Yesterday a friend of mine called me with a question. His band had been contacted (via ReverbNation) by a company who claimed that they were a publishing and licensing firm in Los Angeles. Oooooh Los Angeles.
The company told him that they saw his profile, liked one of his songs, and thought they could get their song placed in Television and film. But of course there was a price, three hundred dollars to be exact ($300!!!). For this price the company would spend the next year getting the band’s music out there. Rrrrrrright.
See this example contains all of the classic signs you’re being scammed and they are…
3 Signs Your Band Is Getting Scammed:
3. That “Not Right” feeling: Does the offer feel weird? Does it feel like a scam? Does it sound too good to be true? If you’ve answered “Yes” to any of those questions then you’re probably getting scammed.
2. They contact you via a third party site (ReverbNation, Bandcamp, MySpace etc). You see what most of these companies do is use “Bots.” A bit of computer code that is written specifically for these third party sites to find eager young musician. This used to happen a lot during the MySpace days. A company would contact you with a generic statement like “Hey ______ , I really like your song ______. We think it would be a great fit with our company. Please send us a message if you’re interested.” Classic bot stuff.
And the number one sign your band might be getting scammed……
1. They make you pay money first. They always want money first. If the company really believes in your music they wouldn’t ask for this because they know that they’ll be making money from your music. If they’re asking for money first, it’s probably a scam.
Music Consciousness
Voyno
10 Comments
Hi, I work for Audiosocket. We do not charge fees to musicians and never have. We are a non-exclusive indie music license company, meaning you don’t need to sign an exclusive contract with us. Send us some samples of your music, we are always looking for new talent! http://Www.audiosocket.com
Please see the Better Business Bureau regarding Hitt Music Group/songplacements.com/Fast Break Music,all verified to be the same company with a location at 7039 sunset blvd hollywood ca.
I have done quite some research on this company songplacements.com and read all about Ben Stidham Momentum Music and Greg Monty Momentum Music,these people used to work for songplacements.com and fast break music,known telemarketing/scam music industry fraud companies.
Can you send me any information about Greg Monty and his scams?
Also please note that Ben Stidham is a Musician’s Institute in Hollywood graduate. He has now graduated to ripping off artits with Greg Monte who also works for Music Connection magazine. Momentum Music LLC in Los Angeles,on Franklin Ave is a scam/fraudulent music promotion company ready to take your money then change their public company name.Beware all artists of working with Ben Stidham Los Angeles and Greg Monte Los Angeles,apparently they had trouble breaking into the “biz” and they rip off others trying.
Fast Break in Los Angeles is a music supervision scam company formerly known as Hitt Music Group,songplacements.com,and DriveMusic. This company with different names contacted bands on Myspace,charged $400.00 for an upfront fee,then moved their office and did not contact any of it’s paid members. This company was set up by Ben Stidham and Greg Monte,they now have started a new company Momentum Music LLC in Hollywood Ca. Beware of Momentum Music LLC in Los Angeles,they are a scam music promotion company.
Woah. That’s a dope minor threat cover by rage
Probably, everybody knows TAXI – a big A&R company in California. I had a subscription for 1 year with them a few years ago. Within that year 8 of my songs were confirmed and referred to different places 13 times by their experts, people who had only numbers instead of names. Every time they gave me very positive feedback. The rules of the TAXI agreement were such that we couldn’t “bother” the people we were referred to with our inquiries later on. Then nothing happened, nobody called. Finally, 3 years later I received an e-mail from a guy, a music library owner, who offered me an exclusive deal for 1 song and nothing but 50% of hypothetical royalties “if, by chance, the song gets sold” without any promise that it would be actually sold. His generic contract stated that he would automatically keep non-exclusive rights for the song later on, unless I would send a written note that I want to discontinue this part of the deal. Well, I decided not to give away all my rights for the piece for 5 years for, possibly, nothing.
TAXI hustled me actively many times after I hadn’t extended my subscription with them. Well, I do NOT call them scammers, but it is definitely not a good business, as nobody is responsible for anything in the deal. I didn’t understand for what I paid; I’m a professional musician and can also give people very detailed feedback – for free. If I refer somebody without guarantee of being hired, I will not ask to be paid. They do. This article strangely reminded me about my situation with a perfectly legitimate company. :)) Sometimes the boundary between a scam and not scam maybe really thin.
What about audiosocket? They charge fees, and see to be legit.
I havent hear anything about Audiosocket, but if you do some googleing I’m sure you could find out what you need.
-V