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Bridging the Music: Scam or legitimate?

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#62
wvondenk said:
I disagree with any of the posts that claim Bridging the Music is a scam or un-professional. Any and all experiences Ive had as a manager in contact with this company are great! And how can you not support their mission, They are advocating up and coming artists, giving them a "do it yourself" lesson on how to promote (which is key), and then provide an opportunity for exposure in a number of different towns across colorado. Bridging The Music is the bees knees, the cats meow! Don't hate on it for any reason. If you had a bad experience one time that didn't go smoothly, welcome to the industry! get used to it, its no ones fault and everyones fault at the same time, you cant point the finger at anyone side. From where I'm standing these guys do a badass job and can help up and comers do their thang!, Thanks to you BTM!
Click to expand...

Holy crap. What's scary is that someone thought that we would buy this shill.
 
#63
wvondenk said:
I disagree with any of the posts that claim Bridging the Music is a scam or un-professional. Any and all experiences Ive had as a manager in contact with this company are great! And how can you not support their mission, They are advocating up and coming artists, giving them a "do it yourself" lesson on how to promote (which is key), and then provide an opportunity for exposure in a number of different towns across colorado. Bridging The Music is the bees knees, the cats meow! Don't hate on it for any reason. If you had a bad experience one time that didn't go smoothly, welcome to the industry! get used to it, its no ones fault and everyones fault at the same time, you cant point the finger at anyone side. From where I'm standing these guys do a badass job and can help up and comers do their thang!, Thanks to you BTM!
Click to expand...

The plot thickens...
 
#67
I work with the band Red Room Rendezvous, we've played Melt Your Face Mondays at Cervantes in Denver (hosted by BTG). Giving someone a "Do it yourself" lesson is providing them with the tools needed and letting them use those tools to " do it themselves" it taught lessons in social media marketing, street team and grassroots marketing.

My disclaimer is not in reference to any particular experience. However, since I work at a venue and have been attending concerts since a young age I'm aware of the fact that **** happens. When this **** happens, its rarely one persons fault, more often its a combination of factors or miscommunication. I cant help but believe, based on my experiences with BTG, that those who claim to not have success working with BTG, are simply looking to point the finger at the production company, in this case BTG, Which is wrong.

I paid $6.50 to BTG and in turn received 50 tickets in the mail. I was told to promote the show and sell as many of the stacks before the show as possible at a fixed price. By the end of the night I was received nearly 80 bucks which was a percent of the ticket sales and the band had played for a new crowd in a new city. We worked hard to promote our show, as instructed and in turn had a great experience. And all I paid was $6.50! That doesnt sound like a scam it sounds like a company the genuinely cares about providing up and coming bands/ artists with an affordable opportunity for exposure. PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE,NOT A SCAM, GET IT RIGHT
 
#68
nearly 80 bucks! lol.

so you had to sell between 30 and 50 tickets guessing by norms

and they sold for between 10 and 15 dollars

so we'll go low end you handed them 300 dollars, plus 6.50, and they handed you nearly 80! since we're doing low estimates we'll say 76 dollars.

by your own admission you did all the work, so lets say you had 40 man hours invested, a very conservative estimate because hey, we're low balling here.

would you work a 40 hour week for 76 dollars? I'm sorry, 76 less 6.50, 69.50? congratulations they did nothing but put an envelope in the mail and went home with nearly 250 dollars from you and 4-8 other bands and you worked for 1.73 an hour.

you can say it's not a scam, sure. you were taken advantage of.
 
#70
wvondenk said:
I work with the band Red Room Rendezvous, we've played Melt Your Face Mondays at Cervantes in Denver (hosted by BTG). Giving someone a "Do it yourself" lesson is providing them with the tools needed and letting them use those tools to " do it themselves" it taught lessons in social media marketing, street team and grassroots marketing.

My disclaimer is not in reference to any particular experience. However, since I work at a venue and have been attending concerts since a young age I'm aware of the fact that **** happens. When this **** happens, its rarely one persons fault, more often its a combination of factors or miscommunication. I cant help but believe, based on my experiences with BTG, that those who claim to not have success working with BTG, are simply looking to point the finger at the production company, in this case BTG, Which is wrong.

I paid $6.50 to BTG and in turn received 50 tickets in the mail. I was told to promote the show and sell as many of the stacks before the show as possible at a fixed price. By the end of the night I was received nearly 80 bucks which was a percent of the ticket sales and the band had played for a new crowd in a new city. We worked hard to promote our show, as instructed and in turn had a great experience. And all I paid was $6.50! That doesnt sound like a scam it sounds like a company the genuinely cares about providing up and coming bands/ artists with an affordable opportunity for exposure. PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE,NOT A SCAM, GET IT RIGHT
Click to expand...
How exactly did they help you? We've established that they certainly don't help promote shows. They didn't help you sell the tickets. They gave you the tickets to sell, but it's the venue's tickets, all they did was mail them to you (which you paid for, so no help there). The only thing they could've helped you with was booking the show in the first place. I've never been to Denver, but looking at Cervantes's website, Melt Your Face Mondays take place in the side room, max occ. 400. I find it hard to believe that you couldn't book a space that size on your own by contacting the venue directly, so they didn't really help you there. Unless of course Cervantes only works with BTM to begin with, which I'm beginning to suspect may be the case - questionable business practice at best, violation of some union's rules at worst.

So, really, how do you think they helped you? 50 tickets at 8 bucks each should have gotten you $400. How is giving them $320 of your hard earned cash for no service in return a mutually beneficial relationship? 'Cause it really sounds like a scam from here.
 
#71
Your band made $73.50, had to put in all the work of selling tickets - if you reckon that's a fair deal, we have a very different idea of what is "fair". As the previous poster said, why didn't you earn the whole $400? You did most of the work anyway.

As for this "exposure", how many people turned up? If 7 bands played and each sold 50 tickets, then I'm betting the audience was probably about 350 people. All you did was play to people who were already fans of your band, and the same is true of the other 6 bands. This type of scam has been around for years, and I've yet to know of any band who has benefitted from them. How many extra people turned up at your next gig after all this exposure?
 
#72
wvondenk said:
I work with the band Red Room Rendezvous, we've played Melt Your Face Mondays at Cervantes in Denver (hosted by BTG). Giving someone a "Do it yourself" lesson is providing them with the tools needed and letting them use those tools to " do it themselves" it taught lessons in social media marketing, street team and grassroots marketing.

My disclaimer is not in reference to any particular experience. However, since I work at a venue and have been attending concerts since a young age I'm aware of the fact that **** happens. When this **** happens, its rarely one persons fault, more often its a combination of factors or miscommunication. I cant help but believe, based on my experiences with BTG, that those who claim to not have success working with BTG, are simply looking to point the finger at the production company, in this case BTG, Which is wrong.

I paid $6.50 to BTG and in turn received 50 tickets in the mail. I was told to promote the show and sell as many of the stacks before the show as possible at a fixed price. By the end of the night I was received nearly 80 bucks which was a percent of the ticket sales and the band had played for a new crowd in a new city. We worked hard to promote our show, as instructed and in turn had a great experience. And all I paid was $6.50! That doesnt sound like a scam it sounds like a company the genuinely cares about providing up and coming bands/ artists with an affordable opportunity for exposure. PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE,NOT A SCAM, GET IT RIGHT
Click to expand...

HORSE HOCKEY

If you believe ANY of this, do I have a wonderful investment for you.

I can offer you this once in a lifetime opportunity to get in on the ground level of a wonderful real estate development project.

Here is how it works:
First you send me $6.50, and a self addressed stamped envelope, and I will send you a picture of the land that one day can be yours IF you in turn convince all of your family and all of your friends, and all of your friends family to also send me $6.50

IF you sell 10,000 of these incredible once in a life time opportunities, and send ME the money. I will send you the deed to 1 square foot of land. If you choose, for a modest fee, I can make arrangements to have a memorial plaque erected on the site with your likeness embossed and proudly displayed for everyone to see.

So don't hesitate, Send me your money NOW !
 
#73
I was contacted by these guys in September to play in a Solo Artist Award showcase. They had found my Reverbnation page and wanted me to compete. I was advised I would need to pay $6.50 to have 50 tickets sent to me to sell. If I did not sell 15 I would have to pay a $20 fee in order to compete, but if I did sell any tickets under 15, they would take the $1 per ticket I would have made and apply it toward the registration fee. I felt I could sell the tickets for the show date of Nov so I signed up with Andrew. My tix were shipped with the wrong name, and they said I had to pay to send them back with a tracking number. Then Andrew vanished and I had Jonah, who forced me to move to the Oct 20 show, which I had told Andrew was not going to work, and there was a conflicting event, then he said I was not allowed to play ANY shows within a 50 mile radius for 30 days prior to the showcase!!! I repeatedly told Jonah that I could NOT play in Oct. (they were trying to move me cause they could not get anyone else to play that show so the venue gave the date to someone else), but he said I had to. I told Jonah to just put me in a show next year but he said he didn't want to drop me. He mailed me new tickets and charged my card WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!!! Then when I said AGAIN I was not available on the Oct date he immediately (his excuse for not waiting for a response from me is because they have had a long track record of bands actually closing their bank accounts once they are in it to the point they find out about the cancellation fee-it is not mentioned in the initial sign up process)CHARGED MY CARD A $50 CANCELLATION FEE WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT!!! When I called Jonah, he would not answer the phone, so I left him a message telling him that at NO TIME did I cancel, and they were WELL aware I have a prior gig, so they cancelled MY date, and that if I had to pay the $20 I would spend my 15 minutes on stage telling this story. Well, Jonah could not call me back fast enough!!! He issues a refund for the cancellation fee thru paypal (which is NOT how I paid them), so it took over a week. then when the second batch of tix arrived there were only 49. I had to tell him because they will charge you for any missing tix....he was such a jerk that I sent him another message stating that I was su disgusted with their organization that I was playing the show under duress, and I was telling all my fellow musicians about my experience. I want EVERY musician I can reach to know about these shady people!!! He then sent me an email that he was dropping me from the event, and was not going to charge me a cancellation fee (because he legally can't , just like it was not legal when he did it the first time). He further demanded that I send the tix back to him insured with a tracking number...my attorney at my publishing company advised them that has they had been the ones to initiate the cancellation by moving my agreed upon show date, and then a second time when they removed me from the show, they would need to be the ones to provide me with a shipping label for their tix. Then they emailed me and said that ANY form of contact from me via phone, email, text or postal would be considered harassment, and they would file a com[plaint with the police! Guess that means I don't have to mail the tix back.... Andrew seemed pretty on the level when he contacted me initially..but then he was just gone and I got this Jonah d-bag. He says he is the BOSS and the OWNER...I was trying to see if that was correct when I stumbled across this and thought I'd share.
 
#74
Iheartjohnny65 said:
I was contacted by these guys in September to play in a Solo Artist Award showcase. They had found my Reverbnation page and wanted me to compete. I was advised I would need to pay $6.50 to have 50 tickets sent to me to sell. If I did not sell 15 I would have to pay a $20 fee in order to compete, but if I did sell any tickets under 15, they would take the $1 per ticket I would have made and apply it toward the registration fee. I felt I could sell the tickets for the show date of Nov so I signed up with Andrew. My tix were shipped with the wrong name, and they said I had to pay to send them back with a tracking number. Then Andrew vanished and I had Jonah, who forced me to move to the Oct 20 show, which I had told Andrew was not going to work, and there was a conflicting event, then he said I was not allowed to play ANY shows within a 50 mile radius for 30 days prior to the showcase!!! I repeatedly told Jonah that I could NOT play in Oct. (they were trying to move me cause they could not get anyone else to play that show so the venue gave the date to someone else), but he said I had to. I told Jonah to just put me in a show next year but he said he didn't want to drop me. He mailed me new tickets and charged my card WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!!! Then when I said AGAIN I was not available on the Oct date he immediately (his excuse for not waiting for a response from me is because they have had a long track record of bands actually closing their bank accounts once they are in it to the point they find out about the cancellation fee-it is not mentioned in the initial sign up process)CHARGED MY CARD A $50 CANCELLATION FEE WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE OR CONSENT!!! When I called Jonah, he would not answer the phone, so I left him a message telling him that at NO TIME did I cancel, and they were WELL aware I have a prior gig, so they cancelled MY date, and that if I had to pay the $20 I would spend my 15 minutes on stage telling this story. Well, Jonah could not call me back fast enough!!! He issues a refund for the cancellation fee thru paypal (which is NOT how I paid them), so it took over a week. then when the second batch of tix arrived there were only 49. I had to tell him because they will charge you for any missing tix....he was such a jerk that I sent him another message stating that I was su disgusted with their organization that I was playing the show under duress, and I was telling all my fellow musicians about my experience. I want EVERY musician I can reach to know about these shady people!!! He then sent me an email that he was dropping me from the event, and was not going to charge me a cancellation fee (because he legally can't , just like it was not legal when he did it the first time). He further demanded that I send the tix back to him insured with a tracking number...my attorney at my publishing company advised them that has they had been the ones to initiate the cancellation by moving my agreed upon show date, and then a second time when they removed me from the show, they would need to be the ones to provide me with a shipping label for their tix. Then they emailed me and said that ANY form of contact from me via phone, email, text or postal would be considered harassment, and they would file a com[plaint with the police! Guess that means I don't have to mail the tix back.... Andrew seemed pretty on the level when he contacted me initially..but then he was just gone and I got this Jonah d-bag. He says he is the BOSS and the OWNER...I was trying to see if that was correct when I stumbled across this and thought I'd share.
Click to expand...

Well there's your answer. The first hand experience of the above poster says these guys are dirt bags.
 
#78
RUN, don't walk, Friggin' RUN from Bridging the Music.

I don't give a rat's arse WHAT those numbnuts post saying "Bridging the Music is great!".......BTM is a 100% Pay to Play SCAM.

REPEAT: SCAM. What part of SCAM do you not understand?

BTM has invaded craigslist sites for just about every major city trying to get SUCKERS to fall for their crap. If you are stupid enough to fall for this BTM SCAM, you should immediately turn in your Man Card, sell your instruments and quit because you have no business being a paid musician.

I am amazed that threads of this nature go longer than 1 page.
 
#80
BridgingMusic said:
I would like to address the community on here and say that BTM works with a lot of bands and artists and we try our best to please you all but its IMPOSSIBLE to make everyone happy, especially musicians! We know this because we are musicians ourselves and we all love music. All of our guidelines for our shows are clearly specified on our website and it clearly says that when you sign up you agree to these rules. Although some of you may not like the $20 registration fee if you dont bring in a minimum amount of people, this is the way is has to be. Let me explain why. We have debated so for so long about this and what it comes down to is that most bands wont try without having that motivation there. We love bands and musicians and our job as promoters goal is to fill up the room and have everyone play infront of a good crowd. Unless you want to play to an empty room? We dont want you to. We have grown awesome reltionships with bands and artists, set them up on lilttle runs, paid them a lot more then our standard rate, etc and managed to donate a substantial amount to our friends at Songs of Love. Working with musicains and bands is a growing situation as it is anywhere in the music business. Yes, we may have a few rules that some bands may not like, but we are certainly honest people and we lay out the rules very clearly in writing. Feel free to go to any of the sign up forms like this one to see all the rules.
We are also open to intelligent constructive feedback on how we can make our companies rules better - while still keeping everyone motivated to promote.
Click to expand...

Lol.
 
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