Auto-Tune the News Hits the Billboard Top 100

Online video stars The Gregory Brothers continue making strides towards world domination. Their latest hit Auto-Tune the News single, Bed Intruder, debuted at number 89 on the Billboard Hot 100 today.

Billboard uses a number of metrics covering radio play and sales — including digital downloads, which they first began incorporating in 2005 — to determine which songs make the list. The song is currently number 35 on iTunes’s top music downloads, peaking at one point at number 25, and it’s solely because of those iTunes sales that it made it onto Billboard’s list (beating out country singer Brad Paisley’s Water). “Unlike nearly every other item in the Hot 100, this is a digital-only release,” Evan Gregory via email.

The song remixes and auto-tunes a news broadcast featuring rapist-thwarter Antoine Dodson, who according to a Wired piece last week shares revenue from the song “50-50.” Multiple remixes and covers have appeared since the song first appeared on YouTube two weeks ago, including a full marching band version.

This isn’t the only mainstream breakthrough sister-in-law Sarah and brothers Michael, Evan and Andrew have experienced recently — in that interview with Wired.com, the Gregory’s revealed that they’re developing a new pilot with Comedy Central over the next few months. “It will have a musical component, and it will certainly be based on a lot of internet culture,” Sarah told Eliot Van Buskirk.

(Hat tip to The Daily What)

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