Music Retail Asks...Did You Get What You Paid For???

You know they say if “it don’t make dollars it don’t make sense.” And lately, from my end, there has been a lot of that in the music industry. As a music retailer I hear way too many tales of artists and labels paying money for services that don’t make sense. The Eblast that nobody responds to and almost every industry person that I know deletes. The DJ troops that get you no radio/club spins. And the Internet marketing companies that can’t afford to pay advertising to the sites that really matter. And don’t get me started on the showcases.

THE E-BLAST SERVICE
Has anyone else noticed the influx of eblast you get saying how hot a song is? (and they send them 2 or 3 times a day) Only to open it up and hear some straight garbage. Then you start deleting those emails because most of the songs they sent before sucked. Plus you didn’t see a name that you recognized so you figure “new hot song email # 500″ from “jo blow delivers you the hits.com” is crap like last 499 were.

THE DJ TROOP
Some of them offer packages that start at $5,000 with 2,000 DJ’s affiliated with their crew. But for a $1,000, they will do you a favor and make some noise in a few cities. Then later you find out that no one in any of those cities have heard your song in the clubs or on the radio mix shows and the DJ tells you “man I did the best I could with $1,000 you gave me.”

THE INTERNET MARKETING COMPANY
If the promoting music in the streets is hard imagine trying to promote it on line to the entire WORLD. Where there are thousands of blogs, social networking sites and EVERYBODY is trying to be heard. And you paid how much for that company to set you up with a twitter account, say a few words about you on a blog that gets NO TRAFFIC, and get you that national buzz that can get a record deal. YEAH RIGHT!!! If you need a good referral of some companies that give results…holla at me and I will let you know who’s legit and who is not. I know some giants that will plug you into tens of thousands of people per day.

THE SHOWCASE where you could possibly land a record deal????
As of lately, showcases in Atlanta have proved to be a cash cow!!! With promises of TOP A&R’s and DJ’s that can get you some exposure. They charge you $3,000 for a booth in a club that any reputable A&R would never go to( and I know where they go because they call my store to see who’s hot in Atlanta). Or they may invite one top DJ in the city so that the $100 you paid to get your song heard and reviewed will make you feel like you actually made a valuable connection. Well, all I can say is watch out and do your homework before you pay that fee through Paypal. I don’t know about the rest of these showcase promoters…but as of right now all I dO is MUSIC!!!!

In my opinion, for things to get better in the music industry, we have to stop paying the companies that sell dreams and start paying the companies that provide results. I know great companies that give top notch services and I see their methods work every day when customers start coming by the store asking for new artists or new songs. Or when record labels call the store and ask about the buzz on certain records. Just because there is a niche that needs to be filled doesn’t mean any company can fill it. Keep that in mind the next time you pay somebody telling you that they can make you the next big star in the music industry.

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