An Update on LinkedMusicians

[peter]

I just wanted to give an update on all that’s going on with LinkedMusicians now and the months ahead.

1. I wanted to reveal a little of my process for finding the best deals, it’s becoming a lot more sophisticated. I started by doing the same thing that cclarry did. We’re in a FB deals group together. I’m actually in several of these groups on Facebook and Reddit.  I would go through my emails and these groups and cut and paste the most appropriate deals for our community. Basically, I’m a curator of deals. However, I really didn’t like the inefficiency of that, so I set up an AI to scrape the deal groups and create spreadsheets for me to look through and choose the most appropriate deals for our group. This is why we’re seeing more deals posted than ever before.
2. I’m in the process of finally (I realize that I’ve been very slow in making this happen) getting us set up with a reliable email service. I hope to have that in place by the end of this week. Currently, emails are sent for alerts that you setup and password resets, but those emails utilize PHP which is virtually guaranteed to go in your spam folder. We’re moving to Amazon for this service, and they’re top notch, used by major brands like FedEx. If all goes well, I expect to have this done by the end of the week. I will send out a notice when it’s in place.  Note, that this is only for alerts and system emails. You’ll never receive unsolicited emails from me or LinkedMusicians.
3. Once we’re past the holidays, I’m going to be adding functionality that allows registered members (but not influencers, developers and their employees or contractors) to rate and review sample libraries, plugins, and services they’ve used. This will be combined with a price comparison tool that uses AI to show prices at the various sites and includes price history. Yes, part of that is just like what MusicSoftwareDeals does, except, they’re only about price shopping and not about legitimate non-incentivized reviews from regular, paying customers. That will also be combined with regular surveys on developers, rating them on product quality, customer experience, etc. This will enable us to better research developers without turning to incredibly biased influencers. It will take the knowledge the community has and bring it together.
4. Finally, before the years over, I’m going to be adding pages with summaries of content from your favorite blogs, podcasts, magazines, and YouTubers, so we can all stay up on things in one convenient place. I’d love to get your input on the composer / producer / engineer / musician / singer related outlets you enjoy and think should be a part of this.

I want to again thank everyone in the community, and especially thank those who’ve helped with the site, posted, and participated. This site still hasn’t been opened for public registration. It’s still just our little group, and that’s been very special to me. We have a lot of great things coming that will be of great value to this community. Please let others know about the site to help us grow.

– Peter

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

85

[joegyork]

Thanks for all the hard work Peter – it is a pleasure coming here each day to check on the discussions and deals

21

[Frank]

BIG Thanks for your great work Peter. Love to be part of the community.

11

[RSMcGuitar]

Thanks!

1

[TomEatsTheUkulele]

Thank you for all of this Peter. I’m especially thrilled about #3 as I find it rather difficult to get actual critical reviews of plugins or libraries nowadays.

1

[peter]

On TomEatsTheUkulele said

Thank you for all of this Peter. I’m especially thrilled about #3 as I find it rather difficult to get actual critical reviews of plugins or libraries nowadays.

TL;DR Version

The terrible ethics of influencer marketing and the ethics of a major forum owner in this industry is a major reason why I wanted to do this site for more than a decade.

Way Too Long Version

I realize people hate it every time I mention that my background is marketing and writing on marketing and branding with an emphasis on strategy, accountability, and ethics. Believe me, I don’t tell that because I have incredible respect for the profession. I share that because it’s relevant. While I created this site with a sense of urgency because I thought the group of people at Cakewalk Forum were just a wonderful group of people, I wanted to convey that the ethics in this industry are not great. Yes, many small devs are decent, ethical business people. Some are not. At VI-Control, most people don’t realize it, but you have a number of contractors for developers who talk up their employer’s products and attack competitors. The underlying rule that Mike Greene has is that  you cannot attack or get too critical of developers who pay to be at his site. I can tell you from direct experience with Mike discussing this. I’m very confident that most community members have no idea.

As you can easily pick up on, I don’t have a lot of love for influencer marketing. If I was still writing about marketing — I ended my book deal with Wiley, closed the publication on marketing that basically made my career and only recently attempted to write the kind of articles I used to write when I put something together on the influence of AI and marketing for my career site — I would likely write a book on influencer marketing from an ethics perspective, and how to do it more ethically. But would it sell? Probably not. Because influencer marketing as it is, is incredibly profitable. Influencers are paid to gain your trust and then sell it to the highest bidder. That”s how it works. Even going back more than a decade in the early days of influencer marketing, major brands would spend a ton of money to get tech influencers (my area of expertise, although I’ve worked and consulted to CPGs, food brands, insurance, consumer and business services, chemicals, etc.). In the 00s, I won’t say the name — I could be sued — but tech bloggers widely perceived as credible were given gifts worth over $65,000 along with products for review. Every influencer is selling the trust you have in them to brands for the highest price than can get. Marketing and PR managers use their budgets just like advertising for influencers at mid and large companies. But in fields like this one, even small developers are paying influencers.

The smallest influencers in this business start out by doing reviews in exchange for products. They’re in it for the free products and the hopes of then doing paid videos for the developers, and money from affiliate links.

I would estimate that 99% of influencers violate national regulations and laws on influencer marketing. In the US, we actually have very simple regulations that I think got this area right. The influencer must clearly state at the beginning of a video or in regular type on a web page if they are compensated and how for doing the content and any relatives working for the brand. I was successful, to some extent, in getting Simeon to do a disclosure upfront. It doesn’t include any specifics on compensation, but it’s far better than most. Of course, for an influencer, disclosing something like, “I was paid $10,000 by Sampletopia [I made that name up] to make this review video.” Okay, the more likely way an influencer would say that with BS speak would be, “I was paid $10,000 by Sampletopia to do this review video, but I can tell you sincerely that it has absolutely no influence on my review whatsoever.” Because sure, the brand will still let them keep that money if they did a negative review. Um, no.  It doesn’t work that way — and yes, that’s ALWAYS in a contract. I call BS on this lie every influencer tells.

So, as part of what I have been recognized for as a writer is ethics, you may be thinking, what? Peter, you’ve worked for a number of developers and even your friendships create bias. Yep. So I will not be voting in some of the surveys and polls. And no doubt, when I write something, I think it’s fair and reasonable that people would question if my relationships may result in bias. One thing I can tell you is that I have stated up front with developers is that my consulting to them has zero to do with my posts (this goes back two decades). For example, I’ve consulted to 8Dio / SoundPaint and Kirk Hunter Studios. So you might tread cautiously when you see me posting about string sample libraries. However, if you note, I’ve lavished praise of string libraries from Fracture Sounds, Cinesamples, Soniexema, VSL, and some others. Simply because I write about what I love, what moves me. One thing that does change with me is that when I get to know a developer, I may tone down by sense of humor or perhaps my ability to be brutal in a critique of a library. Once I’ve gotten to know a developer as a person, I certainly will find a way to communicate I don’t like something without being harsh. For example, I made a post making a job about MediPads being possibly the worst name I’ve seen for a sample library and that it sounds like a prescription diaper brand. Several weeks later, the developer contacted me and we hit it off super well. I eventually told him about my post. But would I make a post like that again? Nope. Not because I’ve done any paid work for the developer, but just out empathy, really (which you could make the case should have been there in the first place, but I sometimes, I can’t resist going for the joke).

So what I’m saying, if you stayed with me this long, is that if I am looking at this objectively, your voice and those who’ve never taken money or anything of value from a developer are the best sources for honest reviews. A good publication following sound journalistic ethics demands this of their reviewers, but it’s pretty much non-existent in the influencer world. There are very small influencers that are less biased than others, but they’re all extremely biased, because the business of being an influencer is very very profitable. In this industry, I know a top influencer. I like the guy. A decade ago he was commanding $15,000 USD to do a review. If you think that results in an honest, unbiased review, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. And yes, if you knew my bio, it is ironic for someone quoted in books and magazines as an expert on marketing and branding to be taking the influence of marketing out of things. But I think influencer marketing has basically been such a deceptive industry that I feel passionate about doing this.

That is the long version of how this passion project came about. That said, I’m trying to shorten my average posts!

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

3

[TomEatsTheUkulele]

Thank you for the insights Peter! It is a nice peek behind the curtains of this industry. Frankly I would not have guessed that theses numbers were so high…

(btw the reply function seems broken, I get a “variable mismatch” error when trying to reply directly to your comment, so I’ll reply to the thread instead)

1

[peter]

On TomEatsTheUkulele said

Thank you for the insights Peter! It is a nice peek behind the curtains of this industry. Frankly I would not have guessed that theses numbers were so high…

(btw the reply function seems broken, I get a “variable mismatch” error when trying to reply directly to your comment, so I’ll reply to the thread instead)

If you could take a screenshot when you get that error, note the time and send it to me at linkedmusicians@gmail.com, I’ll have a tech look into it (they need to go through the server log files).

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

1

[peter]

This is stuff I’ve never shared in any public speaking or writing because it really ages me! My first job after graduating from college was project managing some of the world’s direct mail marketing campaigns. It’s definitely a sign of my age, but I managed Columbia House Music Club  — and when one of my fellow managers was on vacation, I had, for a while, managed BMG Music Club. It ended up being a lesson on ethics. I was pressured into being part of a mail fraud scheme. I was threatened that I would be terminated. I eventually left. But the a postmaster, several senior managers — going very high up — all ended up in prison over the scheme. I suppose that was a key development in my career that made me very passionate about ethics. My experience is that the farther one is from the top of an organization, the less aware they are of unethical practices. In the sample and plugin development world, I’ve ended up having developers ask me to look at contracts, I’ve had guys like Mike Greene — a former corporate VP marketing for a mid size firm — say things to in writing, he should never have put into writing. If you’re going to engage in problematic practices, you shouldn’t leave a paper trial. I’ve witnessed the FBI investigating that stuff and people landing in prison. Granted, these players are not on the radar screen of the FBI, but the practices are easily just as problematic, even the ones Mike has posted about like trying to get 8Dio to stop discounting sample libraries.

FTR, I only got to know 8Dio’s CEO from when I posted on VI Control that when Greene was attacking them, the story being told by Mario / Evil Dragon that he was threatened for doing a negative review was a flat out lie. I knew because I had given him advice back then when Troels (8Dio’s co founder) had contacting him for doing a fake review stating that a library that Mario worked on and received royalties on was far superior to Troels library. Troels was upset with him because Mario was shilling for a library he worked on and made royalties on. Mario admitted all of that when I posted in the thread. We had 4 posts where Mario acknowledged that the story he was telling was not true. Mike Greene deleted all of that and told me not to get involved further and later threatened to humiliate me on VI Control if I told the story. I did. He did. Develoeprs, including 8Dio’s CEO were copied on everything.

But why is Greene so furious with 8Dio, Cinesamples and several other developers he’s attacked on his forum? It’s largely because they’re competitors who have been heavily discounting their libraries. His rants, including F bombs, have largely been edited since they were originally posted, but they convey a small developer / competitor who is seeing price competition greatly change and trying to stop it. It’s fruitless, but Greene thinks having more than a half million visitors per month gives him enough power to stop what he refers to as “the race to the bottom.” Of anyone witnessed the 40+ page attack thread on 8Dio, it was a case study in bad ethics and libel. It’s amazing that 8Dio didn’t sue. In their shoes, I absolutely would have. I did an analysis and that thread spread all over social media and every other popular and semi popular forum dedicated to composing and producing music. I also was privy to Greene’s and his friend’s, Andrew Aversa (Impact Soundworks) electronic messages to 8Dio’s CEO following the attack thread. That attack thread, BTW, was led by two Impact Soundworks employees who didn’t disclose that (they worked for a competitor). In our private PMs, Sarah, who led the attack told me that though she attacked 8Dio’s CEO using all sorts of profanity — I think “ruthless b*tch” was one of the terms — Sarah actually never once met or corresponded in any medium with Tawnia. She had only known of her from what Mike Greene and Andrew had told her.

I would consider the messages from Greene and Aversa to Tawnia (8Dio’s CEO) disturbing, inflammatory, gaslighting, misogynistic and in the realm of bullying. 8Dio’s CEO, Tawnia, forwarded the messages to me, incredibly bothered by them. If that happened in a corporate setting, Greene and Aversa would be terminated on the spot and their careers would be destroyed. I’ve never seen tactics like that since those folks I worked with who went to prison; that and my direct experience with Greene. If anyone follows the drama at VI Control, Greene stokes angry crowds against competitors.   It’s a case study in manipulation and creating toxic social media.  My objective is that this community will have zero tolerance for that kind of behavior. I want everyone to be as open an honest about their experiences with developers, their products and services, but we need never cross the line into attacking people personally. It’s fine to say that you find a business terrible to deal with if it’s true. But personal attacks on people and angry mobs egged on by a forum owner, that’s completely unacceptable — at least it will always be unacceptable in this community.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

2

[bapu]

I only have one request:

emails
emails
emails
emails

My name is Ed. I Am still bapu though. My Studio

Virtual Bands: Citizen Regen, The Forum Monkeys,  Fizzy Pickle, The Coffee House Band

1

[peter]

On bapu said

I only have one request:

emails
emails
emails
emails

My name is Ed. I Am still bapu though. My Studio

Virtual Bands: Citizen Regen, The Forum Monkeys,  Fizzy Pickle, The Coffee House Band

I know, I’m wayyyy behind in getting that setup. I realize that the deliverability of the current emails are terrible (to anyone reading this, if you  go to your junk mail folder and do a search on “linkedmusicians” you will find the emails there) and I still haven’t completed getting things setup with Amazon. Every time I get started something new comes up. I’ll spend some time this weekend trying to finish up. I was halfway through.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

[Author]

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