Many of the current "big hits" sound to me like hyped priorities from the majors.

For example - the Scouting For Girls track. To my ears a decent, ordinary album track by an adequate band.

It's been in the Top Ten singles list for some weeks yet to me it sounds exactly like those old priorities which executives hyped in high and then sustained by further street team work because the major could not afford to admit the band had no real talent or commercial potential.

When you're deeply in the red, there's a terrible temptation to go further and further into the red. It's simply a form of gambling.

Now I may be wrong. This band may have thousands of real devoted fans. Perhaps they are brilliant live and will eventually sell millions globally.

But looking at the people behind them they sound and look to my eyes and ears like previous no hopers - Dane Bowers, Another Level and so on.

There's a hefty tendency amongst industry types NOT to examine past track records. Did those artistes make any money at all for BMG? I seriously doubt it.

That was the awful legacy I left the business in the 70's when I started CHART HYPE. They watched me make monsters out of one hit wonders but never realised the truth; I ALWAYS had to be convinced there were genuine sales there. That's how and why I worked SEASIDE SHUFFLE and FATTIE BUM BUM.

Now I knew Terry Dactyl and Carl Malcolm would never be global stars or sell albums. But in those days a massive, genuine hit single made more than enough to send the label, artiste, publisher etc into profit.

These days the conventional wisdom is... you need to sell albums to make money. And music no longer brings profits - you need tour cash and share of T Shirt sales etc.

That's true to an extent but the reality is - a real hit still can bring money pouring in. Who Let The Dogs Out? is a prime example. It is still earning fortunes, long after Baha Men sunk into the Terry Dactyl/Carl Malcolm pit of anonymity.

I just got a huge cheque for some of the recent earnings by Let It All Hang Out from the Fosters Twist Lager TV commercial.

Executives today (and ever since I started Hype) forget that it is always CRUCIAL that the spend is on true, real, massive earners.

I simply don't think there is anyone in the music industry today who knows this and acts accordingly.

If you offered me the entire profits from Scouting For Girls I'd say "No thank you. I don't accept debts".

Scouting for Girls have used a good campaign to gather up fans and use teh internets and email to keep it going - the free badge and little booklet was a nice "real world" touch too.

Great campaign, pity about the band.