I found this article written by Derek Sivers on CDBaby

Enjoy,

Ande

http://cdbaby.org/stories.php?topic=8

Mass/Bulk Email Campaigns Don't Work

posted by Derek at CD Baby on Wednesday September 08 2004 @ 08:20AM PDT

If you're thinking of hiring one of those companies that is going to email thousands or millions of strangers about your CD, don't. It's not worth it, it can hurt you more than help you, and doesn't work anyway. I don't know if you know, but say you send out an email to someone who didn't want it. And in your email was the link to your CD Baby page. Guess who gets the complaint? ME! The abuse department forwards me every single complaint about every unwanted email that mentions CD Baby anywhere in it. I'm expected to SHUT OFF the account of anyone who gets a lot of complaints. Sometimes I do - sometimes I don't. When I don't, it's out of curiosity : wondering, how many CDs will this person's massive email-bulk-blast campaign sell? (By the way, emailing people who didn't want or ask to hear from you is called SPAM. I know that because it's your MUSIC and not viagra, that you don't think of it as spam, but it's spam, by every definition.) When a company says, "We will email millions of music fans about your music!" - be suspicious. If they had said hundreds or thousands, then perhaps those people really did choose to be on a mailing list that hears about new music. But when the numbers are TOO high (especially millions), there's a good chance it's just a list of all possible email addresses, and you're about to become an evil spammer. And now - I can tell you from running the store : I've watched quite a few big giant massive email-campaigns now - ones where I'm assuming they mailed many thousands of people, because I get hundreds of complaints insisting that I shut down their account - and ALL of them have sold either NO CDs or TWO CDs, tops - TOPS! Then consider the downside: CD Baby may need to shut down your account. I'm sure whoever is hosting your website (yourname.com) is being asked to shut down your account. Whoever you use for email (@aol.com, @earthlink.net, etc) - is being asked to shut down your account. It's just not worth it. Don't do it. Keep in touch with people who have ASKED to hear about your music, yes. And if you don't have many fans yet, go make some! Play live. Meet people. But don't be a spammer.

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Ande Rasmussen
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