Oct 30, 2005 08:41 pm I think they approached him if I'm not mistaken. And ya, its a pretty cool setup they have there. Checked it out earlier today, very well put together.
American Idol Underground
Posted on Oct 30, 2005 08:29 pm
guitar_jim
Czar of Cheese
Member Since: Jun 09, 2004
Hey...just saw the banner ad and checked it out. It looks like a pretty cool site. Seems like a little different spin on the music hosting thing. Prizes for the competitions seem farily substantial. So far it seems like everything is free...
How did you score this one...dB?
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Oct 30, 2005 08:41 pm I think they approached him if I'm not mistaken. And ya, its a pretty cool setup they have there. Checked it out earlier today, very well put together.
Oct 30, 2005 11:43 pm Can you enter from new zealand? I'll re-record control : D should be fun lol
Oct 31, 2005 12:54 am Looks pretty cool. Licensing the American Idol branding might get a bit more exposure for the artists. Ah ha, reading a bit further you have to buy "Spin Credits" to upload your music @ $50 per song, not too cool. :)
Dan
Oct 31, 2005 03:09 am $50 per song? that's ludicrous. Another money making scam to leech poor artists of their money. I wonder what record label is behind it...
Paying to upload music. I understand paying to download someone's music, but an artist having to pay to upload his music, so that the "idol brand" can have more traffic on their site, and seem like they are supporint indies?...
On the other hand, I suppose that is how they fund the cool prizes. I'll bet they'll make much more than the prizes from poor gullible artists, and are probably given the prizes so that those audio equipment companies can be seen to be supporting indy/underground artists, when in actual fact they are sponsoring people who are ripping indy artists off.
sorry to write this, but db, it just seems to smack of something fishy.
Oct 31, 2005 06:41 am No no no, I checked it out VERY closely before accepting their ads (yes, they approached me), I talked to a couple people for a long time with a lot of questions. It's two reputable companies, one of which is the production company of American Idol. Yes, it costs money to put your songs in, which often indicates scam (though not always) but it's also heard by reputable judges...it's on the up and up...yeah, $50 is a lot, but then it's heard by real industry people, not a bunch of scammers, and it means your will actually get heard because asking them money not only helps run the project (web sites need money to run ya know) but also helps keep out every band in the world...if it was free they could never listen to all the songs getting submitted, it also a way to legitimize the submissions.
dragonorchild, while I expected that sort of cynical response from a few people, you are very, very wrong...I have turned down MANY, MANY such other contests and services advertisement requests due to them being scams in my eyes...this one is not.
Think what you want, I knew a few would, and I even told them I wonder how long before the "idealistic indies" start bashing me...it took longer than I thought it would. I knew there would be a knee-jerk reaction by people that hadn't bothered to find out what they are about, who is involved and how professional it really is and immediately say "oh, they asked me for money, it must be a scam"...hate to break it to you, but nothing in the music business worth anything is going to be free. Lots of companies make gear targetted for indies, but they don't give them away...
I highly doubt that the American Idol name would want to be associated with anything that would/could be later uncovered as a scam. John Lennons contests cost people money as well...hell, they all do if the winner will get anything out of it. The trick is to just do your research...I did.
Oct 31, 2005 08:24 am Point taken - Ensures those who put their songs up are serious about it... I just think that, yeah, sure charge to enter/submit to the competitions (like the John Lennon one), but charging to upload every song? I saw one artist had 10 songs on his profile - he would have paid $500 to put all those songs up. I rekon you could record 2 really reasonable singles for that price, and even though it is the people who are submitting's choice, and perhaps charging a membership fee would make more sense than charging for every song uploaded.
Oct 31, 2005 08:28 am Well, now, that is a matter of business model choice. I don't charge for mastering an artist, I charge for every minute of audio I master, not a one time fee. I would personally select one or two of the best songs that showcase the best writing and musicianship and leave it at that, uploading 10 songs to me seems silly, but, well, it's really up to the artist.
If you stay tuned to this web site (which I know you will) you might be surprised what HRC can pull off for it's members...I'm always working for you guys...but hey, we ALL have to make a living.
Oct 31, 2005 08:38 am //I'm always working for you guys
I know you do :-) Thanks btw for clarifying things for me. Forgive my rant!
Oct 31, 2005 09:21 am Having a history with song contests and the like, I have no problem with paying $50 per song upload. If you are serious about your music and you want to get it heard by people who can do something with it, then you have to take some risks and pay some dues.
As soon as I write and record a song that is worthy...I'm in!! :-)
Oct 31, 2005 09:23 am Quote:
If you are serious about your music and you want to get it heard by people who can do something with it, then you have to take some risks and pay some dues.
EXACTLY, well stated, much shorter than I took to try to say it.
The trick is to just be wise about WHO you pay the dues to...just like most aspects of life.
Oct 31, 2005 11:11 am Quote:
I'm always working for you guys
...ummmm, and gals... ;-)
Oct 31, 2005 11:35 am $50 isn't really THAT bad. But... if you look at it in cups of starbucks, that's like a cup of drip coffee every day for a month. Which... might keep addicts like myself from submitting a song... =) I think it's a wise decision, personally.
If it were free, everybody and their dog would sign up for it, and like db mentioned, all the songs wouldn't get heard. If somebody truly is serious about their music, they'll come up with the $50 for their song.
Oct 31, 2005 11:37 am How much time/energy/money does the avergae band spend promoting gigs, pushing songs online, trying to sell tapes and CD's and crap...I would bet comparatively it makes $50 look pretty minimal to actually get heard by real industry people, not just lame, arrogant booking agents at **** hole clubs.
Oct 31, 2005 11:42 am Yeah, I was just going to mention that $50/song is WAY cheap advertisement, basically.
Oct 31, 2005 11:44 am The only difference is that these people won't think the songs are as awesome, sellable and timeless as your friends and your mom do unless they really are.
Oct 31, 2005 12:04 pm hey, my mom has damn good taste in music! =)
Oct 31, 2005 02:36 pm yeah, uncle dude has been planning to enter this for a few months. we just want our song rotated around a bit. we didnt think it was fishy. the 50 bucks is reasonable, especially when a band splits it up. nothing blooms without money! the contest needs to finance itself somehow.
Oct 31, 2005 03:45 pm I agree there is nothing wrong with a site such as AIU charging. If I were writing commercially viable music I'd probably submit song(s). At a price of $50/song though I could care less if "industry pro's" listen or not, there's little value to that IMO, what would be the real value IMO would be the possibility that the American Idol name might build a decent base of actual listeners and from there open up new doors.
I'm a firm believer that these days it's up to the artist/band to put their money where their mouth is in both $$ & effort in promotion if they want to heard. I think it's a golden age of opportunity for artists/bands these days to control their own destiny and it's probably only going to get better down the road.
Dan
Oct 31, 2005 04:04 pm Who knows, I might just enter it yet, WHEN I record my songs properly one day. ;-)
Oct 31, 2005 07:25 pm OD, you said exactly what I was about to. Think of the $50.00 as cheap when it comes to exactly how many people other then the judges are going to hear your song. I cant tell you the cost to me of being able to do some of the commercials and things I have been involved in. They dont just fall in your lap. A series of beer commercials I did about 10 years ago for a rather large brewer actually cost me about 35% of what I made in the end. Not a bad price considering it kept me in more then just that one loop in the end.
As well, the idea of someone else hearing your music works. You would be surprised to find out how many artists I have pickied out from listening on net radio or sites for uploading music and offered to work for them. And several whom have ended up making better recordings and getting air play both local and national. And you can bet there are bigger guns then me out there doing exactly the same thing. Finding something they see worth a little effort, and helping them out. And of coarse mine or anyone elses services arent free either so there incures the cost of getting a product out there that is gong to make an impression.
All in all Its like they say, ya gotta pay to play.
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