Don’t Be Taken In by a Scam

One of the side effects of having a broad web presence for your band is the inevitable e-mails you will get from people offering to “help” promote your band. These e-mails often mention that they found your band on some website, liked your music, and want to help you in some way – promotions, agents, even indie record labels. While these are not always an outright scam, most of these are at their best trying to prey on your hopes of hitting it big.

These offers usually want for you to pay them something in return for helping promote your band. Some might be legitimate – you pay them a fee, and they will help you build a web site, write promotional material for you, send your music to radio stations, and so on. The big question with these kind of offers is will they really be able to help your band. Can you use the money for better purposes on other things?

But mostly likely, these offers are more about collecting money from you than about actually helping your band. An example of an offer Ivory Drive just received today is a good example of the sort of things you may encounter. Here’s the text of the e-mail (I’m not going to use the real name they used):

Hello, I am an A&R rep for DXXX Records. My Name is Joe. We are indie label based in Anytown. I would be interested in releasing your music on our label. Are you the person I should contact? My assistant Angela found you on unsigned.com. We currently have a roster of all styles of music. Artist XXX on of our top artist is currently charting, you can see her on our website www.example.com.  Our other top sellers are Artist YYY, Artist ZZZ, Artist ABC.

I would like to email you a contract for your review. Please email me back with all of the info, and I will get it forwarded shortly after I receive the info. I look forward to hearing from you!

Thank you,

Joe XXXXX
DXXX Records
A&R Executive
123 Anystreet
Anytown, AZ

Wow, sounds promising. A real record company. They have an artist on the charts. They found you on unsigned.com – where you actually have something posted.

Well, the first thing in this e-mail is the unsigned.com reference. Sure Ivory Drive has a page there, but it hasn’t been updated for well over a year – it doesn’t even have the latest songs posted there. Hmmm… If these guys were the real thing, wouldn’t they have checked out the band more thoroughly – like the band’s own official site? Pretty feeble start – wanting to sign based solely on an outdated artist page.

When you get an offer like this, the first thing to do is some homework. Start out on their own website. In this case, there was a nice looking website, and the artist they claimed to be currently charting seems real. But by continuing to look at the rest of their site, it was not very encouraging. There were a lot of artists in their roster, but none one had heard of at all. There were no indications that this label had the artist support one would expect from a real label – like promotions, tours, album production, mastering. At best, it looked like they were a small consolidator for iTunes and Amazon.

They also relied heavily on their own web presence – MySpace, Twitter, and the like. And then the big one – the Google search. Sometimes a Google search will turn up discussions about a specific scam ahead of the actual site. But most often, the first several Google hits are links back to the site itself or posts the site has made about itself on blogs and the like – self promotion, in other words. This is usually a bad sign. Truly legitimate business will get plenty of Google hits from references found on other sites.

Another good thing to do is search for “DXXXRecords Scam” – often you will turn up plenty of hits. That does not automatically mean you’ve encountered a scam – but it is not a good sign. Read a few of the links.

In this example case, we found the following entry on a forum at a guitar oriented site:

I’m looking for some advice on a record label called DXXX Records. My band and I were approached by this label via email and they said they found us on unsigned.com. They soon sent a preliminary contract to us and seem very eager to work with us. However a few things are pretty sketchy.

They need a 1000 dollar co-investment to start off. Their biggest artist,  (a country act) only has about 2000 plays on myspace for their biggest hit. DXXX also will not pay for us to record the album and will only put 9000 dollars towards promotions. After the album is done they will only put it out digitally at first until we sell a certain amount. However they do promise a tour if we sell a certain amount of albums, but this has to be within the year that we sign. And they wont put the album out for a few months after we sign, so we would have only a few months to finish the album and plan a tour. Also his initial email wasn’t very personal, it kind of seemed like an automated message.

Ah – so that’s the story – the co-investment with minimal promises of promotion on their part.

Another writer responded the discussion with this:

You’ve already figured it out. e-mail is what it is. Someone that really wants to sign you, and thinks they can market you, will send a rep to see you. If they think you are worth it, they will let you know, and it won’t be by e-mail. The real deal isn’t that simple. If it sounds to good to be true, 99.94% chance it is, so be careful.

This last response pretty much summarizes the whole band promotional deals you’re likely to encounter. The artist who posted about this specific offer decided to pass it up – probably the wise move.

But not all e-mails you get will be scams. Legitimate contacts are likely to be more personalized, but still may result from your presence on the web.  While Ivory Drive has received many of these scam or near scam contacts, they also received one that was the real thing – from a legitimate Hollywood production company affiliated with some major television shows. It was crystal clear from the start that the e-mail was legitimate – their website listed TV shows that were well-known. The Google search had more references to the production company than hits to the company’s own site. And further contact led to a licensing agreement that may lead to exposure on national TV. And they didn’t ask for money.

Ivory Drive was also contacted by a small, but legitimate, promotion company, also from California. This was a case of a very small company which was indeed selective in who they wanted to represent. They were upfront about the fees they would charge (it seems that unless you are signed, you might have to pay for promotion). The band decided to pass on this offer because of the monthly expense.

In summary, you are very likely to get some offers to help your band make it big. Some of the offers are outright scams. Others, while not exactly a scam, will make a lot more money for the promoter/label/whatever than for your band. And if you are lucky, you might even get a real legitimate opportunity. But be cautious! If they want to take money from you, it is likely to be a bad deal for you, although there are legitimate promoters that offer services that may or may not help your band.

Site: YouBloom.com

Just got an invitation to enter  new song contest website called YouBloom.com, based in Europe. Here’s their own blurb:

“Artists… enter your songs now to compete in our exciting Song Contest with heats, playoffs and the Grand Final. Song entry and voting is FREE and there’s €28,000 worth of cash prizes to be won by contestants and voters. This year’s contest has 2 qualifying rounds with 8 weeks of heats, member-voting quarterfinal, professional judging semifinal and member-voting final – from which 8 winners will go forward to the YouBloom annual playoffs in November.
The professional judging panels will be headed up by Bob Geldof and international A&R legend, Nigel Grainge.”

The site is brand new, and the first contest starts May 4, 2010. The site has a very simple and basic layout. Artists just enter songs. There is no significant provision for profiles, photos, and stuff – just a single photo, short bio, and one link. You mainly just enter songs. (You can enter an album cover, but currently there is no real way to actually check out that things have uploaded properly – an oversight they will likely have to correct.)

The contest format has heats, which will run sequentially over time. You can enter one song per heat – a different song per heat. The heat winners are to be reviewed by judges, and those picked move on to the final rounds. It seems there will be several contest per year.

So far, nothing bad. But here’s the deal – each voter (someone who has joined YouBloom) can vote for only 4 songs per heat, and the songs with the most votes move on. There is no judgment involved here – just voting. So what this contest will actually be is a measure of bands with the biggest and best organized street teams. This may reflect quality, but it mostly reflects your street team skills.

The contest hasn’t really started yet, but it seems clear from the rules that this is what will happen. Time will tell.

But since it is a brand new site, you might check it out, and perhaps enter a song or two. Doesn’t take much time.

Final judgement: We’ll see.

A list of 28 essential promotional sites

This article contains selected content from outside sources which we thought interesting or useful.

Mark Stone, who apparently used to write a music promotion blog (the link to his blog doesn’t work anymore), created a list and description of 28 sites he thought important for promoting indie bands. I find that I agree with much of his assesments, although they tend to apply to bands that are a bit more established than a brand new on. As usual with these republished articles, I plan to cover similar material as the site grows. -BW-

28 Essential Music Sites To Promote Your Music

By: Mark Stone

If you have good music, people will listen and buy your music. But they need to find your music. I’ve done all your homework below and give you the 28 Essential Music Sites To Promote Your Music which will increase your income.

The sites below are broken down into categories to help target your music exposure needs.

Artists Bare Essentials

1. GoDaddy.com – Every band or artist needs their own website URL. There is so much you can do with it (I will cover it in a future post) to compliment your marketing efforts that it is well worth the $8.99 a year. GoDaddy is the best company for URLs with great customer service and cheat prices. I have used this company numerous times.
2. BandZoogle.com – This is a website that have band/artist templates for your music. You do not have to know how to build websites. They have it all for you. You can even sell your own music on the site among other services.
3. Bravenet.com – This company offers many free services and premium services that can help you build your marketing efforts. Most importantly, they have many interactive tools you can add to your own site or add to your social networks. It has a FREE email list tool to start collecting your fans emails. This tool is invaluable and I will post about the importance of email lists in the future. I have used this company numerous times.
4. FanBridge.com – This is an artist-specific company that helps build your fan base with email list tools. There is a free service and premium service. Use the coupon code MARKSTONE for a free upgrade.

Getting Your Music On iTunes & Other Sites

1. Tunecore.com – This is the premiere site to get your music on iTunes, Amazon and other valuable sites. Tunecore has just merged services with Amazon and will now print your CDs and open up merch stores for your music. This service will start on July 1st. But for now, get your music on iTunes. Over 70% of people use iTunes for their digital downloads than other sites. I personally know unsigned bands that make over $5,000 a month off iTunes alone. There is an annual fee for each album you download. But you get to keep 100% of your royalties while other sites take a percentage. You can also get 30% OFF your fee’s by using the code beheard30.

Social Networks

1. MySpace.com – This has been the mecca for all bands and artists. MySpace even has its own label called MySpace Records. They sign artists in all genres and they usually sign bands that create a big buzz on their site. Registration is free.
2. Purevolume.com – This site has better streaming features than MySpace (MS streams have ads and randomly don’t work). This site is free to register and includes all genres but mostly caters to rock bands. They actively scout good music on their site to feature on their front page. This site gets over 10,000 visitors a day. There are social networking features available as well.
3. Twitter.com – This is the latest social networking phenomenon. Fans can see what the band and each individual member are doing throughout the day. Direct fan-to-band interaction takes place which is HUGE in building a core fan base. This is free to register and is a must in any musicians marketing plan. I will post about Twitter and your music marketing plan soon.
4. iLike.com – This site helps announce any new songs, new shows, new blogs or new pictures that you post up. Anyone who has iTunes (which is about 70% of the music population) get automatic updates on their iTunes player if they have your music in their iTunes. iLike has a sidebar that you can download attaches to your iTunes. Once you register for iLike, tell your fans about the sidebar so they can stay up-to-date on your bands every move.
5. Lastfm.com – This is another site that intergrates with your iTunes player. When you open a free account and download the Last.fm Scrobbler, everything you play gets registered by Last.fm. They use all that data from everyone’s iTune players to give you top played lists and stats on your songs. This is a good tool to see what songs are most popular on your albums. You might think you know what song is your most popular but Last.fm will tell you what your fans listen to the most.
6. Facebook.com – This is largest social network site in the world (2nd in the U.S. behind MySpace). It is starting to improve its music applications so this is definitely a site that you need to register for.

Artist Press Kits

1. SonicBids.com – This site offers EPKs (electronic press kits) for artists but also helps “book and license your music,” according to their site. I have never used their services but I know it is very reputable in the music industry.
2. PowerPressKits.com – Again, I have never used this company but they offer free press kit building. They even have different templates for you to use.

Websites For Your Music Reviews

1. AbsolutePunk.net – This website caters to anything in the rock genre and will cover hip-hop/rap. The crowd here can be tough on artists but getting any exposure on this site helps. The staff is rather huge so it is easy to get one or more of them to respond to your emails. If you have the stomach, get your music reviewed on this site. Music industry people are on this site multiple times a day.
2. Pitchfork.com – This site is the mecca for indie/singer/songwriter music. The owner was even listed as one of the Top 200 most influential people by Time Magazine. Again, this crowd can be tough.
3. PunkNews.com – This site caters to the true punk crowd and, again, can be a tough crowd. If you’re a punk band and what street cred, get posted/reviewed on this site.
4. Stereogum.com – This site caters to the singer/songwriter/indie band crowd.
5. BrooklynVegan.com – This site caters to the NYC music fan. Covers more than music and even has a Sirius satellite radio show.
6. TheDailyChorus.com – A smaller blog that has a lot of music industry attention. This blog covers music mostly in the rock genre from hardcore, emo, indie, punk and “scene” music.
7. GlobalGrind.com – This caters to the hip-hop culture and is more of a social network for hip-hop artists and fans. There are unsigned hip-hop features.

Sell Your Merchandise Online

1. BigCartel.com – This is a very popular e-commerce site that will sell your music merchandise (T-shirts, etc.) on their site and handle all the payments for you. You simply collect the orders and ship them out. This gives you full control of the shipping process. You can create a store or use one of their templates.
2. DistrictLines.com – This site not only makes custom stores for some artists but they print your merchandise as well. They cater to bands in the rock genre but also have pop-culture icons as clients.

Companies That Make Your Merch (CDs, Tshirts, etc.)

1. Discmakers.com – This company is one of the kings in the CD duplication business. Their rates are very competitive and they also do a lot more than just CDs. You can get your Tshirts, stickers, buttons and a host of other things printed.
2. DistrictLines.com – They will not only make custom merch stores for you but they will also handle your printing needs.

Other Merchandise Companies

1. LoudBytes.com – This site allows you to purchase download cards, stickers or buttons with a code on each. This code can be redeemed on their site for your music. You can sell these items at shows without ordering physical CDs. You sell the cards to your fans and they will download your music off LoudBytes. They even have hangtags for your Tshirts. If you have physical CDs and want to sell a couple of B-sides, this is the most economical way to sell a song or two.
2. Dropcards.com – This is also a download card website that embeds a code into each card.

Music Discovery Blogs

1. Kings Of A&R.com – This site is heavily scouted by music industry people. This site covers all genres of music and if you feel like your music is good enough to be featured on the site, email Dean, the owner of the site.
2. TheDailyChorus.com – Another music discovery site that is scouted by the music industry. This site mainly covers music in the rock genre. The staff of this site is a lot bigger than KOAR so it’s easier to get the staffs attention.

I will explore many of these sites in greater detail to show you how you can improve your music marketing plan to obtain new fans which will increase your revenue.

Did I miss any valuable sites? Leave a comment and let me know or email me at:  markstone424@gmail.com!

About the Author

I’m a music industry veteran that loves the quickly changing music landscape and writing about it. I am always blogging about the latest music marketing trends (secrets) to help musicians achieve their goals. Please visit my free blog at: http://musicmarketingsecrets.blogspot.com

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