Deconstructing RMG
It only took one more sentence after the last message I had sent for me to decide to write this…but some people really feel the need to have the last word, even when they’re completely in the wrong. Those last words chosen & written simply read: “No you are not.”
Now let me give you the honest details and backstory…and all the million reasons why indie-artist PR is generally a massive rip-off, in addition to deconstructing the RMG website to expose exactly why that is and how you can avoid being suckered into a serious hustle for your hard-earned dollars.
Initially when I worked with RMG there were no problems. We’d reviewed one or two of their artists and were massively satisfied with what we heard…this is in 2015…things seemed good. Then, like so many other PR companies out there that want to boost their Twitter following, they did the usual ‘follow/unfollow’ game…and SBS has never had any love for that system. We keep the people that support us close and coming back KNOWING that they’re genuinely supported…because money is almost never ever a part of the equation. Not serious money anyway…many of you know to reach me through Fiverr…because that’s where I can keep things affordable and worth more than the value of anyone’s expense, every time. Anyhow…we keep our Twitter ratio of ‘followers’ and ‘following’ as close to 1:1 as we possibly can, short of a few celebrities, artists & bands we really dig who are much too big to follow us back. On that scale, I get it; as an independent-anything in the music-scene, I don’t get it at all. When an artist, band, management or PR company does the follow/unfollow bullshit – in those cases, we block’em, straight-up. In the case of RMG Media Group – the process was the same, even though we’d previously enjoyed our time working with them.
The very next day while laying in bed, I received a call from Rhonda of RMG…who demanded to know why they’d been blocked from our Twitter page. First of all…I’m not a ‘phone’ guy…I generally avoid it at all costs as there are about a million other better ways to reach me. Secondly…WHAT? I explained the process…and to be cordial…I also lifted the ban and accepted them as followers once again.
Flash forward nearly two years of what I now know in retrospect to be blissfully silent. I hadn’t heard anything at all, which is fine…artists & bands are always free to completely come and go as they please and whether or not they wanna hang with us at SBS and YOU our readers, is always up to the individuals themselves – not us. We don’t make or even ask people to sign contracts for things we do…we don’t have agreements where you have to read every square inch of fine-print to make sure you’re not signing your rights away – we just do what we do and do it as well as we possibly can on behalf of the artists & bands we work with – because we care. I’d be the last person on earth to ever refer to myself as a professional. Maybe this article proves that…I honestly don’t know…I’ve only ever had constructive criticism for anyone we’ve worked with over the past five years and this is the first ‘negative’ article I’ve written in any way, shape or form.
But as always…I want to turn my own negative experience into a positive one as best I can; even though I have zero respect for Rhonda or the way that RMG chooses to conduct their business by charging way too much for way too little…the best thing I can do now, is educate you all on the kind of people involved and the overall scam of places like RMG Media Group. We’ll get to all that and into the numbers specifically and what you’d be able to achieve by NOT spending your money at a place like this…hang tight for that info…first, I want to make sure you’ve got the full, honest story…so I’ll include the messages sent between us both in their complete-form…and you can judge for yourselves…
On April 27th I received this message from RMG:
“Jer, How do I get reviews from you again? Sorry.”
To which I responded, same day, with the link to our review page at Fiverr and saying that “I’m most efficient through here my friend.” Boy was I wrong about the ‘friend’ part…but I wouldn’t know that til later. Anyone that knows me at all knows that my life in the past five years has been largely organized via my queue-list at Fiverr…that’s what keeps me on schedule for a large portion of what I do. I don’t dig backroom deals because it doesn’t end up in the queue…that’s it, that’s all, that’s the reality…I’m just much more organized by having all the information I need in one place. Fair? So far…no complaints…until today…but again, we’ll get to that…more details here still in our conversation…
April 27th from RMG: “Ok, I have about 8- 10 that I am sending over.”
April 29th from SBS: “Sounds great & thanks!!”
And truthfully…two days later, that’s a late response somewhat…maybe that’s where the decline started in our relationship. You’ll find with PR companies in general and certainly RMG that things need to be done yesterday…because your schedule, concerns or daily life straight-up aren’t a factor in anything they do. I’ll also admit that I never know what to say in that situation. Thanks? Thanks for what? The pre-warning that we’re maybe going to do something later on down the road? If you’re one of the people likely to send a message like this to any kind of promoter or website…just don’t; either submit the music when you’re ready or don’t worry about messaging until you ARE ready. As it stands I generally get about 10-20 messages like this a week and have for years now…I STILL don’t know what to say other than ‘thanks.’ I’ve been promised a million things under the sun and watched promotion companies come and go as a result of having no strength, conviction or sincerity behind any of the words they say or things they ‘intend’ to do. I put no stock in these promises from anyone…again, when you’re ready, you’re ready – and we’ll be ready for you too when you ARE ready for real.
Case in-point…the next message I received from RMG didn’t come through until almost two months later on July 10th. It read: “sendimg (sic) about 12 new cd’s (sic) later today.”
And I’ll admit…I didn’t know what to say once again…and rather than say another thank-you for another intended promise…I said nothing at all. Perhaps this was again, where I went wrong…still unsure.
Then on July 15th, the plot seriously began to thicken.
From RMG: “My fiverr account was suspended and I have been e-mailing them for months. Is there any way I can just send you the 5 new releases and pay you directly via Paypal?”
She continued in the next message, same day but a couple hours later after I’d yet to respond. As I mentioned, I suck at Twitter…direct messages there almost never reach me unless I’m really paying close attention…that part’s on me. She said: “I was able to order and then something happened with my PayPal. Can you please just give me your paypal address so that I can send you $80.00 for 4 reviews?”
Now…what Rhonda doesn’t know about and doesn’t care about…is anything to do with my own life. On the 15th, I happened to be trying to spend the day with my wife out in town before she left for work for the next 10 days. Not gonna lie to you dear readers, dear friends – there isn’t much in my life that’ll ever outrank my time with my wife – she means the world to me. But what I didn’t know…was that Rhonda was intensely messaging in every form she knew how to while I was outside of the studio and away from the computer & phone. She wouldn’t have likely cared that I needed a personal day anyhow – but upon coming back, I received those Twitter messages from her on the 15th, in addition to a voicemail and also two e-mails.
The first e-mail read: “is there a way I can send you the new cd’s directly??”
And the second read: “This is a form Jer. Please send me the e-mail that I can send you 8-10 new cd’s a month at top rate?? Please also send me the PayPal address where I send payment to??? Again, this is a FORM.” I still don’t know what a ‘form’ is or how that related to any of this…but not much makes sense with Rhonda in terms of how poorly she tends to communicate when she’s upset at something or someone, or pressed for time. The voicemail was an entire rant about Fiverr and not being able to use their system and etc. etc. on & on. I honestly do wish I had saved that for you as well so that I could attempt to write out that rambling word-for-freakin’-word so you’d understand what it’s like to decipher something like that from my end of the line. But I listened to it…and then of course, deleted the rant.
My first red-flag should have been that the RMG account had been suspended at Fiverr. Do you know what kind of stuff you have to pull to get suspended from that site? Believe me…it’s not easy! If it was, I’m sure it would have happened to me at some point by now…but I’ve never encountered anything other than a vast majority of extremely reasonable artists & bands coming through there. Only issues I’ve ever had with pretty much anyone come through people with a title of management or PR. You know…the people with zero-creativity or an original thought in their entire being…the suits’n’ties.
In any event…that didn’t sink in til later. I chose to respond via both e-mail and twitter, taking time out of my last day with my wife before her ten days away.
Over e-mail I stated: “Hey Rhonda – I can, I just prefer the fiverr system as it keeps track of my life. Otherwise…as much as I might like the physical copies for the memories etc., the worst thing that can happen (in my opinion) is that a band ends up on ‘my time’ – which I honestly wouldn’t wish on anyone as that can take forever! All up to you though. Address is at the Facebook page though, if you’d prefer to submit that way.”
Over Twitter I wrote in response: “Same address you just e-mailed…but I would certainly mention that would also be using Paypal…so not quite sure how the Paypal issue would go away for ya by going that route + it potentially takes much longer…”
Makes sense enough right? Bottom line is her story changed between the voicemail and messages as to ‘what’ had caused the ban for the RMG account at Fiverr. At first it was their system…then it became a Paypal issue. Well…a Paypal issue doesn’t go away by still using Paypal does it? I might have had some attitude attached to that last message over Twitter…but…well…it was partly trying to point out the inconsistencies of the story that was unfolding.
And if anything…where I really went wrong on my end…was voicing my opinion via Twitter open-forum. I did not mention RMG whatsoever and the tweet is still up there for all you to view if you’d like to verify. I tweeted out a generic message that read: “Stay independent friends. If those management-types come knocking…do yourself a favor and RUN in the other direction – ya don’t need’em!!!”
And man…I completely stand by that statement. We’ll get into the specific numbers in a moment or two here…but we all realize that what’s already happening, is that RMG would be charging hundreds or thousands to do PR ‘work’ – and then basically finding the best & cheapest deal on other websites to get that work done for them and then turn themselves a profit. What a sweet deal for the artist that really must be eh? Believe me…when you see the math on this stuff, you’ll be lucky to not throw-up your lunch all over the computer or screen you’re sitting at. It’s been my mission from day ONE to destroy places that exploit artists & bands AND places like SBS…for the most part, I do it by simply OUTWORKING them and actually CARING about the people I work with…the results have spoken for themselves and we continue to be a seriously strong & respected voice in the independent music community because people VALUE those traits and CHOOSE to work with us. I don’t need you to sign a contract or agreement because I WANT you to WANT to be with us…it’s really that simple.
But judging completely from the pricing structure and what you’d ‘get’ (?) in return from a site like RMG – I’d venture it’s been a long, long time since they cared about anything other than getting YOUR money. Because you see…I wasn’t even given a remote chance to straighten ANY of this out given that Rhonda requires everything to be on HER timeline…which straight-up, is complete bullshit.
Had she even thought to ask…she would have known I was completely busy on the 15th, that’s one thing. Had she even thought to ask…she would have learned that I went to bed early that night so that I could drive my wife to the airport and personally say goodbye at FOUR A.M. in the morning. Had she even thought to ask about anything that concerned people OTHER than herself – she’d have known that I stayed awake when I got home, did as much work as I could…and then fell asleep for the afternoon of the 16th.
But she didn’t ask…not about anything to do with my schedule or how busy I was or what I had going on behind the scenes…nothing. Because truly, she doesn’t give a shit about anything other than the bottom line; her voicemail really said it all – she was cut off by the machine towards the end of her message because she went on too long with her over-the-top intense & rambling at full-on light-speed.
Anyhow…like I said…I went to bed at about 12pm. Because I don’t like to sleep long and like to be there for as much of the day to work with whichever artists & bands that I can and I’m a workaholic – I generally only sleep about 4-5 hours at any given time.
Now let me tell you about how unacceptable that seems to be in Rhonda’s world…
I woke up to a response on the generic Twitter message I had put out the night before regarding management from RMG directly! Seems like that must’ve hit a nerve somehow…I’m guessing because they understand the truth in that statement…that indie-artists & bands all over the globe are getting WOKE and realizing they do NOT need management and PR – what they need to be, is involved in their art and cut out BS middle-men like RMG & the like.
The response was something to the effect of how that’s the number one reason band’s don’t make it and that in 22 years of experience, no band would make it without management…something about how no one wants to deal with a wannabe manager. I even remember that wannabe was spelt incorrectly…again, a tiny lack of care & attention to detail and further indication of the furious speed that these messages were coming my way. Again, to be completely fair and disclose EVERYTHING about this situation as honestly as I can – I’m forced to paraphrase here. Not sure if RMG figured out I’d point their words back against them and removed the tweet or if its disappearance is a result of me BLOCKING THEM after the series of messages I’d go on to read from there. Regardless – my reply to their statement on the generic-posting is still up on our page and you can view that & the fact it was a reply directed specifically to RMG. It read: “Firmly agree to disagree with that assessment here! 22 years ago, maybe…in today’s world…not a chance of needing management anymore.”
22 YEARS of experience. Jesus. We’ll get waaaaaaay into how sad that number becomes. Stay tuned.
While I was in Twitter still, I checked my phone to see if she’d called again after discovering two additional direct messages – both again, received in the FIVE hours that I was asleep for, yesterday on July 16th. She hadn’t called again yet…so at least, hallelujah for that…
The first message was a response to the last one I’d sent her via Twitter, which told her specifically which e-mail…you know…the one and only e-mail address of mine I responded from that she’d just finished messaging just the day before. It read: “which e-mail address was that?”
Then she continued: “I send the form Jer. My fivvrr account is associated with a different e-mail address therefore, it doesn’t go directly to the paypal one. Please..PLEASE..I am begging you…send me the paypal address to pay and your e-mail address to send the cd’s to???????????”
So there you can see yet a THIRD explanation (however substandard they may be) about what happened with her account…some stuff about a form that I still have no idea or clue about…and again, coming on way stronger than necessary. I wasn’t ignoring anyone in between 12pm-5pm unless you count EVERYONE…because again, I was asleep. But there’s only Rhonda in Rhonda’s world…so fuck me right?
I decided to open up my e-mail, knowing that she’d probably messaged a whole bunch there too. Nothing like going from 0-100 miles per hour in terms of intensity right? You don’t hear anything for like, 2 years or 2 months – but if Rhonda needs a response…whoa boy – you better respond instantly when she wants you to and you better not be asleep, or you’re up shit creek like I was.
First e-mail from July 16th, which looks like a semi-response to my previous e-mail to her. If it all seems hard to follow – that’s because it IS and it’s completely unnecessary/unprofessional to feel the need to contact someone in multiple ways before they might even have a chance to respond. Anyhow. It read: “me too..but it is not working. With this e-mail then, I officially give up. There is not much more that I can do. I wanted to send you soundcloud.com links and payments.”
Keep in mind…I’m still sleeping…that came through at 2:07pm. At 2:08 she followed up with another message: “I never send hard copies. Just soundcloud.com links. I am exhausted. All the best.”
Oh you’re definitely exhausted my friend…overtired…something, I honestly don’t know…but definitely not communicating in any kind of sensible or appropriate way. Maybe I took the ‘exhausted’ statement to be directed at me personally…it confused me, I won’t lie to ya. I thought I was the exhausted one given that I’d barely slept and was now being bombarded with a whole bunch of messages via e-mail and twitter thrown into my days when there’s already an existing system (for people that don’t get themselves BANNED) to work within. Not knowing what to say in response, I decided to end it as best I knew how…if she was too exhausted to give me five hours to actually sleep and respond, I decided I had had enough altogether. In any event, she was already an email past the point where she’d already ‘given up’ due to the fact that I suppose I can’t respond to messages while I’m sleeping. Check out any of our pages…you’ll see a severe absence of anything to do with me between the hours of 12pm-5pm on the 16th…but in the world according to Rhonda, guess I wasn’t moving or sleeping quickly enough.
I sent back: “No problem Rhonda. Sorry it didn’t work out. All the best, – Jer @ SBS.” And I thought to myself…jesus…I really hope this is DONE because I am actually getting worn out from all this too! If she was exhausted, then believe me, I was being exhausted by proxy to her as well. But I truly hoped to leave it at that…and never have to write this entire article today. I guess we know how that turned out.
Her third and final message to me before she completely set me off and I went on an extreme blocking rampage so that anything/everything to do with RMG would become a distant memory at the very most, read: “No you are not.”
And that’s what got me raging to the point where I needed to write this. Let me explain this to Rhonda as clear as I possibly can: You do NOT know me. You do not know what I am about, you do not know what drives me, you do NOT know a damn thing about the person you just attacked on a personal level. I put my heart & soul into EVERYTHING I DO…this article is even proof of that – I’ve wasted nearly SIX pages so far of my time in having to write this that I’d much rather be spending on new music, an artist, a band…or literally ANYTHING else. But you think I’m not sorry? Rhonda – you don’t know that at all.
I mean, in hindsight, sure, she’s completely right. Given the unprofessional nature of how she handles things in behind the scenes I couldn’t possibly be less sorry…NOW. But at the time, sure, I was a little. At the end of the day I never expect to get along with management or PR companies as well as the artists or bands out there, because we don’t think the same way, care about the same things or really see eye-to-eye on anything at all…I get that…but I do truly just want to get along and I always think it sucks any time I find someone like Rhonda that I just can’t possibly work with. Again…if we’re talking about dollars and SENSE…there are no amount of dollars that would make it make sense to me to work with her. I don’t need to be insulted, I don’t need you to be rude – I just need you to be as good as your word is. In her case, with a story that’s already changed multiple times (and a reality being that if she was banned from the Fiverr site, she definitely fucked up somewhere along the way with someone else out there) and the amount of frantic intensity in the less-than 36 hour whirlwind of twitter messages, emails and voicemail she’d sent…I have every red flag in the book going off regarding Rhonda and the way she does business. Blocked her in every possible way…but I’ll tell you now I’d virtually guarantee this won’t be the last I hear from her or from RMG. They can lawyer up or dispute anything they’d like to for all I care – every word I’ve quoted from them is exactly what she wrote to me and exactly how this all went down…it’s only libel if something written is slanderous or untrue…and unfortunately for her, I don’t write fiction.
But of course I became curious…I decided to directly to check out ‘what’ exactly her business was all about. As it turns out, it’s exactly as I’d assumed…another hole on the internet to throw your money away into as an indie artist if you’re not careful enough to read the signs.
For instance…they sure promise a ton of greatness in service that I’d yet to experience in any of my personal dealings with Rhonda right there on the main page! Sounds impressive but it sure ain’t in reality! Reading over the testimonials all there on the main site, I’ll admit…for a second there, I thought maybe I was the one who was crazy after all…there’s some decent praise for her work there. I figured at the very least, maybe she’s just absolutely horrifically terrible at dealing with people behind the scenes when she’s behind the eight-ball and scrambling to justify the incredible costs she charges indie bands & artists through RMG – maybe she deals with artists/bands in a completely different and not-so-exhausted/scattered way and just hates people that she needs things from – that’s a total possibility!
But here’s where I’ll put the holes in her boat and start to sink this ship…and the financial reasons as to why you’d never want to commit to either the six-month option for $2500 + expenses up to $400 or the four-month option for the low, low bargain of only $1800…
Language…as you know…is everything when it comes to signing something. When you’re an indie band and you want to sign an agreement with a company, make sure you read it over extremely carefully – because just like you’ll see in this particular outline pulled directly from their page – you’ll notice that you’re actually promised pretty much next to nothing for all that money you spend. Check it out!
FULL CAMPAIGN:
This is a 6 month long campaign for those artists releasing a cd/EP nationally and includes creating Press Releases & Biographies of the band/artist as well aspitching (sic) and sending out over 150 press kits for review/interview consideration. Press outlets such as Billboard, Rolling Stone, Magnet, Paste, Performing Songwriter, CMJ, Under The Radar, Spin, Alternative Press, American Songwriter, Death & Taxes and many more. We also include webzines, internet radio stations/satellite radio and 200 music blogs/podcasts.
Flat rate : $2500.00 plus expenses. ( Expenses do not exceed $400.00)
HALF CAMPAIGN:
This is a 4 month long campaign for those artists releasing a cd/EP nationally and includes creating Press Releases & Biographies of the band/artist as well aspitching and sending out over 75 press kits for review/interview consideration. We also include webzines, internet radio stations/satellite radio and 100 music blogs/podcasts.
Flat rate : $1800.00 plus expenses. ( Expenses do not exceed $200.00)
Payment plans available. (Expenses include: postage, padded mailers & telephone.)
How nice though eh? Payment plans. Hopefully, not through Paypal or believe me, there are probably a whole shit-ton of additional hoops and BS you’ll likely have to go through with RMG.
Anyhow…take a good look at the Full Campaign. First of all – $2500 is way steep, I’ll say that right off the bat. In defense of RMG, that’s actually pretty standard out there in the shark-water world of promotions…so I suppose there’s that – but I wouldn’t recommend ANYONE trying to charge you that kind of price with the kind of wording it continues into. For those that LOVE to spend their time poring over legal language like I do in contracts and agreements – wait til you realize how VAGUE those promises are. It includes a press release and a biography. Great right? No mention of what the quality or length are. I know at the good ol’ Fiverr page this would probably run you close to about…jeeeeez I dunno…I think I’d charge about $25 for a standard Press Release and about $10 for a basic bio?
That makes the math so far, $2500 – $25 – $10. Let’s keep this going though Rhonda – you’ve truly earned this kind of promotion from me.
I have no idea what ‘aspitching’ is…but I certainly know a spelling mistake on an important document when I see one! Attention to detail my friends. I don’t mind if I spell a word or two incorrectly when I’m writing something personally – because I’m NOT charging anyone thousands of dollars to make sure I get everything RIGHT. And IF you are – then you SHOULD be getting it right…anything less than that is just plain SAD. The statement also specifies they’ll send out ‘over 150 press kits for review/interview consideration.’ I get those e-mails all the time from other companies and I’d completely imagine RMG to be doing the same as what I typically receive – they’re impersonal messages that are generic and hardly ever directed to anyone specific at the site…in fact, when you think about how easy it would be to click ‘send all’ and send out 150 press kits generically…kinda seems like way too little for $2500 doesn’t it? Thought so. I mean…that could actually be about three-clicks of a mouse on a Wednesday afternoon. But if we’re actually examining the language (again, attention to detail) – it says nothing about sending anything to 150 PLACES…it says specifically they’ll send out 150 press kits. FYI, not that I think that this would be the case…but legally, they could actually just send 150 press kits to one damn place. Sure it lists a whole bunch of impressive names they’ve loosely worked with over the years…but it guarantees you absolutely NOTHING as far as results are concerned or whether or not those e-mails will reach anyone at all…nothing concrete except the fact that you’re out $2500. And of course, as you’d expect, the watered-down version of the agreement at the four-month level ALSO guarantees nothing (just less nothing), slices most of the features by half and of course charges you more than half the price for it, so that you’ll buy into the idea of the six-month campaign having some sort of relative value. Oooooooo! And ‘aspitching’ is also included in the $1800 version? Sweet – where do I sign?
So again…considering that they guarantee absolutely no results of any kind for certain other than that you’ll get yourself a bio and a press release typed up from SOMEONE out there…the math actually remains exactly the same. That’s YOUR $2500 for THEM to find ME or someone like me (cause I ain’t messin’ around with ANYTHING to do with RMG based on this entire experience) minus the $25 for a press release write-up (as low as $5, I’m being generous) and minus the $10 for a bio write-up (same applies, could easily be as low as $5) – which leaves RMG with essentially what is 150 e-mails to send to at least one place (possibly more…again, that’s not specified in the language of how it’s written on their site) and for this, they take a nice slice of…what’s the total on that anyhow…oh yeah…$2500 – $25 – $10 = $2465 of YOUR dough that could be way better used. I’m sorry my friends…but that’s math that is seriously fucked right up…and again, in defense of RMG, they’re just robots doing what most other companies have already outlined. These companies aren’t successful because they achieve RESULTS…they’re successful because they absolutely prey on people that are just trying to do the best thing for their music in the only ways that have been presented to them as options. I know this because I deal with frustrated artists & bands that take chances on this kind of stuff DAILY…but it’s through situations like this that I now feel compelled to speak out and say that what these companies are doing is WRONG and damn near as unethical as it gets. They know it…they’ll never admit it to you, but I’ve now shown you the math…does that add up to you?
Instead of spending your $2500 on people that are only worried about their bottom-line & DO NOT have your best interests in mind…think of the GEAR you could buy! Or the studio-time for your next album! The amount of MERCH that you could purchase…and the amount of dough that YOU could theoretically gain from that and NOT wasting your money on needless PR that can’t even mention specific results or offers whatever ‘aspitching’ means to you. You feeling me? In your spare time…why not e-mail ONE place per day…that’ll still get you to 150 faster than a premium six-month package will. Fuck!
How about YOU Rhonda? Are YOU feeling me yet? I sure hope so. You pissed off the wrong blogger that just wanted to spend a night with his wife…and now you get my full, undivided attention. I’ll make sure to spend as much time as I can now talking about this situation with people in-person and online, using your site as a specific example as to what is WRONG with the indie-music world and continue to expose the absolutely terrible ways that companies like RMG and others would potentially take advantage of & exploit those out there that don’t know any better. Good people that don’t deserve to feel you virtually pegging them in the ass while trying to get their music out there to actual REAL people and LIVE human beings. People that think they’re paying YOU for work, when really all you are is a link-farm of send-to-all type messages and knowing where to find slave labor when you need something written on the cheap. Fuck companies like RMG and their inability to remember what it was that brought them to the music in the first place – I’m DONE with you ALL and I’m going to make sure your bullshit is thrust into the spotlight as hard as you shove it into the rear-ends of people trying to make real ART. But I’ll do it with passion. I WANT you to feel me inside you, pounding away. You contribute nothing…you create nothing…you really ARE nothing – it’s that simple.
One last tidbit on this particular site…one last red-flag that you’ll see on RMG and other sites is the ‘Clients Past & Present’ horseshit. The BEST way to pad roster-stats on any site is to include the ‘past’ clients…because there’s pretty much no way for you to know how long they were actually around for. Could be years, could be months…in this example likely only DAYS. Am I supposed to get excited by this list? Are you? All I see are a bunch of people, bands and artists that were potentially VICTIMIZED by a completely shady & unprofessional PR company and could have been completely unsatisfied by the time they no doubt LEFT this online cesspool. So do NOT be fooled by the three or four names you might recognize – the rest of those people, artists & bands on that list, without being educated on the manipulative ways of companies like RMG…could just as easily be ANY of us out there.
Not to completely beat on what’s surely a dead-horse by now…but I was quoting Rhonda direct on the whole 22 years thing…and on the voicemail she’d left me, she explained that RMG was essentially signing about 3-4 bands per MONTH right now. Sounds awesome right?
Well here’s some final math for you. There are two-sides to their client-list of ‘past & present’ which has a total of 98 names on it. Over 22 years of time. I repeat…22 YEARS.
That’s the equivalent of not even a full 4.5 artists a year willing to somehow work with this company…but you can also now see how just a few good people getting suckered into what seems like a good deal will keep people like Rhonda leeching the music-scene for years & years.
Don’t allow yourself to be hustled by RMG and become the 99th or 100th victim. Demand specifics, demand examples of their successes, demand results for your own scenario if you’re brave enough to work with them…demand a bit of actual CARE both in front of and behind the scenes. Bottom line is…if you’re willing to pay people like this…understand that somewhere out there along the way, there’s a great chance they end up representing & speaking for YOUR music and YOUR art at some point…and I’m sure you’ve seen from the way this has gone down, that doesn’t always work out so well. I’d never hold an artist, band or their music responsible for the heinous shit I end up having to deal with from management & PR firms…because I know that people really don’t know any better & are just trying to do the right thing…and because snakes like these companies hide in cowardly patches of tall grass behind the illusion of safety.
Not anymore. Consider yourselves exposed. Independent music doesn’t NEED you.
Good lord…it sure doesn’t WANT you either…it just needs to know that ANY other option would actually be a better option than you. Now scram.
****Important update/buyer beware – RMG changed their name immediately, and became Whiplash PR – avoid them at all costs, or believe me, it’ll cost ya for $ure.
