It's pretty amazing isn't it? This is obviously a scam and stinks almost as much as the skunks that have taken up residence under my front porch.

What is really shameful, though are the legitimate companies who are out to make you a "star" and will promote your music and get you gigs and get you played on a bazillion radio stations and license your music to film and TV, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah.

I must get an email a day from these folks. A couple of weeks ago, I got a personal Dear Debra email from a rep of a promo company with an office near to where I live. She said that she liked my sound and that she thought I would fit in well with a show her company was promoting in my area. Upon further investigation, *I* would have to BUY a certain number of tickets to the show and sell them to my fans. The show is in a nightclub and the other acts were metal and hip-hop. I'd fit in?? I don't think so, not to mention trying to hustle people to buy tickets to hear music that they probably wouldn't choose to listen to anyway.

Another pay-to-play situation and I said no thanks.

Good for you, Anne for approaching this with humour and giving them the wind-up. It is good for a laugh.

vDebra Cowan