Why Independent Musicians Should Not Always Trust Companies Who Solicit Via Instagram or Facebook
Important thought for the Holidays:Musicians are being targeted at an unprecedented rate via direct message on social media as well as email. It’s quite saddening. If you receive a message that says ‘I found your music in X place, enjoyed X song and would like to work with you’, or hear ANY mention of a label or contract, they are fishing and it’s a scam. Who’s most susceptible to the scam? Musicians with smaller budgets of $0 – $500. This is what you’d call the ‘quick to act’ budgets. So all you need is eagerness on one end and a big promise on the other, such as a label contract, or 50,000 streams, etc. This is all too easy, folks. Good companies will never reach out to you – outbound. Rarely ever.
Do you know how busy the best blogs, magazines, etc are? They barely have the time to respond to anyone let alone do outbound outreach. It’s the same thing in the music industry, with PR companies and marketing companies. If they’re really good, they will not need to be in your DM begging for $300. It’s important to be social media literate and media literate. Once again, if you are contacted on Instagram or Facebook, there is a good chance that is a scam. Real businesses have a permanent website and do not attempt to impersonate anybody else. Stay away from these pop-up personas (if they claim to be with X label or X company and are not credited anywhere, watch out). Business should be coming to them, not the other way around.
I know this because my clients receive these messages and I too receive these messages to our I.M.P accounts. At least a few every day. I’m sure even non-musicians receive these ‘I loved your song. Send me $300 via CashApp for the contract.’ messages too. It’s just fast cash for them and nothing for you. Real promotion tends to cost a bit more on average, because there’s so much more involved than quick fix actions.
