| CD Baby DIY Musician Podcast |
 Nov. 13,
2008
Ep.38 : Pandora Radio
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| Has anyone been approached by VendorPro? |
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| posted by Glenn Adams on Thursday May 04 2006 @ 05:31PM PDT |
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I recently received an email from Mark Adams, respresenting http://www.VendorPro.com, stating that he saw my CD on CD Baby.
Here'e the text of his email:
"I've seen your music online at the http://www.CDBaby.com website and I think your CD "Galactic Anthems" is perfect for our stores. We work hand in hand with the largest stores in the country, plus the thousands of small to medium sized specialty businesses stretched across the U.S. If you want the opportunity to sell your music through major retailers like Barnes & Noble, Tower Records, Virgin Records, Target, QVC, HSN, etc ... plus the other 10337 music stores, 51005 gift stores, and over 24000 mail-order catalogs ...check us out at http://www.VendorPro.com"
I checked out the site (despite the fact that CD Baby already has us on Tower) and discovered that the annual cost for this service is $340.00.
Hmmmm, my music is not exactly mainstream stuff (ambient electronic spacemusic), so I'm kind of suspicious about this offer.
Anyone out there have any dealings with VendorPro?
Check out all of Glenn Adams' CDs on CD Baby at http://www.cdbaby.com/all/galacticanthems
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i have got the identical email.
i have surfed their site a bit and it looks too slick for me.
and if these service cost 370$ then it looks quite clear for me,
where the money is generated from.
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Definitely VendorPro is a scam.
Look at the email they sent me today:
Subject: I want to sell your CDs through our stores
From: "Jason Knight"
Date: Tue, May 9, 2006 9:15 am
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I've spent a lot of time at your The Nettles website and I think your music is perfect for our stores. I especially like the song "Seven Dancers" on your album. Have you tried selling your music directly to stores? We work hand in hand with the largest stores in the country, plus thousands of small to medium sized specialty businesses stretched across the U.S. If you want the opportunity to have your music sold through major retailers like Barnes & Noble, Tower Records, Sam Goody, Virgin Records, QVC, HSN, etc ... plus the other 10337 music stores, 51005 gift stores, and over 24000 mail-order catalogs ... check us out at http://www.VendorPro.com
Sincerely,
Jason Knight
VendorPro.com
Note that Jason put the personal touch on the email. He liked my tune "Seven Dancers". Gee, that's really nice. The problem is "Seven Dancers" doesn't have a soundclip on my website.
Here's what a couple of other folks think of VendorPro:
http://dark-valley-records.com/vendorpro/index.html
http://www.sudsreport.com/vendorpro.htm
The latter notes that VendorPro has a Better Business Bureau rating of F which means:
"We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulent business practices."
Cheers,
Kevin
www.TheNettles.com
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They approached me too with the same email - obviously, they
used my name, but attempted also to leave the impression of
being interested and excited by the music heard at the web site.
I also checked their rating, but it said it was B- - are there also
bogus rating sites around???
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sounds like one of those standard spam emails I always delete....
especially if more than one of us has gotten it....
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Somethig I learned about a long time ago when I first sent in my very first copyright..... that there are companies that somehow get info on who sends in a copyright and if they are newbies or not.. .then they send out a std type letter saying they can place the song and like it and want to offer a deal and blah blah ablha.. I never responded becaue it did not feel to me like they really researched my stuf and were talking to me. it felt like a std spam type letter. a friedn of mine who'd been in the busines longer actually sent them permission and signed their papers for one of his songhs as he really ne4eded money at the time and the temptation and what they promised sounded realyl good. but after sending him the song they did noting with it an just let it rot in the library. Because he signed it to them he could not use if to anything else either and therefor considered himself losing money he woud be making by licensing it elsewhere ,instead of it rotting in a stock library somewhere...
good lucm in your decision
regards
BArb
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I also got a similar email recently. Whilst it looks legit, the lack of positive thoughts and feelings here in this thread has made me think twice about signing up for their (very tempting sounding) services.
RachelAPP mentioned that the wide distribution on offer from VendorPro would be useless without a fanbase, and they have a good point. I was still tempted though... Good job I checked this thread first. ;o)
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Stay away from this company. It's absolutely a scam. I signed up with them before they changed their name.
All they do is spam businesses with your information, and as a result you get a lot of angry people contacting you asking you not to spam them. That's ALL the promotion is.
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I am a member of a law firm in San Frnacisco that represents small artists called the Austin Law Group. I've read alot of posts about this guy Joseph Nicoletti and all his "wonderful" activities. One of our clients has recently been another victim of this con. Con you please send along any information you may have about this guy? We just want to nail this guy as soon as possible.
Thanks so much,
Aimee
aimee @austunlawgroup.com
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They have contacted me via email several times trying to get my son's band to sign up as well. Once I found out the cost , I just deleted the email.
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This sounds like the domain name scams that float around. Shady businesses take up public expirations then mail out "official" looking re-registration notices when your domain name is due....
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Hi i recieved also the mail from vendorPro Mark Adams this time.
After reading the mail i thougt it is a company with only a postadress, much talk and little to give you.
AFTER READING THEIR TERMS AND CONDITIONS i had a good laugh, i think these guy's are sharks putting you into a strangle contract.
First i put out a notification e mail unther my Company name, ... no reply. I put out a RE unther my artist name Sven , and i got a very long explanation of what they do.
Mark asked me to let the company boss ( me !!)
read the email, and Sven told he , the company boss was busy.
a few day's later the company boss ( me again )put out a mail in wich i explained not to do business with VendorPro, and told them in juristic words that if they use my content they
can expect a lawsuit from my company{ Harmony Sound Design)
TAKE CARE !
Sven
http://www.free-floating.com/
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Yeah.. same e-mail....
no thanks VendorPro.com
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I got the email from Mark Adams at Vendor Pro saying my Cd,HeartShadows would be perfect for their stores. He stated he had "seen" the Cd, not listened to it so how did he know it was perfect?
Emailed Derek at Cdbaby who sent me this thread to read comments from others. So glad to have the resources and support system with Cdbaby to check out the legitimacy of these things. It also seemed silly since Cdbaby is already offering distribution like that witout the costs involved.
Whew! Glad I didn't go there! I don't think Mark Adams is really his name.
Cherie Lassiter
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I sell over $1,000,000.00 each year of my cds to wholesale clients throughout the world. VendorPro took my $370.00 and has not produced ONE INQUIRY in a year! If I can sell that much product and get no results from them... how do you think your music will do?
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I live in England and have been duped by Vendor Pro. I wish to sue them and of course distance is a problem. I used to be a litigation lawyer for 25 years here.
Can you put me in touch with someone who will file a small claim for me?
I did not get one enquiry through them.
Michael
www.michaelpeckitt.com
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Michael,
I am a member of a law firm in San Francisco that represents small artists called The Austin Law Group. I read your post on CDBaby.org concerning Joseph Nicoletti and his fraudulent activities. One of our clients has alos been the victim of Nicoletti. We would be interested in any information you have about this guy and would also be interested in discussing your situation. We just want to nail this guy as soon as possible.
Thanks so much,
Aimee DiFresne
aimee@austinlawgroup.com
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how funny!! GO CDBaby!!! I got the same email!!& was sent here when I asked 4 help from La Mega Bambina. Thank U Guys!!!
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Thank God you are posting this and artists are responding. With over 25+ years in sales, marketing and management with a variety of consumer product manufacturers I got the email at one of my artist sites and had to check it out as I was not familiar with the legitimacy of this organization. Just by looking at their inaccurate vendor list I knew it was a scam. Zany Brainy the toystore for example has been out of business for years. They have Circuit City on their list twice with 2 different store counts and as a previous supplier to WalMart I know for a fact this company does not service ANY of the big marts!
Always great to have CDBaby helping to spread the word!
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I got the spam e-mail from VendorPro and i responded to it and got an e-mail back. I knew it was a scam but I just wanted to see how they responded. I asked them what the consigment fee was. They said they don't do consignment. Since I have no draw outside of Georgia I knew better than to follow up on it. Why would they be interested other than to scam me? Let's be real. Most artists on CD Baby have no draw outside of their hometown. The way CD Baby operates is just like your local Mom and Pop record store--basically a consignment deal. If you sell CD's you get most of the money and they get a little bit too.
There's really no other situation you should consider as an independent artist. Anyone trying to get hundreds of dollars out of you for basically nothing in return--well, that's like a tax on stupid people.
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I got same e'mail--VERBATIM. Brian Miller uses flattery to suck artists in. He has apparently widened the search as well, as I am a painter from Ireland. I have been exchanging e'mail with him in recent weeks. I tried to query him about the profile and location of the squillions of galleries and buyers he kept referring to, but even after 3 email exchanges, he was impossibly vague and I got suspicious. Thanks to all who took the time to let everyone know what a scam this is. Must go now as I have a letter to compose for our friend Mr. Miller
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Ya'll just saved me $370.
The previously mentioned salespersons responded only to the two artists based outside the US on my roster. From the previous posts, this was probably due to the unlkely legal options.
Thank you!
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I got scammed. I'm not doing it again. They've done zero for me.
Ruth
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I see someone already posted a link to my webpage about them.
Here it is again:
http://dark-valley-records.com/vendorpro
I have plugged so many holes in their scam that they have actually tried openly (and poorly) attacking me and my business.
The rule of thumb I generaly use when dealing with ANY online music site is "What national acts deal with them?" Because if the nationals aren't using their "Awesome promotion and sales potential" then it's usually for a good reason.
When I asked the vendorpro thug what labels were signed up with them, they gave me a policy line that they couldn't devulge such info (See my webpage for the whole story). The ONLY reasons a business would dare hid their clients from potential new clients is: They are engaging in illegal activity. (i.e. child porn, prostitution and white colar crime) They are a scam and do not want you to get a true testimonial that contradicts the fake ones they wrote themselves.
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| NOTE: If you need a reply you should email CD Baby directly instead of posting here. We don't often read old message board postings, and have no way of replying to them!
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