JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Blazetrak...

Don't know who Ron is. I haven't read more than a couple posts that mentioned something like hundreds of dollars to pay someone (perhaps an intern in reality) to listen to your music?

I only endorsed Taxi because I went out to California in person and spent time there investigating it with 100% open access to everything. (It was an offer made and I accepted and followed through). I then wrote an article about it (this was over a decade ago.. actually over a dozen years ago) and it was long after that they became JPF sponsors in case anyone questions how we do things. So I will not endorse anything like this because I know very little about them in particular. But I do know a lot about OTHER sites which have come and gone who charged ridiculous sums of money for famous (or in many cases has beens) to listen to their music. I do not endorse that business model because I've never to this point seen it done honestly. Does that mean that no one working with the long list of scam companies that came around before ever made a solid connection? Nope. I bet more than a handful did. But the odds are in lottery ticket range that any Joe or Jill could send something to such a site and have any benefit at all. Is Blazetrak different? I can't tell you that. But the business model is great for them and horrible for everyone else. I can't see the value in getting a critique (that supposedly comes from a famous connected person and not their errand boys and girls) for that kind of money when you can pay 20-30-40-50 dollars to get really deep critiques from a wide range of professionals with track records of helping developing artists and who you can email directly or call on the phone or see in person easily and regularly for that kind of money.

If someone wants to prove otherwise to me, I am always open to finding good people at good companies doing honest work with value to the customer (our members). I visited Derek Sivers at his home in the deep woods of upstate NY before he moved to Oregon to check him out. I got a similar insiders look at Disc Makers as well. I met face to face multiple times with BMI and ASCAP folks before we ever partnered with them and spent dozens of hours speaking with Ourstage before we got involved with them for 18 months. All have proven to be long term quality companies who treated our members great and in each case, AFTER we had checked them out and in most cases after we started working with them on some things, they also became JPF sponsors. That's how honest people endorse companies and create legit sponsorships in my book. I am batting 1000 so far over the past 15 years, never leading our folks astray.

So if they want to talk with me directly, I am easy to find. But they'll have to provide clear and present benefit and return on investment for me to endorse their model or them. An honest company would have no problem with that and would welcome and hope for it.

Brian