The musical Nigerian scam letters part 4

Read my posts from 1,3 and 6 of Feb to get the whole story about this fraud. Short is that a manager / A&R contacted The Magnettes with an offer to help them out with anything. It was like a  Nigerian scam letter. So I answered just to show how you look through a thing like this. Now we are one answer in and she gotten direct to the money. So I answer, as usual my blogg comments are in blue.

Hello *******

Good to hear. We have founding, we have the Swedish government founding the project and two sponsorships with two well established beverage companies.
*** Witch is true that we have. But we would never get out money to spend on a Nigerian music scam.

Yes Billboard is not cheap, but we need to have a goal. Also we need some Spotify playlist placements.
**** Here I add another important feature. Spotify, it’s a must. And I know she doesn’t have the knowledge about it, so I added it to see if she mention it or just goes on with the money.

Regards

Peter


And here is the answer:

Perfect. You seem perfect for us then.
Kevin. did you send him my email with some more info about the one -on one?
*** No I never got an e-mail more from Kevin.Poor intern sitting whole day sending fake mails to people.

Peter, I always get artists started with an intensive one on one.
We go over all your goals and how to achieve them, current state of the industry,
Politics. And make a sold strategy. Takes me about 1.5 hours.
(Cost is 425$) You'll walk out with a very good sense of where all your possibilities lie.
*** This is a overprice. We actually sell this thing on Musichelp , but of course we never go out and flatter artist and then ask for money. On our end is that if someone wants to consult us we charge 80 dollars for 3 hours and a plan. And there is many serious companies doing this like Cyber PR.
Second go over my goals? We have told you our goals like Getting on playlists on Spotify, getting and audience, touring releasing a single and getting on Billboard. Well the only thing you got a hold on was Billboard and money.
Also she would see that on the artist career that it has been people involved already that has taken these discussions several times. We don’t need to pay to do it again. And that should be quite clear in the biography we sent.

This session is the foundation of my relationship with any long term artist.
It also allows me to gauge if you have what it takes (mindset has a lot to do with it)
since I have to be picky about every act I spend time with.
*** As a Nigerian scam letter she direct wants to see if you are willing to spend money. She doesn’t commit to anything. She will tell you the goals you already know. She also plays on that she is picky. Well picky with the ones who pays. Here should it be that you are pick who you buy information from.

As u know I take on new artists VERY
But, I just say have a really good feeling about it.
Not sure if you received the email from kevin.
But confirm with me you want it and I'll have office grt you in ASap.
*** No I never got an e-mail from Kevin. Here she also play out the card that The Magnettes is special. And if they have the real mindset they pay the money. The problem is that if you have that kind of mindset, well you don’t have the right mindset. If you are going to survive in the business you need to have the facts yourself, not form some people that just want to charge you for nothing.

******
Sent from my iPad


*** Well this one I can’t answer on. She will only go back that we should pay for her services, and if we don’t we are not serious enough. I have seen many of these people over the years. Some have things really to add. So part of it can be true. At the same time they never break any artists what so ever. The artists they hang on to as claim to fame usually left them and got another way and got successful. 
If you should pay money you should seek out for yourself and find the opportunity to pay for. Today it’s actually hard to get a PR firm even if you can pay for their services so even if you paid a shark like this they won’t get that firm anyway. It’s all about the story you bring to the table. That story you build yourself, that can’t be bought.

The musical Nigerian scam letters. Part 3

Read my posts from 1 of  Feb and 3 of Feb to get the whole story about this fraud. Short is that a manager / A&R contacted The Magnettes with an offer to help them out with anything. It was like a Nigerian scam letter. So I answered just to show how you look through a thing like this.

Here is the answer, my comments is in blue. This letter came pretty fast after we answered a couple of hours. It doesn’t come from the address the first one was sent from. The first one is froma info@**company name***.com  this comes from ***her name***@**company name***.com  and on CC is a Kevin.

Hi Peter,

Just a sidenote, in addition to other communication coming your way,
We can help with a billboard charts for sure.
*** Interesting part is that I didn’t get any other communication. But I can easy see that the first letter is something they send out to many artists at once. And if someone is responding she takes over on her personal address. But here she was a bit to fast. Same time, the quote of the Billboard is just a longterm goal. Mainly we sork to get a big audience.

We developed an artist from scratch, who just had a number one breakout single.
We had several billboard hits last year. Dance charts is what needs targeting first.
*** Of course she has read my e-mail otherwise she wouldn’t have my e-mail. It’s true that one of her artist has a billboard top ten last year. BUT it has nothing to do with her. This was a Norwegian artist that picked up a singer for his single (just like Avicii use different singers to different songs). Still this was chosen by the Norwegian team and not this manager. Afterwards the artist got signed to a big American label, which is understandable with that success. Still has nothing to do with her. If you check all her other artists they don’t go over 10 000 streams in most of the cases. I would be fun to have a chat with this artist that she is bragging about. See if he even mention her doing something.  So these several Billboard hits, it’s the same artists and it’s remixes of that famous song. The thing she is not able to recreate this success in that way.
And Dance charts, this is The Magnettes, they are a pop group. Targeting the dance charts is probably not even smart.

You need good funding though. Do you have funding?
*** And here it comes. You need money. And of course with unlimited cash you can break anything. Then you hire people doing the stuff and cut a piece for yourself. The problem is that kind of money doesn’t really exists. It has been done with Taylor Swift but that is something done by a parent, not a manager. And if I had that money why don’t go direct to the source and hire these people. It’s mainly PR people and recording people. Whit that kind of money I can go to Max Martin nad get a special written song by him, it’s just a price.

Billboard isn't cheap. We have a 97 percent succesrate with charting to billboard.
*** Well if you look ion her homepage and the artists there, except for one they have not been on Billboard.

We need the prep time, the funds, but it's pretty much a done deal.
*** She is going direct against the money

Anyways, I'd love to see you in consult, as kevin reached out to you for with an email
Composed by me.  And we can discuss all details and I can tell you how you
Can reach all of that, let you in on internal secrets and politics etc... And support you in any way I can.
*** She is just plain stupid. Of course I’m not new to the buissness . And since I check her Linked in (see post part 2). I can easy see she is not THAT connected. In fact she is just a middelman. Of course with a huge sum of money she can go around and get people. And that could easily been seen in the bio. And I signed with my name, if she just checked that out she would find out that I spoken on all of the worlds big confernances about the music industry. She don't do her homework.

*******
Sent from my iPad
*** See that she is in desperate need of money since she answer direct from her Ipad only talking about the money. Nothing that they reelase anew single, nothing about their record label, nothing about co-writes, just money.

So who is this person? Well I did my research. She is not even from USA. She is from Europe. Tried to make her own career as an artists. Failed after doing the general error number one. Got signed to major label in a small European country. That is never leading anywhere. The only claim to fame is that an Italian radio station played her song. Probably got dropt after one single.

Moved to USA and released some singles of her own. The interesting part is that nothing of this is on Spotify even though it was released from 2009 until 2014. I guess that is because it was done in an amateurish way. It also shows that she has not knowledge about Spotify and the new streaming ways.

So she moved to USA a couple a years ago. Her songs really sucks. She is not a good songwriter. So to make money she now preys on other young artist to get their money to support her non existing career. The homepage is full of pictures of her standing next to old duded that did a hit song 20 years or more ago. She plays on that it is  just a person that does your career. If you read my blog post “What is success”
http://ihuvudetpaenar.blogspot.se/2017/01/what-is-sucess.html

You see that it is a team not a person who is doing things.

Most fun part. Whay hasn't she got on to The Billboard chart if she know how it's done wuith her own singles?

So what kind of money is she talking about? And what is her first move? I answered this mail as well. Stay tuned for the rest.

The musical Nigerian scam letters. Part 2

Read my first post 1 of February about the start of this letter. It’s a preying shark that try to lure young artists. I answered back on the e-mail The Magnettes got, but from my e-mail, my comments are in blue.

Hello ******

Thank you for looking into The Magnettes.

We are looking for different opportunity’s for the moment, the goal is to get on the Billboard chart top 10 one day. The band will release a record in March done by Christian Cummings (Icona Pop, Florence and The machine, Tiesto, Cage The Elephant).
New single Sad Girls Club comes 20 of January get a prelistening here
*****secret link ********
****If you want to hear the song I linked it’s released now you find it here
https://soundcloud.com/themagnettes/the-magnettes-sad-girls-club


The other part is that the band writes for different other artists and with other writers. They are going to NYC in February to write songs. We hope to add on more writing sessions while in USA in February.
**** Here I give a hint that, yes we are already quite connected, but can you offer something.

They will do a USA/Canada tour in June/July, UK/Ireland tour May, And we try to add things around that.
**** This is also something that a normal new band don’t have several tours in different countries.

Here is a kind of extended bio what has been done.

The Magnettes release new single “Sad Girls Club” 20 of January 2017. The fourth single from the upcoming album “Ugly Youth” that will be released 31 of March.
  -  The Sad Girls Club is not something we invented. It’s a movement that we’re part of. It’s the idea of a sanctuary for whatever reason, that treats you as the person you want to be, where you’re allowed to be sad, different or plain hostile. To counter-react to a world that tells you to smile when everything systematically sucks. This is our party and we’ll cry if we want to. Tells Rebecka Digervall from The Magnettes.

The Magnettes started when Rebecka and Sanna met at six-years-old in their hometown of Pajala (very far north in Sweden close to Finland and Russia). By the age of 14, Rebecka had written a plethora of song for them as a duo. In 2012, they released their first official tune “Paper Cut” and performed across Europe and Russia.

2014 The Magnettes got Tomas Bäcklund Thuneström as the member that plays all electronica and drums. They also started to put in their minority language “Meänkieli” into their songs. They went to USA for the first time and played on New Music Seminar in NYC. Back in Sweden The Magnettes also appear as the main subjects in Hans-Erik Therus’s documentary ”Pajala State Of Mind”, featured at the Gothenburg Film Festival, the Tempo Documentary Festival Stockholm  and has been broadcasted on Swedish national television.

Spring 2015 They went back to USA to perform at SXSW the world’s biggest showcase festival. They ended the whole festival with the last gig on legendary Stubb’s The SXSW got them booked to The Great Escape in Brighton, UK just a month after the USA trip.

They returned to USA in autumn of 2015. Before that they played Live at Heart in Sweden. Then to Barcelona to play on Future Music Forum and head to two shows in London. The USA tour took them to Los Angeles, San Diego, San Fransisco and the tour ended in NYC and shows on the showcase festival CMJ.

During CMJ it went official that the band signed with the American record label Digsin and the first release was ”Bones” on their new label.

2016 They played on Where’s the music in Sweden and BY:Larm in Norway and went as opening act for Ida Gard “Womb tour” in Denmark They released the new single ”Killers in a Ghost Town”.
In May 2016 they went for their fourth trip to North America, this time to play on Canadian Music Week in Toronto and in Nashville. Over the summer they played several Pride festivals in Sweden and hooked the Swedish gay community by storm.

Autumn 2016 They went back for playing on the festival Youbloom in Los Angeles and record new songs at FTO studio in NYC. They also released their third single “Hollywood” with a video recorded in Hollywood by Michael Frost.

Quotes:
Drowned in Sound: One of five of our favorite discoveries on The Great Escape
Essentially pop: The Magnettes rock our very “Bones” with new single.
The 405: Killers In a Ghost Town,' is a black-hearted love song and call to arms for every bored teenage girl who's outgrown her small town's offerings.

Links:
Homepage
http://www.themagnettes.com
EPK video
https://youtu.be/QhSQZKOEMPs
Videos
Bones
https://youtu.be/pnRfe4wwxt0
Killers in a Ghost Town
https://youtu.be/vf6Yd6h_1CI
Hollywood
https://youtu.be/yLjYNIzibyA
Live on Stockholm Pride
https://youtu.be/pqzweyj-grc
Club gig in Sweden
https://youtu.be/7NIdMslTCmU

regards
Peter Astedt
The Magnettes


*** The rest is also kind of open. You see that they played SXSW, The Great Escape, Candian Music Week and are signed to a record label. And some nice quotes from big bloggers. Of course you need to understand here that this band is signed and someone is working with it that has some kind of network. Working with Christian also means we have really professional team for recording. So I sent it back to the Shark. Hang on to see what the answer was.

The musical Nigerian scam letters. Part 1

This e-mail came to The Magnettes. They get a lot of these and to sort out the frauds from the real ones they send all stuff like this to me to take a look at. Her I will guide you have to check if this is real or not real. I go in with comments in blue.

Hello Magnettes!

My name is ********** and I’m an A&R and Artist Manger.
*** Well it’s hard to be both. Okey I’am both, but never on the same time. I would not be a manager and use my A&R work to sign a band, it’s not ethical.

I found your music while scouting the Internet for new artists.
*** This actually happens, some of my biggest deals came through people find artist on different sites.

My management firm, ******* , selects and develops a few new singers and songwriters globally each year.
*** Here they already try to feel special. They only take in a few. Well if they were good enough they don’t need to scout the internet. The good ones get approached. Or they charge you so most people won’t go with it.

Currently we are looking to add one or two artists to our roster.

My professional team, who has been behind big industry household names such as Sia, Celine D, Pink, Coldplay and many more, includes Top 40 songwriters, Grammy nominated producers, A&R folks, Billboard promoters, managers/ PR representatives etc...
*** Here you can easy see that it’s fake. Sia and Coldplay won’t have the same setup. Coldplay is from UK and Sia is a songwriter from USA. And in this case Pink was done by some friends of mine and this person was not in there. I actually mailed and asked them about it and none of the team members knew this person. If it is real usually they say the same names from one company. Like Mute had Depeche Mode and Fad Gaget. Then yes but here is so spread out it’s not credible. Of course they can have worked with all of these as song coaches, merch salesmen, humpers whatever. But not likely to be a significant player in all these artist career.

We are located in New York City, but are also completely set up to work long distance.
We specialize in managing singers/writers and Emerging Producers from outside NY state and USA country lines. Giving them the same accessibility as NY local talent and helping them make beautiful career records, collaborate with hit songwriters, and find opportunities through our MGMT team. We also sponsor artist Visas (for the committed artist).
*** The Magnettes is a pop group. I guess she hasn’t checked so good after all. Sponsor artist with Visa, well they would be petitioner witch cost them almost nothing. And if you want to be on the ground for music, NYC is not the place everything has moved to Los Angles.

There is nothing we can’t do with for you, no matter what your genre is or what you want to accomplish.
*** Of course you can, it probably has a price tag too.

The drive to sing or make music is so much more crucial to us than the experience/track record.
*** Read , how large is your wallet.

You can look us up in much more detail about at *****homepage********

If you feel you are ready for something like this, we would like to learn a bit more about your goals and any recent musical developments (if you have them.)
*** Hmm if you really read about The Magnettes you would easy find that they played on the biggest festivals in the world. They are signed to Digsin in USA. Clearly they just send this out to all artist they can find on a page like Soundcloud.

Looking forward to hearing back!

Here’s to a great 2017.

-*********

Already here I can tell this is a fraud. To many things is not adding up. Still I find it annoying that people are preying on young kids that have a dream. I checked out the homepage of this. And there you find out that this person knows people that have on low level worked with Sia, Celine D, Pink, Coldplay. One is a manger that is really shady and prey on young artist in the same way as this person.

Then I did one thing that maybe an artist has hard time to do. I have a large network on Linked in. If this person is even half as connected as me they will show up with some mutual friends. Even artists that are pretty unknown shows up with mutual friends on my Linked in.

She only get on as a 3:d contact and that is on a really shady guy that I really don’t even count to the music industry. That’s it. She doesn’t have any bigger network or knowledge.

Still I want to know what the price tag is. Because this has a price tag. So I answered it….It will come more surprises and stuff I promise.