New Site may interest you

[wendyaltea]

Hi

I just wanted to tell you about a great new site that I have been made

a moderator on.

http://www.merseybeat.net

"Tired of banging your head on the A&R door? If so then you have landed

at the site dedicated to get your music heard. Register here and you

will increase your chance of a deal ten-fold! We Deal directly with the

premier record companies. We offer a place to audition your music. We

also encourage new talent. Our team moderators browse the forums on a

daily basis and if they find anything they like you will be contacted.

Best of all..

Its Free"

This is a professional site for professional songwriters/composers.

This service is totally FREE.

Hope to see you there soon

WendyAltea.

[john]

Hi

I just wanted to tell you about a great new site that I have been made

a moderator on.

http://www.merseybeat.net

"Tired of banging your head on the A&R door? If so then you have landed

at the site dedicated to get your music heard. Register here and you

will increase your chance of a deal ten-fold! We Deal directly with the

premier record companies. We offer a place to audition your music. We

also encourage new talent. Our team moderators browse the forums on a

daily basis and if they find anything they like you will be contacted. 

Best of all..

Its Free"

This is a professional site for professional songwriters/composers.

This service is totally FREE.

Hope to see you there soon

WendyAltea.

Hey Wendy

Sounds interesting! Is this a song plugging service. or deal brokers or something like that? I guess I wondered how the songs/artists are presented to the labels. Do you know what labels they pitch to? Labels in US, UK or elsewhere?

Cheers

John

[wendyaltea]

Hi John

As far as I am aware, songwriters upload their lyrics or songs to the site and you get feedback from the other composers. Eddie, the guy who runs the site has a lot of contacts with both TAXI and Sony who regularly visit the site. If he feels that someone has "something" he will put their file/song on the front page of the site giving them extra promotion..

I do know that the site has just had a major upgrade and that the site is a project partly funded by TAXI.

If you want to know anything else, why not visit the site and email Eddie?

[john]

Hey Wendy

Thanks for the info. I'll drop by and check it out.

Did you have a good Christmas?

Cheers

John

[wendyaltea]

Yes we had a great xmas. It even snowed, a bit.

And Everton beat Man City, so yeah we all had a good time.

Yourself?

[john]

Yes we had a great xmas. It even snowed, a bit.

And Everton beat Man City, so yeah we all had a good time.

Yourself?

Very good. I won't need to eat until 2005.

[tgrover]

i tried to login in to this site but it never sent me a confirmation email... and that was about 3 days ago!!!

[Steve]

i tried to login in to this site but it never sent me a confirmation email... and that was about 3 days ago!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've heard that they don't want you as a member Tim....

[FinnArild]

i tried to login in to this site but it never sent me a confirmation email... and that was about 3 days ago!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ditto, but I guess they've overindulged as the rest of us

[FinnArild]

Hmmm ... they should've been able to approve us soon, now I think. Could it be that this is a not-so-serious site?

[wendyaltea]

I haven't heard from Eddie since before xmas.

I'm supposed to be a moderator but I can't get on the site as the forums are locked.

As far as I know Eddie is deadly serious about getting this project off the ground and it has affiliations with guys from TAXI. The site has just had a major upgrade due to hackers and idiots uploading stupid and dangerous files.

As soon as I hear from Eddie, I'll let you know.

[wendyaltea]

The site is all up and running now! Hopefully you'll have received your verification code/password by now?

[FinnArild]

The site is all up and running now! Hopefully you'll have received your verification code/password by now?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yep, I'm in now. I'll wait a bit before I post anything though - lurk around see how things go first ...

[FinnArild]

Hmmm I might be a tad over-sceptic, but here goes:

1: After I became member of this site it took several weeks before approval

2: Site claims to have had 95 users online on january second

3: I tried to post something - post moderated away without notice

4: google doesn't seem to have previously have done any indexing on www.merseybeat.net

5: google can't find any inlinks to www.merseybeat.net

6: there hardly ever seems to be any traffic or comments on the site.

This all suggest to me that this site has some ways to go before it is serious. Yet it has been claimed that several record companies (Sony was mentioned) regularly browses this site. Now - ask yourself: How likely is that, really?

On the frontpage it says: "We are actively seeking the stars of tomorrow. With an international team consisting of record companies, promoters, DJ’s and Journalists, this is the place to hang out."

I have a rule of thumb that is very useful: when something looks too good to be true, it most likely is.

[nigel lawry]

i took a peek and was not impressed, seems too little going on to be any value

it may be it just needs time but like finn i'm weary over all the claims a silent looking site makes

[john]

Hmmm I might be a tad over-sceptic, but here goes:

1: After I became member of this site it took several weeks before approval

2: Site claims to have had 95 users online on january second

3: I tried to post something - post moderated away without notice

4: google doesn't seem to have previously have done any indexing on www.merseybeat.net

5: google can't find any inlinks to www.merseybeat.net

6: there hardly ever seems to be any traffic or comments on the site.

This all suggest to me that this site has some ways to go before it is serious. Yet it has been claimed that several record companies (Sony was mentioned) regularly browses this site. Now - ask yourself: How likely is that, really?

On the frontpage it says: "We are actively seeking the stars of tomorrow. With an international team consisting of record companies, promoters, DJ?s and Journalists, this is the place to hang out."

I have a rule of thumb that is very useful: when something looks too good to be true, it most likely is.

I had a look a couple of weeks ago, and the place was pretty well dead. There was about 70 members. As this is completely forum and portal based, the only issues I can see for the delay in membership approval are that its either not fully maintained, or they do not want to launch until the features are all there.

I wonder if Sony know that they are using their name? Maybe the guy that owns the site knows a Sony rep.

From the point of the Sony A&R guy, exactly what does he get out of a forum with 5 threads and 6 posts, and songs by 3 artists? Comeg has been around a while, so giving the benefit of the doubt maybe it's an idea in the making or wishful thinking but the claims are unlikely with the current popularity of the site and the lack of active features. It hasn't changed a bit since Comeg posted this.

Is there an update on this?

Cheers

John

[Alistair]

Finn

I have a rule of thumb that is very useful: when something looks too good to be true, it most likely is.

I use exactly the same rule of thumb.

Except it doesn't apply in this case because it is not even too good to be true.

Being generous, it is difficult for new sites to get going until they get lots of members and build some momentum and this has to start somewhere. Activity is cyclical too, sometimes busy, sometimes not. Even Songstuff is quiet from time to time ( I can't be online all the time!) but there is critical mass here to ride out the quiet times.

It's the claims that concern me though....

[FinnArild]

<snip>

It's the claims that concern me though....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, exactly. Things that ain't true are lies. And I don't like lies.

[john]

Yes, exactly. Things that ain't true are lies. And I don't like lies.

As a twentyone year old I can wholeheartedly agree.

Al, you're bang on the money. The thing that confuses me is, If you make fantastic claims you'll be found out pretty soon. Making claims that aren't true seems really stupid though, so why would someone make such rediculous claims if they aren't true?

So I guess it's either true, they're naive and stupid, they're bad and stupid or.....

maybe we just don't know the facts.

Another bit I'm puzzled about is the mention of Sony etc. If this is legitimate, I'd have expected to see Sony everywhere etc. The fact that they are not reporting news, but using Sony's name as promotion leverage, means if it is being used falsely they'll get sued rotten.

If Sony took an "interest" in Songstuff, I'm sure it would be visible in several areas, and there would be an article on it.

If Sony took an "interest" and we got excited and used their name before a deal was signed and sealed, the deal would very likely be off, and we may face a law suit.

If Sony taking an "interest" meant "I read the word Sony in a magazine while I was editing my site", they may well get sued.

To corporations, defending the brand is almost everything.

I'll reserve my judgement, but I'm sceptical. My guess is it's an over eager webmaster trying to get some people in.

If you are a member or prospective member I'd ask the simple question:

"What exactly is your relationship with Sony and the other companies you mention?"

Following that you could contact Sony if you're really bothered. They're quite good at answering these types of questions.

******

If any of you remember a certain songwriting competition, based in Canada, that tried to plug on these boards? We sussed that it was being run by a guy with a rehearsal studio. Well that thread started a bit of a snowball resulting in a number of angry sites, and magazines etc. asking for their logo to be removed and there are some pending actions (I believe). All because someone working at one of the sites spotted the thread and reported it to the managing director.

*******

Cheers

John

[ATom2]

From what I can see, and like many of you I've seen a lot, this is nothing more than something anyone of us could build and claim as true. The internet has made things too simple, and most times people get suckered in.

I'll pass.

Damn, and I really wanted to be a rock star before I hit 45!