Billboard & Lady Gaga: Bill Werde Speaks Out On Singer Commissioning 'Applause' Views

More Bad News For Lady Gaga
GOOD MORNING AMERICA - Lady Gaga takes over Times Square to debut her new music video on GOOD MORNING AMERICA, 8/19/13, airing on the ABC Television Network. (Photo by Ida Mae Astute/ABC via Getty Images) LARA SPENCER, LADY GAGA
GOOD MORNING AMERICA - Lady Gaga takes over Times Square to debut her new music video on GOOD MORNING AMERICA, 8/19/13, airing on the ABC Television Network. (Photo by Ida Mae Astute/ABC via Getty Images) LARA SPENCER, LADY GAGA

With the release of her new single "Applause," Lady Gaga has made waves by encouraging questionable practices to get the song to the top of the charts.

Last week, Mother Monster held a contest which incentivized buying multiple copies of "Applause." The 27-year-old singer told her Twitter followers that the two fans with the most "purchase/gift screenshots, radio requests, 'Applause' selfies/video" will fly internationally to meet Gaga and attend the iTunes Festival in London and watch her performance.

Gaga continued to push her fans to get "Applause" to the top of the charts last night by tweeting out a link to watch the music video to the track. While the tweet has since been deleted, Gaga originally publicized a link which allowed users to watch the video 150 times in a row.

Billboard's Bill Werde took issue with the seemingly cheap tactic to get video views, taking to Twitter to speak out against the practice. "I just hate to see anyone try to game the charts, be it fans or artists," he wrote. "It's not in the spirit of what we do, celebrating success."

Take a look at Werde's tweets on the matter below:

We count multiple views per person. Go to Vevo and keep watching a video on your own and we count it.

— Bill Werde (@bwerde) August 21, 2013

An artist tweeting out and facebooking a link that enables a fan to hit play and leave their computer is not in the spirit of what we chart.

— Bill Werde (@bwerde) August 21, 2013

Tweeting that other artists game the system is like telling a cop other people were speeding. When we catch it we stop it.

— Bill Werde (@bwerde) August 21, 2013

All credit & benefit of doubt that facebook/Twitter posts are down. Maybe it's true that a link was sent to 10s of millions with no look.

— Bill Werde (@bwerde) August 21, 2013

Please keep this in context. Streaming is only a portion of Hot100 and surely overwhelming percent of views have been well-earned.

— Bill Werde (@bwerde) August 21, 2013

I just hate to see anyone try to game the charts, be it fans or artists. It's not in the spirit of what we do, celebrating success.

— Bill Werde (@bwerde) August 21, 2013

Just need to keep playlisted data off chart. Gaga fans sending me threats and profanity: don't you think this is why she deleted that link?

— Bill Werde (@bwerde) August 21, 2013

Just scrolled thru 100s of tweets. Most gaga fans have been more or less polite. Ill try to clear up a few questions, then I must sleep.

— Bill Werde (@bwerde) August 21, 2013

1. It is fine to self-promote, send links to fans, etc. my objection is to playlisting. It seems some fans are unaware such a link was sent.

— Bill Werde (@bwerde) August 21, 2013

2. By "playlisting" I mean a link to "watch" the same video 150 times: roughly 9 straight hours of the same vid.

— Bill Werde (@bwerde) August 21, 2013

3. I've been/remain a fan of gaga's. I have previously tweeted my affinity for Applause. None of this has anything to do w chart integrity.

— Bill Werde (@bwerde) August 21, 2013

4. Im not suggesting we'll discount credible views. I suspect (but wont know til AM) YouTube antispam tech will take care of playlisting.

— Bill Werde (@bwerde) August 21, 2013

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5. I believe in transparency & dialog. That's why I discuss here before all is neatly resolved. I learned a lot from y'all tonight. Thanks.

— Bill Werde (@bwerde) August 21, 2013

listening to music shouldn't feel like that. RT @PrincessMoses1: @bwerde I FEEL LIKE I JUST DONATED BLOOD AND IT WAS TOSSED AWAY!

— Bill Werde (@bwerde) August 21, 2013

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