10/17/2010 6:44:11 AM
Certification of Victor McClain

10/17/2010 6:44:11 AM

Certification of Victor McClain
Let Your Mind Fly
Released by:
Victor McClain
to be an
INTERNATIONAL
TOP 15

Date of Eligibility: 09/26/2010 ~ Certification ID#: 20100376710

This is to certify that The International Association of Independent Recording Artists has completed its research of the above referenced internationally released recording.

IAIRA recognizes and honors artistic achievement, technical proficiency, and overall excellence in sound recording. IAIRA certification is issued without regard to advertisement, political prowess, subjective interpretation, or personal opinion. IAIRA extensively researches various credible reporting charts and determines eligibility for certification based on chart position attained by a specific work. In view of its findings, IAIRA hereby certifies that the aforementioned recording has achieved “SIGNIFICANT” activity in an internationally recognized reporting chart and is therefore CERTIFIED as indicated above.

C E R T I F I C A T I O N

The undersigned does hereby certify that on the basis of information acquired, the foregoing is true and factual to the best of his or her knowledge and belief.

10/13/2010

Mark L. Carman
Chief Operating Officer
The International Association of Independent Recording Artists

10/17/2010 10:12:36 AM

Very Cool! Big Congrats!

10/17/2010 3:10:33 PM

Great work! Some people say I'm certifiable, but I don't think that's what they mean.

10/18/2010 3:37:35 AM ---- Updated 10/18/2010 3:38:48 AM

Oops..... you didn't send them any money did you ?

I'm afraid IAIRA, is a "oh you'v won an award, please send money for your certificate" scam. It has no merit, but makes for very expensive wallpaper.

Sorry, :(

no cheers, niteshift

10/18/2010 6:02:59 AM ---- Updated 10/18/2010 6:29:48 AM

I think niteshift you jumped the gun here in dissing this fellows acknowledgement by this organization. it is like hiring an accountant for your business having them verify the aspects of the company financials or someones personal income and expenses. does an accountant work for free, absolutely not. These people have access to records and vitals and research how a release did by an artist. It is like a person hiring you for whatever type of work you are in, and you provide that service for them and they submit whatever fee to you to do that work. There is nothing wrong with paying for this service. There are other ways and means to dig up this information of course but why not leave it to the professionals.

This is not like a songwriting CONTEST that we have seen from a variety of organizations that have opportunities for an artist to send in their recordings to be evaluated by so called experts, where people submit their monies to participate in the BEST SONG in whatever category, those things to me are questionable , this is a verification of an artists release that it met certain criteria and standards of rotation and spins in order to validate the songs numbers and give the information to their client.

But the real litmus test comes when you see your royalty cheques come in from Socan, BMI ASCAP
SESAC SoundExchange or CMRRA who collect monies on an artists behalf, that is what really counts and I guess this is the best way to know your music made an impact when you get your 2 bits out of all the time energy and effort you put in to at least try to make a dent in this tough unforgiving business

continued success to Victor and well done...wish you the best in your music

10/18/2010 7:18:21 AM

Bryon ... I know this organization ... or at least a little about it ...
There is nothing wrong with paying for a service ... This particular company has a history of sending out "Congratulations" emails out of the blue telling people their song is in the top 100 of such and such ... and You ... lucky you ... get the certificate that says so .... for a price ...

I don't know the case here ... and would not diminish this artist achievements in any way shape or form ...

... and perhaps IAIRA is on the up and up ... but I know a lot of Artist have received their emails out of the blue .... not particularly the normal up and up way way to do business ... but that doesn't mean they are a scam ... Don't know enough about them to judge .... and NOT trying to put a damper on this artist achievements ...

It's just as artist, we have to (or should) look out for one another ... you yourself are often saying their are a lot of sharks out there ... :)

10/18/2010 9:49:03 AM ---- Updated 10/18/2010 10:38:11 AM

well then Sam,if that is the case,and you have had experience with them, or know of some who have, then its time for me to do some research on them and find out who they are and what they are all about. I will contact them directly, explain to them some have doubts about their so called certification process and the veracity of their claims or research methods . seems these days there are many unscrupulous and underhanded people, organizations and company's who say something and dont follow through, but at least this one does. perhaps direct contact, and the BBB

i would like some examples of what you say about this IAIRA company from the artists themselves or people you know and not hearsay , like actual experiences from anyone here who has gotten invitations via email . generally it seems to me they would only solicit those who have released a CD or perhaps something to DMDS or an artist looking for validation of their release so they can pitch it to a distribution company or if they wish to make an effort to get recognized for their efforts by a label
which is very difficult to get on with these days, generally in this day and age you have had to being supporting your own promotion and marketing for some time and show the results of all your hard work and dedication before they will even blink an eyelid, either that or come in as a young Britney Spears or Justin Beiber or something like that.and get discovered, its all revolving about the youth and thats ok.....these days it is not music first, but image, sex appeal and there is probably nothing wrong with that,I guess.
but still for those who seek it, there are real true down to earth music loving musicians who struggle from week to week doing what they love, making a few measly shekels but would do this then a real job, and I dont blame them, some just a born to do that, its their calling. more power to them

I digress, got off track


How songs are tracked these days for charting

These days a lot of this tracking of rotations is done by satellite which is able to pick of a specific signature of a cd (MP3 WAVE FILE )which is embedded within the song when it is broadcast. I think it is called digital watermarking but then that could be for protecting the song from getting ripped off or copied, (do a google of digital watermarking) but I know BDS Nielsen uses something to track songs for their reporting systems , so a song when it spins, is also able to be tracked on the internet, radio broadcast, fm am how ever, so that info is available, I have seen it,but dont know exactly the details and mechanics of it, just the reports that are issued. I have had access to at times, and yes it costs money, this is sometimes what an artist wants if they really want to pay the big bucks

There is the old way of doing it, djs music directors and volunteers who are still sending in reports for charting on the various college stations and so on, and still also songs/cds getting tracked for sales by soundscan

not too sure of the technical end here, but that is how some of it is done now..

that is the business of doing music. it all costs money money money, reality


technology in music

how stuff works
===========================================================
Each week, Billboard puts together a chart of the top 100 most popular songs (as well as several other charts) based on a national sample of top 40 radio airplay, top 40 radio playlists, and music sales. Since the Top 40 comes from the Hot 100 chart, let's look at how the Hot 100 is compiled. As you can imagine, this is quite an undertaking.

First, there is airplay. What is actually being played on the radio and on music video channels on TV? Assuming program directors and disc jockeys have their finger on the pulse of popular music, this could be good measure of what people like. Airplay is tracked through Broadcast Data Systems (BDS), run by Nielsen. BDS uses digital pattern-recognition technology to identify songs that are played on radio stations and music video TV channels across the United States and Canada. This is done 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and captures over 100 million songs annually. BDS also provides "gross impressions," which is simply the number of people listening to a station multiplied by the number of times the record was played. When new songs are recorded, a copy of the recording is sent to BDS so it can be encoded and tracked by its system on the stations it monitors. This data is used not only by Billboard in compiling the weekly charts, but also by record company executives, radio stations, publishing firms, performance rights organizations (to calculate performance royalties), music retailers, independent promoters, film and TV producers, and artist managers.

Another measure of what music is hot is what people are buying. To find out what music is selling in record stores, Billboard goes to SoundScan. Nielsen SoundScan is an information system that tracks the sales of music and music videos throughout the United States and Canada. By scanning the bar codes, they can collect sales information from cash registers each week from over 14,000 retail, mass merchant, and non-traditional sources such as online stores, concert sales, etc. The data is compiled and available for subscribers every Wednesday. Like BDS data, the data from SoundScan is also very valuable for record companies, artists, concert promoters, and retailers.

Billboard's methodologies for compiling the charts have gone through several changes over the years. Since switching to Nielsen's BDS and SoundScan (see below for a little background), Billboard changed the weighting of airplay versus sales. Because tracking a single song through album sales isn't exactly accurate, singles sales have always been used to track the sales side of song popularity. But, since only about 20% of people actually buy singles and over 90% listen to the radio, it made sense to alter the ratio of points. Now, the overall points are weighted to 20% sales and 80% airplay.

But, if Billboard bases its charts on what is already being played on the radio and purchased in music stores, how do radio stations find out about new music?

10/18/2010 11:57:29 AM ---- Updated 10/18/2010 12:13:09 PM

I have never had direct contact with this company ... and I'm not sure what you would describe as hear-say ... One of the now defunct sites I was on had a blog on this ... I'm trying to remember the name of the site ... grrrr. anyway one guy ask if anyone had ever been contacted by them .... and a few had and here are some of the things I read them say (not exact words)

"Yeah ... they contacted me too, they said I had a song at #10 and wanted to let me know ... I asked how they knew and they said they had some very dedicated people tracking the stats but yet somehow the stats were automatic ... I said great what does this mean ... Well, they said it means you are automatically certified and if I would send them the very small fee of $6.00, they would verify it for me and if I would send them $35.00 they would give me a real nice plaque to put on the wall ... I said, I thought you were contacting me to let me know I was certified and now you say that you need $6.00 to VERIFY what you said was already verified, I don't understand ... then they really confused me with all kinds of babble and I declined .. "

That is about the gist of one fellows dealings with them ... and there were others who said their internet site had misspellings and things that were not very professional looking ... and they have one location in Virginia and another in The Phillipines ...

I just went and looked at their site and on their Qand A page it says ...

What does IAIRA do?
A. 1) IAIRA® represents the independent recording industry throughout the world. IAIRA® extensively researches various credible reporting charts and certifies the chart position attained by a specific work. 2) IAIRA® is dedicated to sharing the art and creativity of the Independent Recording Arts Worldwide. 3) IAIRA® recognizes and honors artistic achievement, technical proficiency, and overall excellence in sound recording. 4) IAIRA provides a Third-Party clearing house for verification of chart activity as reported on internationally recognized charts. 5) IAIRA provides a wealth of industry related information and educational materials available at no cost.

... and then there is this ...

Q. What is IAIRA Certification?
A. An IAIRA certified release is a single or album that has attained significant chart position on an internationally recognized reporting chart. IAIRA conducts an actual audit of recognized charts as published and verifies chart position manually. This system although time consuming, is the only fair means of verification and certification.

Here are the "Charts they use to certify a song" "NOT Just AN ALBUM OR CD" ...

Soundclick www.soundclick.com
Indie-Music www.indie-music.com
Billboard www.billboard.com
CashBox www.cashboxmagazine.com
Unsigned Artists www.unsigned.com
Powersource www.powersourcemagazine.com
Reverb Nation www.reverbnation.com
Singing News www.singingnews.com
MySpace (Indie) www.myspace.com/music

I'm sorry ... but song plays on "MYSPACE" .... an internationally recognized chart ???? uhhhhhh not very reliable charting ...


Still ... I congratulate Victor McClain ... anytime you can get noticed you should feel good ...

10/18/2010 6:12:28 PM

Hey Guys,

There's a thread on JPF about this......

http://jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=834152

You'll get commnt from artists themselves, IAIRA and form me also.

Personally, I just take issue with another "service" company that's taking money from poor indies in return for a valueless certificate. Kinda selling shiny beads IMO.

Internet plays, stastically, don't mean anything. If the data was from the PRO's or Soundscan, that would be quite different. But each to his own.......

cheers, niteshift

10/19/2010 6:02:53 AM ---- Updated 10/22/2010 1:41:58 PM

UPDATED OCTOBER 22
So, no word yet from the CEO, main dude, I sent an email which by now I thought they would have been in touch by now, so a few more days and will send another email out, but as a band next time and not as a promoter. see what happens. one thing is important in this day and age, answer your emails if you are in a business, dont procrastinate, if these guys were on their game they be in touch sooner then 2-3 days later. maybe they did not like my email questioning their practices, or actually how others have made statements about their company;s credibility
bt
================================================================
posted 10/19/2010 6:02:53 AM
Contacted the company, see if they respond to my email to one of the CEO's
Explained the doubts of some about the validity of their systems and procedures with out mentioning any names here and other blogs I happened to see about their business practices and approaches, so see where that takes me

yup nothing like stirring the pot, holding some peoples feet to the fire ,challenging and questioning authority.

ya think it will do anything, do you think they care...pretty unlikely anything will happen
but if they are concerned about what people think and their Credibility is on notice then it would be in their best interests to followup, cause , you never know, I might one day be a client of theirs

So, no word yet from the CEO, main dude, I sent an email which by now I thought they would have
bt

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