I’ve been in the biz for quite some time but so far haven’t heard this…until just now.
First off my band’s had some indie label interest and since there are some interested we’ve decided to ask around more labels and see if we can get a better offer.
So, after contacting a legit offer, I get this:
An offer for a telephone talk with some schmoe that is supposed to be a big shot but hasn’t done anything relevant since 2013 but prey on unsuspecting musicians. We’ll get this recorded and send to us as a courtesy, for the lovely low price of $500.
So…that’s the label offer. And it is a legitimate label! I am absolutely baffled. Maybe if they gold frame the tape from the interview (yes, I want analog tape!) I might consider it.
@vtr they offered to have us talk to someone at the label for $500 over the phone, and they’ll record that conversation and ship back to us…nothing to do with the record
Do you know 100 people who would buy your ‘product’, that don’t own it already?
Last show we did sold 20 units, bunch of other merch, so probably yeah, I can easily do another 100 units. German label licensed bunch of them for us as well, so it must be selling there as they paid cash. Honestly, don’t know, they contacted us and wanted to buy a shipment of CDs, so we have EU distro of sorts
That is freaking weird. It seems to me though that the music business has, and always will be, been about getting rich off of the musician so it is not surprising.
The company charging $500 for that may not be. And its probably not the label.
Why do you think this? This is NOT legally privileged regardless of what any of their damn paperwork says. Privilege in this case only applies to the person BEING paid. Like if you pay your doctor, the DOCTOR is the one who can’t discuss your patient profile. You are free to talk about whatever with whoever about your own medical condition. Your doctor can’t unless you sign a waiver. Same with a lawyer or family counselor.
Now a NDA, a non-disclosure agreement is different. That’s where both parties consent to not talk about something (like Mark Hammil or Robert Downey Jr agreeing not to give away any spoilers). But you obviously didn’t sign a non-disclosure. Those have to be signed.
An A&R guy charging $500 to give a thorough critique of a record, its marketability and branding strategy is well worth it if the guy is a legit expert. I would gladly pay that myself if I needed the service. Many A&R guys are lawyers, and typical entertainment lawyer rates run about $250/hr, billable in 6 minute increments. You will pay that for an expert consultant in any field.
In regards to @Descent comment that the person hasn’t done anything relevant since 2013, this doesn’t matter in my opinion. I would check to see that the A&R guy hasn’t been disbarred by the ABA or if he’s from a marketing background, I’d be curious to see how up to date his knowledge of social media is. A&R guys usually come from one of those two expertise fields. Their either marketing experts or transaction attorneys/deal-makers.
So in and of itself, there’s nothing wrong with this. But what screams scam to me is the shitty little recording they say they’ll send you. I could see this being a legitimate service if it was portrayed different. But at the end of the day, I agree with Decent - that this is a scam.
So YOU are paying the $500 for a recorded phone call to A&R? Sounds like total BS to me… it isn’t TMG is it?
btw. you definitely won’t need a label to sell merch for you at shows… they wont exactly send somebody to follow you around, and you have to actually buy your own product back off them anyway
Not much of a deal, i know.
PS. If you REALLY want an honest appraisal, you can get it here, for free.
Quite on point guys…it is actually a legit label.
They actually have local rockers King’s X to their roster, so my jaw dropped as I’ve heard their “proposal”.
@bozmillar
For $500 you talk to someone that did publicity for labels. The phone conversation is 1 hr. Then you get a link where you can dload the talk you had with said guy. All prepaid, of course.
I get how a service like that could potentially be something that some bands are willing to pay for, but it seems like a strange response to try to sell you on a service you didn’t ask for.
I think a lot of labels are trying to figure out their roles in the music industry right now and having a rough time doing it.
They got super sore also when I called them on this. I wrote them for record contract as we’re trying to land at least a distro deal to open some new markets and considering that we’ve already got ourselves a distributor in Europe and are actually talking to another label at the moments, their handling of the situation was super weird.
As soon as you heard … KINGS X is on the same ‘whatever Krautrock’ label, someone got just a tiny little bit excited or star struck and thought they would get something almost, even just a tiny little bit, like the KINGS X deal??
How do you think KingsX get PAID THEIR advance? Through all the other little guys paying for bullshit ‘interviews’, of course…
Anyway, I don’t know why I bother, its always the same dealio…
Did I ask for the King’s X deal? No, not really. It looked like these guys were acquiring bands left and right and figured they might give us a listen…and since I already have a distro offer I thought that I might find someone that could sweeten the deal, like offer touring support or something as I am not super ecstatic that the current offer we have on the table.
Yep, that is kinda an advance of cash too…
Except when you have to PAY to support their (the labels) own headliner… thats just a straight rip.
Either way, you are just racking up DEBT. (The caps isn’t for you, as you seem to understand the modern concept pretty well, its more of a general statement over the dreaded 360 deal).
No offense intended to our international audience, but KRAUTROCK Records might tickle the germans more, I worked/lived there for a year (we never mentioned the war once… I promise
