The Sandi Thom Story: Fraud Or Smart Marketing?

Thanks to Hypebot reader Alison Noise who tipped us off to what some say is the real story behind Sandi Thom's month of nightly webcasts from her UK apartment that reportedly led to 100,000 listeners and signing to RCA.  We've been writing about Thom for weeks, but detailed posts on The Velvet Rope and on the blog Chartreuse now chronicle how Thom was already a part of the industry's marketing machinery having signed to a well connected publisher six months ago and how independent web statistics call into question the 100,000 listenership stats.

Some want to condemn Thom, but since when is hype not just that....hype?  If Thom had some forward thinking folks at a well connected company behind the webcast idea and press campaign is that such a horrible thing?  The truth is that someone came up with a fairly original and affordable idea (a month of webcasts from a small UK apartment) and made a story of it.  I first heard about Thom's webcasts in an email blast from a completely unrelated indie label staffer who just thought the whole thing was cool.  It was cool and Hypebot and hundreds of other media outlets agreed giving Thom a lot of free press.  Isn't this what viral marketing is all about?