preferred Men.
Going to the random bar round the corner after ever gig and drinking while reading through the audience responses.
Getting to spend time with my friend Frankie who I hadn't spent a significant amount of time with in years.
So, after all that, I got back fully intending to blog about the entire experience as it was probably the most exciting things that has ever happened to me, but was simply too tired, and the longer I left it, the less relevant this blog felt. But It was an incredible experience, and I learned two very important lessons from it.
Number one, always have faith in your material.
And Number two, accept that not every audience is going to respond to your material the way you want.
So I thought I should recap the people who don't already know through following my tweets how it went.
And since then I have simply been busy with university work, since this year as well as our dissertation they want us too write two other essays, a film and pitch a separate project.
So that's been keeping me busy since.
So, sorry it's taken been me so long to get round to posting this, and hopefully now I will start updating this regularly again... well. At least as regularly as can be expected when I'm involved.
Thanks for reading.
-- Dan
PS: Damn, and I originally just intended to write a paragraph or so explaining where I have been. I think it got away from me, didn't it?
PPS: Will be back with some bloglettes soon.
I went to Edinburgh ready to perform, only to discover once I got there exactly how frightened and nervous I was. Even at the time, I couldn't find any words to accurately articulate exactly how scared I felt, so what chance do I have of finding them now?
I was so worried that the material wasn't good enough, that it wasn't going to be funny and that the crowd wouldn't respond at all, and it would be awkward and embarrassing.
At one point I even contemplated in my mind, how possible it would be for us to pull out of the gigs.
But as predictable as this sounds, as soon as I was there and was faced with the prospect of actually doing it I was absolutely fine. We went on stage and our first show was a success.
For completely the wrong reasons, but still a success.
It seems our performances were a little rusty and people were responding to the bits between sketches and all the improvised stuff, but not the sketches themselves.
Our second show didn't go as well, it was raining heavily outside and we had only managed to pull in a very small and drenched crowd. Which made me rather nervous and way more prone to fuck ups, and even worse, pointing out those fuck ups in a desperate attempt to validate myself and get at least a cheap laugh. This was a huge mistake and I should never of acted like that.
This was my personal low point of the week, I really blew it that day, and even now, I can't apologies enough to the other guys for these mistakes.
But that's when it all changed, with two days practice under our belt, on the third day we went out to one of our largest crowds and absolutely nailed it.
Not only was every sketch getting laughs and in all the right places, we were really starting to enjoy ourselves. In some way's I think I fell a little bit in love with that audience while on stage, those utterly wonderful people made every single second spent preparing that show worth it in an instant.
The fourth gig went just as well and did nothing but raise my spirits even more. The fifth gig brought us yet another rain swept audience that put in a good effort but ultimately didn't connect with the material as the previous two crowds had. But it was at this point that I realised that sometimes that just happens. Out of our control, we were just as good on stage as we had been the two previous days and yet we had a much more reserved reaction. I learned not to beat myself up about it.
The final day was an odd mix, the crowd found themselves somewhere in the middle, they laughed more often than the two soaked and small audiences but still seemed a little detached from the material, laughing occasionally at some gags but leaving us with nothing but awkward silence at others. Almost as if they weren't really paying attention all the time.
The week itself was excellent, when we weren't rehearsing, rewriting or performing we spent our time in pubs reading the audience reactions to our show they left on the appraisal forms we handed out at the end. Which were positive in the majority, and hilariously insulting in the minority. My favorite negative reactions included
"A scathing indictment of our education system."
and
"Better than going to work..."
Other than that we went and experienced some of the amazing things that festival had to offer. We saw and met comedians Matt Kirshen and Carl Donnelly as well as seeing all sorts of weird and wonderful free shows from unknowns like ourselves.
My highlights were...
Seeing Casper improve every night in regards to his stand up. His acting was always spot on, but he struggled on the first night with his stand up because of his nerves, and it was truly amazing to see his confidence grow to the point where he would just walk on and completely own that stage on the final couple of nights.
Meeting Matt Kirshen, he's a bit of a hero of mine and was an absolutely amazing on stage and a really nice guy off.
Living with all four guys for the week was a damn good laugh, there were some amazing moments, such as Casper asking us if a blue shirt would work as a black shirt.
Some amazing "On Stage" mistakes such as Casper getting his line mixed up and proclaiming he preferred Men.
Going to the random bar round the corner after ever gig and drinking while reading through the audience responses.
Getting to spend time with my friend Frankie who I hadn't spent a significant amount of time with in years.
So, after all that, I got back fully intending to blog about the entire experience as it was probably the most exciting things that has ever happened to me, but was simply too tired, and the longer I left it, the less relevant this blog felt. But It was an incredible experience, and I learned two very important lessons from it.
Number one, always have faith in your material.
And Number two, accept that not every audience is going to respond to your material the way you want.
So I thought I should recap the people who don't already know through following my tweets how it went.
And since then I have simply been busy with university work, since this year as well as our dissertation they want us too write two other essays, a film and pitch a separate project.
So that's been keeping me busy since.
So, sorry it's taken been me so long to get round to posting this, and hopefully now I will start updating this regularly again... well. At least as regularly as can be expected when I'm involved.
Thanks for reading.
-- Dan
PS: Damn, and I originally just intended to write a paragraph or so explaining where I have been. I think it got away from me, didn't it?
PPS: Will be back with some bloglettes soon.
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