Potential Ripoffs and Scams

• There was an email that went out recently about a website called American Idol Underground (http://www.idolunderground.com/Pages/Welcome.aspx) offering a free trial account to CD Baby artists who have digital distribtuion. Apparently according to several members, the contract you sign basically gives up all the rights to your music. There's a warning message posted here for anybody who hasn't read it.
http://cdbaby.org/stories/05/10/29/2841659.html

• There's another site called Raw42 (http://www.raw42.com/) that supposedly deals in licensing music to tv/film companies. However, despite writing to them over a two week period using three different emails, I can't seem to get any reply from them. This is after having my songs listed with them for over a year. In fact the only contact I've had from them in the last year has been a rude and obnoxious comment from their so called A&R person, for accidentally submitting the same song twice.
Not sure what the deal is with these guys but I definitely don't trust people who ignore my emails and act beligerently to their clients.
I've tried removing my songs from their site several times, but they're still being listed so now I'm going the legal route.

This is a reply from 'American Idol Underground'.
(still no word from 'Raw42' yet)

My name is Bob Buch, I am the co-founder and COO of American Idol Underground, and I am also a CD Baby artist. First of all, don't panic! I assure you that this is not a scam or a trick, and you have definitely not "waived all your copyrights." My goal is to help you get your music heard and to help democratize the music industry to give emerging artists a better chance at success.

I appreciate the feedback we have received on our Artist Agreement, and I agree that it needs to be more clear. One thing we will be changing is that ARTISTS WILL BE ABLE TO CANCEL THE AGREEMENT AT ANY TIME. This will apply retroactively to all artists, even if you have already signed in. You can expect to receive a new Artist Agreement from us within 72 hours by email, reflecting this change and some other changes in response to your feedback.

I don't want anyone to miss out on this opportunity by acting rashly in response to Mr. Easley's posting, please give us the opportunity to respond to your feedback and make the necessary changes. I assure you, if we have not addressed your concerns, there will always be an opportunity for you to cancel.

Thanks for sticking with us, and we appreciate your feedback because it helps us serve you better.

Bob Buch
Co-Founder, COO
American Idol Underground
[email]bbuch@idolunderground.com[/email]

bah i hate the emails where its like "hi it's george". So i'm like yay, its george. But it turn out to be Santa shaking a horses hand...

huh? ???????

Originally Posted by: iihollybah i hate the emails where its like "hi it's george". So i'm like yay, its george. But it turn out to be Santa shaking a horses hand...

I hate those too... they are all like "young hot girls want you!" and then you open it and it's about enlarging your manhood...

Originally Posted by: AkiraI used to get those e-mails ALL the time, but then they realised that my man hood is about as big as it gets, so they stopped sending me them.

Sorta strange how they realised that at around the same time I changed my e-mail address. :confused:

Spooky.

yeah, I used to get about 30 spam e-mails a day... but then I found out if you actually open them up, near the bottom in tiny print there is usually something that says "if you'd like to unsubscribe click here" so you click there and start the long process of unsubscribing, usually they send you like 2 confirmation e-mails and such... but once you do it, they won't send you stuff anymore... I did that to about 5 of my spam e-mails, now I only get like 2-3 spam e-mails a day.

Actually, sometimes they put the 'unsubscribe' option there to check and see if your email works. Then they pass on your email to other people.

I used to get about 3000 spam emails a week in my guitar tricks box so I just signed up with a service that gives me 1000 email addresses.
Now I just change the address every few months.
Like especially newsgroups or forums... never post your real email address.
Just post a yahoo.com address or whatever.

Originally Posted by: 6strngs_2hmbkrsyeah, I used to get about 30 spam e-mails a day... but then I found out if you actually open them up, near the bottom in tiny print there is usually something that says "if you'd like to unsubscribe click here" so you click there and start the long process of unsubscribing, usually they send you like 2 confirmation e-mails and such... but once you do it, they won't send you stuff anymore... I did that to about 5 of my spam e-mails, now I only get like 2-3 spam e-mails a day.

I've been using the same email address since high school. I've not changed once and you get more spam mail in one day than I get in a week.

Originally Posted by: 6strngs_2hmbkrsI hate those too... they are all like "young hot girls want you!" and then you open it and it's about enlarging your manhood...

I usually get "HOT ASIAN TWINS WANT TO GET WITH YOUUU!"

Then it's usually about hot asian twins wanting to get with me (for the low, low price of $59.99 a month). So naturally I blow my load and then delete that ****...I mean...I uhh...block such filth.

Originally Posted by: Jolly McJollysonI usually get "HOT ASIAN TWINS WANT TO GET WITH YOUUU!"

Then it's usually about hot asian twins wanting to get with me (for the low, low price of $59.99 a month). So naturally I blow my load and then delete that ****...I mean...I uhh...block such filth.

You can take care of business over an email filled with text?

Originally Posted by: Cryptic ExcretionsYou can take care of business over an email filled with text?

Yeah, I kinda stole the joke from one of my friends in the dorm. We were talking about something or other and he goes "Yeah, the other night I was looking at porn and my computer had a popup like 'sexy singles in Waterville!' So I was like, 'holy ****, they know where I live!' So I blew my load and closed the box."

Originally Posted by: Jolly McJollysonYeah, I kinda stole the joke from one of my friends in the dorm. We were talking about something or other and he goes "Yeah, the other night I was looking at porn and my computer had a popup like 'sexy singles in Waterville!' So I was like, 'holy ****, they know where I live!' So I blew my load and closed the box."

Makes sense.

Ok... this was supposed to be a post about scams and places like Raw42 being scammers so we're getting kinda sidetracked here.

Seriously, can anybody else get a reply from these guys?
I tried sending an email every day for a couple of weeks and couldn't get a reply.

Seriously, if these guys

... http://www.raw42.com/

...are scam artists or operating some kinda ripoff, I'd really like to expose em...
I even sent another email from a different computer asking about licensing some songs for use in a movie... still no reply.

Originally Posted by: Jolly McJollysonYeah, I kinda stole the joke from one of my friends in the dorm. We were talking about something or other and he goes "Yeah, the other night I was looking at porn and my computer had a popup like 'sexy singles in Waterville!' So I was like, 'holy ****, they know where I live!' So I blew my load and closed the box."

yeah it kinda freaks me out when those porn sites know where you live! *ahem* *ahem* I mean, I'm under 18, of course I don't look at porn... that would be wrong and destroy my growing mind *ahem* *ahem*

Just to follow up on this again.
I actually got an email from Raw42 today.

----------------------------------------------------

Moonlight in Vienna track acceptance

A&R has now assessed your track and it has been recommended for acceptance into the Raw42 promotional programs. If you want to take advantage of these programs, you need to do the following:

1) Log on to the Artist Lounge at www.raw42.com/artists2004
2) Select the "OPTIONS" link for this track and run through the process
3) Check the track info is correct and your contact info also (very important!)

Raw42 will represent your track on a non-exclusive basis (unless you are signed to us for publishing) and it will become an integral part of our licensing searches for TV, film and advertising briefs that we actively seek. We have received over 150 of these in the past 12 months but it is a very competitive area. It can take days, months, sometimes years to get a deal, but the bottom line is your track is "in the pot" and its non-exclusive so you can still promote it elsewhere.

We strongly recommend you spend some time on our Forums at http://www.raw42.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi as there is lots of interesting information there. And our FAQs are a must-read if you want to get the most from Raw42. Relationships are everything...thanks for using Raw42.

Kind regards,

Ian & Sal
www.raw42.com.
(There is no need to respond to this email)

----------------------------------------------------
My response...


You have got to be kidding. Absolutely not.
Remove all my songs from your site immediately and cancel my account.
I've been writing to your company for over a month and haven't been able to get an answer to one simple question.
I've written every day for over a week to all 3 of the addresses listed on your site and still couldn't get a response.
All I've ever gotten from your company has been rude and obnoxious comments from whoever does your A&R. Including a beligerent remark about submitting the same song twice.
There is absolutely no way that you are going to ever have access to my music and I am giving you legal notice to remove all my songs and subscription from your site immediately.
If this isn't done within 48 hours I will be contacting my lawyer.

Kevin Taylor
Schmange Music U.K./Canada

----------------------------------------------------

Just an additional note, I signed on using a different computer under a different name and tried to contact somebody about buying the licensing to a 'major motion picture I'm working on'. It's been 4 days and still no response.
There's something seriously wrong with a company that doesn't answer it's emails.
If anybody has any dealings with this company I would seriously recommend backing out cause I smell a scam.

I would assume they just get bazillions of e-mails a day, and they try to respond to the oldest ones first, and they are a couple weeks behind schedule on being able to read them as the e-mails probably come in faster then these people can respond to them. just a thought...

Well, I'd agree with you, but I've also tried several times over the past year to ask questions and never received responses.
About 6 months ago I wrote out a detailed letter asking about alternate mixes, then sent it 3 more times and never got an answer.
About a year ago when I first joined them, I wrote to ask whether one of the files I'd sent had been received properly because I noticed it was corrupted after sending it. I never received a reply to that, and still don't know if they got the song or not.

I just don't buy it. Even if they are 2 weeks behind on their email, you'd think that a letter sent every day for over a week with the subject line "Will somebody please answer my email (1st attempt, 2nd attempt etc..)", sent to both the A&R department, the president of the company, and the main email.. would get some kind of response. Even a fourth email address from their A&R acceptance notification doesn't work. (feel free to try it yourself... if you ever get an answer, please let me know)

I think what's basically done me in with these guys is that I just don't want to deal with them anymore. I feel physically sick at the thought of them profitting from anything I've done which isn't very conductive to creativity.
When I'm writing stuff I know that I'll be sending to them, I'm so pissed off because of past treatment that I don't even want to do it.