April 10, 2012
Asshole Alert...
by Chris Randall
As you know, I provide a public service occasionally where I point out situations where musicians are being taken advantage of. Haven't had to do this in a while (although TuneCore's "Get My Money" boondoggle has been tempting me) but this here is a doozy, and needs to be addressed.
The site is AlbumCredits.com, and here's the grift: it is owned and operated by AMG, the company that brings you the All Music Guide. What they've done is create a site that is a separate front end for AMG's database, where you can pay for the opportunity to correct it. The image above is a screenshot of what I'm met with when I click the "Claim This Profile" on my own page.
So, for a cool hundred bucks a year, I get the opportunity to fix AMG's database for them. This heaping pile of poorly collected, badly managed pig shit, that hasn't been worth fuck all since the Internet was knee-high to a short goat, will finally allow corrections, but only if you pay.
Seriously, this company can't go out of business fast enough. I would be sorely disappointed if any of you fell for this. (Look at it this way: I was always right about TAXI. I'm right about this. Just trust me.)
35 comments:
Oh, the number of times I've tried to get AMG to correct incorrectly credited releases that I'm a part of...
I don't even care any longer. I have a website that I can update and make certain is correct and if there's a problem, I know the "webmaster".
I don't even care any longer. I have a website that I can update and make certain is correct and if there's a problem, I know the "webmaster".
Can we all pay $12.95 for one month to provide them a bunch of ludicrously wrong information? I would like to confirm that Pink Floyd wrote Enter Sandman in 2003 with the help of Katy Perry and Tom Waits.
Someone should claim the deadmau5 and Skrillex pages and conflate them.
But @zombiestomper, it's AMG. It probably already says that.
-CR
But @zombiestomper, it's AMG. It probably already says that.
-CR
"This heaping pile of poorly collected, badly managed pig shit, that hasn't been worth fuck all since the Internet was knee-high to a short goat, will finally allow corrections, but only if you pay."
That made me almost shoot hot coffee out of my nose.
One of my engineer-type friends has the misfortune of sharing a name with a member of Flesh for Lulu. Poor bastard doesn't even have his own page for AMG to fuck up.
That made me almost shoot hot coffee out of my nose.
One of my engineer-type friends has the misfortune of sharing a name with a member of Flesh for Lulu. Poor bastard doesn't even have his own page for AMG to fuck up.
I did some googling for chris's TAXI thoughts but came up empty handed. Would like to know what I missed.
@stretta: I think it was in the previous iteration of AI; I've said them in person or private conversation often enough, in any event. My issues with TAXI are manifold. In no particular order:
1. If you're good enough that TAXI can do something for you, you're good enough to not need TAXI. If you're not good at what you do, then TAXI will happily take your money anyhow.
2. There is no such thing as an A&R guy that sits at his desk and thinks "wow, I hardly have any demos coming in. I wonder if that next boxload from TAXI will come soon, because I really need someone to sign!!!!" If you're looking for a deal with a major, there's only two people that can make that happen, and that's a manager or an entertainment lawyer (and more likely both.) If you're looking for a deal with an indie, then the usual method (networking) will suffice. The former works on percentage. The latter is free. Neither costs up front.
3. Placements in movies and games come from personal relationships. They don't come from TAXI. I can't say how you meet music supervisors, but generally it's the same way you meet lawyers, managers, and the guy that cooks burritos in the food truck. You go to where they are, walk up and say "hi," and be engaging and interesting. If you can't do those things, you have no business being in this business, unless you're very, very good. (In which case you don't need to do those things. See #1 above.)
A not-bad song or two wouldn't hurt, but I'm living proof that's not really necessary. If you're engaging, and willing to entertain, there's a place for you in this business. If you're not engaging, and you're not willing to entertain, then there's always that brass ring off in the distance, and TAXI will drive you towards it. That may seem cynical, but there are a lot of folks out there that will be glad to take your money and tell you that you have a shot. If you have to pay for a service up front, then you're being taken advantage of. The music industry works on percentages, not up-front fees.
-CR
1. If you're good enough that TAXI can do something for you, you're good enough to not need TAXI. If you're not good at what you do, then TAXI will happily take your money anyhow.
2. There is no such thing as an A&R guy that sits at his desk and thinks "wow, I hardly have any demos coming in. I wonder if that next boxload from TAXI will come soon, because I really need someone to sign!!!!" If you're looking for a deal with a major, there's only two people that can make that happen, and that's a manager or an entertainment lawyer (and more likely both.) If you're looking for a deal with an indie, then the usual method (networking) will suffice. The former works on percentage. The latter is free. Neither costs up front.
3. Placements in movies and games come from personal relationships. They don't come from TAXI. I can't say how you meet music supervisors, but generally it's the same way you meet lawyers, managers, and the guy that cooks burritos in the food truck. You go to where they are, walk up and say "hi," and be engaging and interesting. If you can't do those things, you have no business being in this business, unless you're very, very good. (In which case you don't need to do those things. See #1 above.)
A not-bad song or two wouldn't hurt, but I'm living proof that's not really necessary. If you're engaging, and willing to entertain, there's a place for you in this business. If you're not engaging, and you're not willing to entertain, then there's always that brass ring off in the distance, and TAXI will drive you towards it. That may seem cynical, but there are a lot of folks out there that will be glad to take your money and tell you that you have a shot. If you have to pay for a service up front, then you're being taken advantage of. The music industry works on percentages, not up-front fees.
-CR
Never seen this site so I'm guessing it's more of an US thing? Discogs seem to be used more often in Europe and it's free.
Overall credits can be an issue in this here age of tinternet downloads but as bleen points out, a website can help you with this.....
Couldn't agree more than with your sentiment of TAXI or any of those sites, they're just out to grab some clueless persons money.....
Overall credits can be an issue in this here age of tinternet downloads but as bleen points out, a website can help you with this.....
Couldn't agree more than with your sentiment of TAXI or any of those sites, they're just out to grab some clueless persons money.....
In a previous job I had the misfortune of having to use one of AMG's APIs (and I use the term "API" very loosely in this case) for fetching album art. So, in this 21st century world of web services and REST and buzzwords like that, they give you a raw socket to connect to and if you're lucky it'll stay open long enough to actually give you data.
They don't provide a well-documented API for filtering the data plus they are "helpful" and assume everyone has inaccurately tagged media so they'll provide results that only approximately match (i.e. a shitload of results for each match). Then they whined at us because our apps were making "too many" requests, even though I gathered it cost a small fortune for the privilege to make those requests.
Now, I'm not trying to make excuses for grossly inefficient programming but basically it appeared like they were making it really difficult to use their "service". They eventually relented somewhat and told us about an undocumented hack (not that they called it that, it was a feature) to specify multiple filter terms in one argument but it was clearly something that was never designed properly.
Basically, they're a big bag of lose IMO. IIRC AMG are owned by Macromedia to boot.
They don't provide a well-documented API for filtering the data plus they are "helpful" and assume everyone has inaccurately tagged media so they'll provide results that only approximately match (i.e. a shitload of results for each match). Then they whined at us because our apps were making "too many" requests, even though I gathered it cost a small fortune for the privilege to make those requests.
Now, I'm not trying to make excuses for grossly inefficient programming but basically it appeared like they were making it really difficult to use their "service". They eventually relented somewhat and told us about an undocumented hack (not that they called it that, it was a feature) to specify multiple filter terms in one argument but it was clearly something that was never designed properly.
Basically, they're a big bag of lose IMO. IIRC AMG are owned by Macromedia to boot.
@johan: It predates Discogs by some years (and the WWW, for that matter). I don't know if it was started specifically for the info kiosks in Tower Records, but that's my first contact with it. (Wherein I discovered that they had used the worst review we'd ever received as a description of my band. Thanks, guys.)
So they've been on my shit list for about 18 years now.
-CR
So they've been on my shit list for about 18 years now.
-CR
Comment:
Sorry, commenting is closed for this blog entry.
