Can Everybody’s Album Reach Billboard No. 1?
summer 2025, a lively iPod Nano suddenly appeared in my social media feed. Initially, this iPod Nano sought to share touching tales about struggling artists, attempting to leverage virality to support them financially. The Nano’s online presence amassed a substantial following of indie music enthusiasts before taking a sudden turn towards an ambitious project. On November 5, the Nano unveiled a bold new endeavor: to manipulate the Billboard charts and secure the top spot for an album.
The masterminds behind this plan, visual artist Danny Cole from New York City and viral creator Anthpo (known for organizing the Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest), devised a scheme to enlist 100,000 “ordinary people.” Their proposition involved compensating these individuals $7.99 via a digital wallet in exchange for submitting a one-second audio snippet to be included in Cole and Anthpo’s novel album, Everybody’s Album. The pivotal step required each participant to utilize the $7.99 payment to pre-order the album, resulting in an impressive volume of transactions totaling approximately 100,000 at $7.99 each. Cole and Anthpo anticipated that this high volume of guaranteed transactions would potentially propel Everybody’s Album to an outstanding debut at No. 1 on the esteemed Billboard 200 chart.
Fast forward to December 12, the anticipated release date of Everybody’s Album. Cole shared that they managed to engage over 100,000 participants by the album’s launch date, albeit slightly delayed from the original target of December 5. For context, Taylor Swift’s current No. 1 album, “The Life of a Showgirl” on the Billboard 200, sold 99,000 equivalent album units in the past week. This indicates that if Billboard factors in Everybody’s Album sales next week, Cole and his cohort might just have a shot at achieving their goal of landing the top spot.
Before discussing the album’s music itself, an unforeseen twist disrupted Cole’s plans. He mentions that days before the album’s initial release, he received information indicating that Billboard would deem the album ineligible for charting. This claim was confirmed by a Billboard representative, citing the album’s failure to meet the company’s stringent eligibility criteria. According to the rep, Everybody’s Album did not align with the requisite minimum pricing standards and safeguards aimed at preventing bulk purchases originating from a single transaction source. These standards are implemented to ensure that the Billboard Charts accurately depict music consumption.
Despite these setbacks, Cole asserts that they meticulously adhered to all of Billboard’s eligibility requirements. He showcased how they crafted the album’s “Terms of Participation,” incorporating provisions like the “Mountain Clause” to counter Billboard’s prohibition against single-source bulk purchases. The clause provided an alternative method for participants to obtain a cash substitute instead of the digital currency earmarked for the album pre-order, necessitating a formal notarized request and a journey to a specified mountain in Nunavut, Canada.