JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Legitimizing Pay-for-Play

Brian,

Congrats. Now you're an official street teamer promoting Jango. And frankly, they should be paying YOU serious money for promoting them. You're the first passionate supporter of their site I have encountered. But as with all street teamers, we need to read your messages knowing that you are officially "affiliated" with them. I appreciate your candid acknowledgement of that.

For the record, though you've made an argument above about Payola, Scams and Immorality, it's simply an opinion by an affiliate of that company. It's not a fact nor is it the end of the discussion. It's only an opinion. I still believe it's immoral and a scam. I don't believe it is illegal, so it doesn't fit the legal definition of Payola. But in my opinion it still fits the intellectual concept. If not for you paying them, they wouldn't be playing you. You acknowledged that you had sent them your CD before all of this nonsense and they had declined to play it. That PROVES the fact that it's Payola one inch before it crosses the line into illegality. Pay to Play is basically the legal name for Payola which is illegal.

So let's go to the questions I asked you above.

1. Do you have their names and direct contacts?

Finally we have the answer. NO! So how do you know that you have 170 fans? And are they really fans if you don't see them in person or have contact with them? No. They are phantoms in the system. Nothing more. Even if they are real users, it doesn't matter. They have no actual value to you for your investment beyond making you "feel" good like having bogus MySpace friends who do nothing for you.

2. Do you know where they are located?

The answer is NO! So that can't help you with touring like a real fan base would. It can't help you target marketing efforts or terrestrial radio strategies. Again, they are phantoms.

3. Have they actually purchased anything?

One CD and a T-Shirt. At least you're not batting .000 So what was your profit margin on these items? 20 dollars?

4. Have they responded to your notes to them?

3 of them. Out of 170. Not bad for a random ad campaign via the net actually. That's nearly 2%. So do you now have them on your outside mailing list?


So you've turned $200 dollars into 3 fans and $20 dollars in profit roughly (you can correct that dollar total.. I don't know how much you're making on CD's and T-Shirts).

Jango could have simply bought a CD and T-Shirt from you and kept the other 170 dollars and the result would have been the same right? Great deal for them.

For all your glowing enthusiasm you've actually done a pretty good job demonstrating why it's an unsustainable process. How long can you afford to turn $200 dollars into $20 dollars? If you pay me $200 dollars, I will have 4 people send you an email and buy a CD and T-Shirt from you. And I will promise to keep doing that as long as you want to pay me $200 dollars. Sound like a good deal? That's 1 more fan and you'll have their REAL email address. Yee ha!

Seriously, I have a great deal of respect for you as an artist Brian and also as a stand up guy willing to supply facts and not shy away from the truth of it all. That says a lot about you across the board. But it actually makes my point even further. You're a hard working and talented musician out there engaged in your career trying to make something happen. And even with your talent this is already proving not to work. That means that anyone slightly LESS talented is going to fail at an even higher rate. Or, someone equally or slightly MORE talented, but in an even more mainstream genre than yours will still likely produce LESS results than you.

To be fair, all of the above is anecdotal. That means it could be better or worse than your numbers. But I suspect one reason they made you an "affiliate" is that you're not a "worst case" scenario. That would be dumb right? So it certainly suggests that your experience paints them in at least a positive light. And I suggest that what you have experienced isn't good enough. Not at all.

Your suggestions would make it a little better. Some of them have come from our discussions and I suspect they are reading this one too. But they are playing music they previously rejected as not good enough ONLY because you are paying them to (though I suspect after all your vocal support, if they were smart, they'd be playing you all the time to try and push as much benefit to you as possible, so future reports from you may be a bit skewed going forward with your new role as spokesperson for them). In the end, what more does anyone need to know?

Brian