Kris Wu Suspected Of Chart Manipulation, His iTunes Sales Are Under Review
Kris Wu is in hot water these days!
The issue has been going around for a couple of days and its now reaching a new point!
Kris Wu’s debut album “Antares” has now disappeared from the iTunes Store Charts, some people accused his fans of boosting his sales to take over the number one spot on the album chart surpassing many American artists.
He held 7 out of 10 top songs in the US iTunes Chart as of 11:57 pm EST, November 5.
Fans of Kris Wu and other people have been arguing whether he had manipulated the charts or not, some people suspect its not him but his Chinese fans using bots trying to boost sales.
You can no longer see any of his songs on the iTunes Store Charts.
His album had dropped on Friday while Ariana Grande’s new single, “thank u, next,” dropped on Saturday. However, he was able to block her from getting the number one spot, until his songs were gone.
Ariana Grande is now ruling the top spot and to make fans speculations rise even more she liked a tweet that hints her manager Scooter Braun has been involved in getting his music removed from iTunes.
Scooter Braun has released an Instagram post backing up Kris Wu, he said,
“I have never wished anything bad for Kris nor any other artist and those saying otherwise are wrong.”
He also explained why the songs were in the top 10 but are now no longer there, he said,
“It was explained to he and I last night that because his release was held back in China for his birthday his fans went and got the music any way they could and that was US iTunes. Once the release in China took place the fans had their access. He has never been removed from the charts on iTunes. That is false. Those were real people from the US and international community and not bots like many have rumored.”
The problem was initially that those numbers and sales he had don’t make sense for someone who is relatively new and unknown in the American market. He is a household name in his country but very few people know about him in America which added fuel to the speculations.
According to a report released by Billboard, the sales Kris Wu was able to snag would only be possible by the help of his fans (in China) who,
“Would need to be technically savvy enough to mask their true IP address with a VPN and gain access to the U.S. iTunes store.”
On November 7, Universal Music China also issued a statement calling his chart performance with Antares “genuine and effective” while promising legal actions against those who spread false rumors.
With his sales being now under review, its unclear what’s going on happen, a rep of Nielsen told Billboard,
“Billboard and Nielsen Music are working closely to ensure both the accuracy and legitimacy of the sales volumes being reported for Kris Wu this week.”
Stay tuned for updates!
