Sending Cds out for promised Reviews

Can you clarify what you mean by "review"; do they mean they listen to CDs and give you opinions of them or do you mean they post a review, as we do here on GuitarNoise? Those are two very different issues.

If the problem is just that they didn't get your CD, couldn't you send them another copy? Or is tehre something I am misunderstanding?

for a few extra dollars you can easily send anything thru the mail or parcel service that requires the recipient to sign a statement when your parcel is received.

this will solve your problem 100%
:wink:

for a few extra dollars you can easily send anything thru the mail or parcel service that requires the recipient to sign a statement when your parcel is received.

this will solve your problem 100%
:wink:

As of other people being silent, its called daydreaming. There are so many sites filled with dudes sitting in their basement thinking about being the next best thing, it's amazing. And when people promise something (advice, membership, record deal, whatever) people go numb and just hope for the best instead of asking themselves what the heck they're actually doing. So you end up with a whole bunch of arsewipes surfing along the naive dreams of others.

If you think some folks are not being honest or fair, say it as often as you care for, as loud as you want to whomever is nearby.

When I asked what exactly she was offering she said it was a FREE service ( repeated repeatedly) where the Cd would be reviewed or not and then put on a list on the website. When I mentioned the name of it on the list that's when she started getting all threatening towards me as if I am deliberately downgrading her service. It's indie-music-toronto.ca. She mentions SAC - the songwriters' assoc'n of Cda. She's the 'farmed out' volunteer coordinator of a regional group. Of course when I made enquiries at SAC they said they have nothing to do with sending in Cds and would never advertise that. So it's ambivalence, hostility and threats. Not the kind of attitude I'd expect from anyone who was offering a songstage, membership to an indie group and reviews posted on a website.
It's just commonsense to research who you're sending your Cds and bio to. Out of a 100 Cds sent out I'd expect most of them should be acknowledged and accounted for by the recipient and done so in a polite and courteous manner. Losing 50% of what you send out is really not efficient or sensible. One fella from Chicago claims he saw a postie feeding mail into his fireplace. Somehow I doubt the Cds were lost in the mail or that they've slid down the back of someone's chair. That's just plain shoddiness and as someone who's lost Cds to them I would've thought that they'd have been a little more understanding towards me than this. By threatening people in Soprano overtones doesn't do much to improve their credibility. If the other listers are 'daydreamers wishing on a star' then maybe that's why they want to shut me up. They sure can make you feel cornered and it's a very unpleasant experience. Your viewpoints are gratefully consoling.

On the bright side, you can just be done with it. I'd bet that even if you sent it with some sort of tracking or signature required, they'd still lose it somehow. To get listed, you'd probably have to be someone's personal pet in some way.

Make sure you save ALL her emails and any other correspondence with her. Plus I would print out all related threads from this forum before they get deleted.

In case this does get "legal" you have evidence of all that was said. Protect yourself first then just stop ALL correspondence with this person..and honestly stop posting on that forum.

Umm, no, I would not expect that sending in a CD would guarantee you a response or a review, even if it was requested or encouraged. I do agree that this operation sounds a bit disorganized or worse, but I think your expectations are too high.

This is why it's so hard to be "discovered".

Keep working at it!

Laz

I didn't send the Cds to a big label company like Sony, EMI, Virgin or whoever. So I certainly wasn't expecting to be 'discovered.' It was a folk music group and the address was local so I took a risk in good faith thinking it might lead to a new circle of people. I'm bored with the same round of musicians showing up at the stages that I attend and I'm willing to take time off from my comfortable regular gig once in awhile to check out new stages and people. It was an attempt to get to know new people. In folk music circles it's more often about seeking out possible collaborators, tips on good recording studios, and general camaraderie with like-minded types. I wasn't so unrealistic as to expect a warm hug and welcome but I certainly didn't expect a mafia style initimidation. I confess that I'm the sort that only wants to make songs and don't get out much except for my performances and maybe an openstage here or there. I am likely an easy bug for bullies to squash. But seriously what are reasonable expectations from 'operations' who invite send-ins and make promises?? I wouldn't expect the big labels to acknowledge me but a smaller group - why not?

I'll tell you a bit about reviews (both types), perhaps this will be of help.

Submitting a CD for review on a website (like we do here) or magazine

Reviewers like myself receive a dozen CDs on a bad week. Peak period can be (seriously) up to 100 CDs every week. Reviewers on web are generally not paid and at mags are not paid a lot, hence, there's generally the need for a real job, family, a social life... Acknowledging everything that comes in is next to impossible; the time it would take especially when at least half of the material has no obvious contact information.

And because of the sheer amount of material that comes in, then the best thing to do is not expect a review. A certain percentage of the material never even gets listened to. Most will get one listen and reviewed material up to three. Do the math, you really have to have something that will catch the reviewer's attention.

Then there's labels and AR agencies that usually send a lot of stuff and have a good working relationship with the reviewer and have priority: it's simply a reality of life.

Submitting a CD for comments, posting, etc

This is a whole different matter entirely. You should normally receive acknowledgement when they get it. Often they'll ask for a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) and will mail you a generic card saying they received your material.

Also, taking into account my personal experience, mail does get lost, a lot more times than you'd think. A lot of people have to resend their material because it never made it. I'm assuming you're from Canada, from what you wrote. If that's the case, you should know how Canada post works...

Hope this helps.

What I mean to say is that I already know a few music judges from past auditions and songstage events in my area so when I asked for at least one name of these so-called 'reviewers' that she was plugging i was met with hostility. That response is what surprises me as I don't believe that asking for a credible person involved in her operation is out of line. It would only improve her credibility and I may likely have heard of the 'reviewer' before from past experiences being judged in music events throughout the city. It would have been a nice followup after having established that the Cds weren't received. She had a window of opportunity to reinforce her credibility after a mixup with the Cds. Instead she showed her true colours by being shady and defensive. What are reasonable expectations when researching an 'operation?' If she didn't want to disclose the name of one credible person on her judging committee she could have simply stated her reasons why. I should've checked all this out first but would she have answered my questions in an email first? I doubt it from the way she's responding now. And all I had to lose were two Cds so I sent them, I lost them, I learned that she doesn't want to explain more about who or what her operation is and that I wouldn't want to collaborate with people like her anyway.

The website doesn't appear to have had any relevant updates since 2003 (perhaps the list of "artists" is maintained) - certainly the "Newsletter" is from 2003.

Looks to me like a "stale" drop for a very lazy website owner. It's run by someone looking to make something off the backs of others (in my opinion) - I may be cynical (that's polite considering some of the assessments of my attitude), but I wouldn't give anyone who can't decide on the correct grammatical use of capitals in their name more than a sparrow's fart of my time.

Yes, the outdatedness of the website should've been a surefire warning signal not to trust it. Live and learn.