The business of music

OOOOOOOOOH MAN!!! i was here when hootie and the blowfish got big...i played on the same stage at the zoo bar where they played and belive me...its south carolina they went to. their from south carolina around S.C. State and Clemson. Greensboro North Carolina was a road trip. but heres the thing...does anyone remember Anthenaeum or Collapsis or Far Too Jones? these are bands that hit it big but still crashed before they could ever be BIG. all are pop rock..the only rapper we have from north carolina is Petey Pablo. did anyone see the movie Drumline? that was modeled after N.C. A&T which is less than a mile from where i live. the WB's Dawson's Creek was filmed in wilmington but you'd see james van der beek and katie holmes up here in greensboro sometimes. Jon Bonjovi's new movie was filmed in greensboro at our court house. i walked passed as they were filming and even with all that....i still think that the bigwigs are someplace other than north carolina. I'm not just taking this guy with a grain of salt....i'm taking it with a pound of pig shit. (we have more hog farms in NC than cow farms)
 
In reply to the original post. . .

It sucks that the first thing we as musicians have to do is worry if we are being taken advantage of. It's no wonder being a musician, singer/songwriter has turned into some kind of a joke to the average non musical person out there. It appears that "art" has been taken out of music in the so called popular music scene. No one has respect for the art of making music anymore and knowing that this story is just one example of who knows how many discusting displays of unprofessionalism in the music business out there is discouraging to say the least. It's bad enough that we all have to deal with the pressure of just putting our music out there to be judged and trivialized, now we have to be treated like sewage and expected to smile and say "I'm happy just having the ability to write music, I don't need anything else". I don't know about anyone else but I do this because I love it but also to try and have some level of success. These people that screwed this guy over aren't in the "music business" they are just run of the mill Con Artists.
 
^ I'm with you there.

And to DJR, sorry for you buddy. Thanks for letting us know about all that shit.

To Blue Bear Sound, I don't understand how you could post that. Sounds pretty rude and immature. :\
 
Djr

Its great that you came forward. I was one of the guys here in the heated battle with the General and his followers. It got pretty ugly to the point of where they were stating that I beat my kids. Its to bad administration took the threads away there was allot of nasty stuff as well as allot of great information. The good news is that anyone who types V-M-G into a search engine finds their way here or better yet to www.V-M-G scams.com( take out dashes )
That episode wore me out and I now rarely post. Your story is touching and it is to bad you have no legal recourse. Even if you won looks like all you would get is a broken down shack in New Mexico. You have done a great service here
Cheers
 
to my knowledge, no legitimate company will ask you to give them money up front to make your career better
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Not true. Plenty of people (i.e. most) ask for money up front. Like any industry, there are a lot of good investments and a lot of not so good ones, but you can't write off every company which asks for money to provide you with a service.

Attorneys cost money.
Accountants cost money.
Studios cost money
Promotion services cost most.

And many booking agents and managers will charge you up front as well. 100% of zero is zero and most bands aren't making enough early in their career for it to be worth it to somebody to take them on a percentage of income.

Whether or not *** is a good investment, I have no idea. Don't write off everybody who doesn't work on a percentage though.
 
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Responding

I am in the process of moving country. I am thankful for the responses I have had, and will respond to them accordingly. I intend on being a participating member of this board and indeed, being a participating member of the performing music community again!

I have a wealth of knowledge about the industry that I believe will be of use to the members of this board, and as we are all part of global community of entertainers, I look forward to the interaction!
 
David Hooper said:
Not true. Plenty of people (i.e. most) ask for money up front. Like any industry, there are a lot of good investments and a lot of not so good ones, but you can't write off every company which asks for money to provide you with a service.
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I disagree.... if a company seriously thinks an artist has merit (and can generate revenue for them), then they will not charge up-front. And if they try to, that it is very easy to question their true motives and the artist should proceed VERY carefully.
 
distortedrumble said:
did V M G threaten to sue for their name being used or something? why would the name be banned in here?
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Go to the www.V M Gscams.com ( sorry about spaces ) and you will see why their name is banned.
Dave your not seriously going to get this guy on the phone....call from a phone booth. I think Gigliamo is the other forum is related to the guy.
Hey those CD's you sent are in the studio and have been listen to buy quite a few players. What they do after that is up to them
Cheers
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
I disagree.... if a company seriously thinks an artist has merit (and can generate revenue for them), then they will not charge up-front. And if they try to, that it is very easy to question their true motives and the artist should proceed VERY carefully.
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I think David's point was that there are people in the music industry who don't expect their clients to generate any backend income for them and don't ask for any backend income. They just provide a service for a fee and that's it. And sometimes they ask for the money up front. If you've worked with enough musicians, you have to agree that's smart.

As an artist, that's not necessarily a bad thing; do you want everyone you work with getting a percentage? That's great if it flops, but if you ever get any success you'll see very little of it.

It's always good to be skeptical of someone who is willing to promote you without hearing you first, though. It's hard to make a blanket statement of what will be a scam and what won't, but you can't buy yourself a record deal, and nobody can "get you a record deal" no matter how connected they are. Unless they own the label, I guess...
 
sorry djr

i just saw chris patrick chamblee in cross plains tennessee last night. looked like his career was going fine to me. i googled him to get his new cd since i was flat broke at the show and came across this that said his career was over in 2004. why was he playing at the fye store in nashville that his website says carries his cd last month and at the elk river coffee house and at river rock fest last week if his career was over? im not a musician and don't know much about business end and ive never heard of any of those others. sorry if all that happened to you djr. really sucks if it did but they didn't stop some of them. heres a link if you don't believe me chrispatrickchamblee dot com
 
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