Nashville Stars' Street Teams - Going Too Far?

You must read Sunday's (6/5) Tennessean feature by Peter Cooper on street marketing being employed, sometimes over the line, to promote (incentivized?) superfans' favorite acts.

Regent VP/Programming, Bob Moody who is based in Nashville and thus got the paper delivered this morning to his doorstep reports: "You should read this and pass it on to your air staff.

"If this isn't scary enough, sidebar pieces that don't appear on their web site are even more specific about how these people make it their life's work to manipulate the press -- and especially radio -- on behalf of their artist."

More from the Tennessean report: SUPER FANS AT A GLANCE

Moody adds: "One of the sidebar pieces quotes a fan as saying that she has ten sign-on names to the CMT site, so she can vote ten times for their awards -- as long as she cleans out the cookies between log-ons. These people may be crazy, but they ain't stupid."

That is certainly not illegal, but, it's a good reminder: be sure that you know how often your researcher is reusing callout panel members and internet research respondents! These folks would love to "game" your music research, for what they'd probably consider innocent reasons..