Doug Diamond (Music Opps) and Alexander Johnston (CMI Group)

[Dmbandit]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with either Doug Diamond (musicopps.com) or Alexander Johnston (CMI Group). Both seem to rely on Broadjam and Music X-Ray a lot to find their music. I have been selected by both on multiple occasions for pitching some of my songs. However last time I sent them bitly links to track if they were being used as I had my suspicions. 6 weeks later and neither of my links have been clicked once by either of these guys.

Anyone have any experience here?
Thanks a lot guys 🙂

[tobytune]

I used Broadjam for many years. Spent a lot of money on submissions and was selected many times. NOTHING ever came from that. And I hate the fact that you never knew who you were sending the music to. Some companies like PMG use Broadjam and Music Xray as their main income producer! Check out my review of PMG in the library listings.

What I don’t understand that, if music supervisors are looking for specific tunes and people like Diamond and others want to get music to these guys, there are lots of outlets for them to explore on their own to get music to the people looking for them. That’s their job, isn’t it? So why do they charge money for people to send them possible selections? Hmm, to make money of course for themselves!!!

[Dmbandit]

Yeah, I tend to agree. It’s all a bit dodgy. It’s hard to get selected in the first place and now I see for sure that even when you do get selected, they aren’t even clicking the links themselves never mind pitching them to other people!

[Dmbandit]

I feel like sending these guys follow up mails and asking why they haven’t even used the links I sent them and how are they possibly pitching my songs without doing this 🙂

[BEATSLINGER]

I guess this whole thing is all about “Perspective”.
I’m at a “Vantage Point” to where EVERYTHING can be checked for “Accuracy & Authenticity” within a couple of minutes.

To be honest, there are a couple of these services that DO get results; but now that I can see “The Playing-field Clearly”. It’s in “Really Poor Taste” when I see a lot of them advertising like “they are elite, selective, and/or discerning; when in actuality they are starving and pitiful”.

[Advice]

I’d stay away from these folks. One red flag for me is when the service (such as X-Ray) splits the submission frees with the listing client. Total conflict of interest. I don’t know anything about CMI but any service that relies on submissions through X-Ray is majorly suspect to me. BJ also shares submission fees, BTW. There ARE some honest services though YMMV. Don’t ask me for names, because I won’t get into that.

[Doug Diamond]

Hi all, I was just made aware of this post. [Note from moderator: Please contact Doug directly about issues with Music Xray and why he is no longer working with them.]

As for legitimacy, please have a look at our Success Stories page on our site and feel free to contact any artists on there and ask them about me or Music Opps, Broadjam, etc. https://www.musicopps.com/search/label/Success%20Stories

We charge for submissions because it’s the ONLY way we have to generate income for the work we do. We do NOT keep any of your publishing, none of your backend/PRO, and none of your sync fees (if applicable, which they would not be in a radio situation). If we were to get you a $1000 sync deal, your fee to us would still be……………$15. That’s not a good deal? Tell me how to do it differently.

We have a great working relationship with Broadjam and are continuously placing their artists in different licensing opportunities from music libraries, to satellite radio spins, to retail rotation, to Sports TV, video games, you name it.

If anyone has any doubts, please contact me.

[domahidimusic]

$15 x 100 people = $1500 not a bad deal isn’t it???
Retaining a portion of the sync fee would be the right thing to do rather then work as you do.
Paying for opportunities is the worst thing that an artist can do….
[Edited by moderator]
And should be restored the artist/composition value on not asking upfront fees that are an insult to an artist who has already invested a lot to create the composition/audio material.

[Art Munson]

Folks, accusing someone of a scam or a ripoff is just conjecture with no proof. The simple question is if someone wants to pay for submissions. It’s up to the individual composer if they want to take that route. Earlier on in my career of writing production production I took that path a few times. There was one instance that it was wildly successful and our music was placed on a number of major network shows. We still have a good relationship with that library to this day. Many other times, though, paying for submissions turned into nothing. So, it’s a choice and nothing more.

[Doug Diamond]

Thanks Art, I agree. There are bad apples out there, but ALL of us are not bad. This is our chosen business model so that artists can retain MORE of their hard-earned money (100% of all of it) – and only being out a few bucks to submit to a REAL opportunity where their songs are pitched and considered (if applicable to the opportunity) is a good deal for all involved. Can you as an artist do that on your own? Not usually. We have the connections. You, as an artist/songwriter may not…

The $15 is a binding contract between the submitter and us so that we HAVE to listen and consider it. We make no guarantees on pitching or placements, but… we do GUARANTEE that each song will be listened to and considered. If you send your stuff somewhere for free, do you have that guarantee that ANYONE will even listen to it? Of course not. And they usually don’t…

We encourage the people who have doubts about what we do (we can’t be held accountable for all bad apples, which this person seems to want us to do) – we ask folks to reach out to the artists themselves who are on our Success Stories page and talk to them. Find out what their experience was like. Is that so hard?

People who make blanket statements like he has obviously had a bad experience and for that, that is too bad… however, we’re not ALL bad and I personally have placed hundreds of songs in different sync licensing and supervision opportunities.

Bottom line: If you’ve had trouble placing your stuff, maybe instead of blaming others, you should look a the quality of your own stuff and see what is getting the placements (hence, the reason for our Success Stories page). Yes, there are some scams out there, however my company isn’t one of them. I urge you to do a little research on your own.

Best,

Doug

[domahidimusic]

Art Munson I hope that you believe in the freedom of speech and let people to say what they want and of course everything that I say I can sustain with proof do not worry.
I did not accused Doug directly but accused the business practice itself that is proved all over the place that it aloud a door for “scam” for meas-lead and to “fake projects” that financially would benefit both parties the supposed “client” and the company or the individual who is playing the intermediary role but not the artist.
What is bad is that these kind of practices are presented as a solution for artist and artists are feeding these practices because artists generally are insecure and are lost on the business side of things. So they think that by paying will help them…
I stick to what I said and artist should really think on this : artist should never ever pay upfront for any kind of placement services !
I cannot emphasis how much an insult it is because that artist depreciate himself and his work and aloud to the other person to take advantage and cash in in advance that makes that person to easily receive without earning it fairly….

[domahidimusic]

Doug with all respect it’s normal that we see things differently because we are in opposite sites.
You promote and propose your services and that’s fine . But I on the other hand I disagree with your business practice and I hope that I have the right to do so.
The truth is that you know very well how artist are,dreamers,believers but not business oriented persons and because the artistically act (composing) is so attached to the creator to the artist that the artist will do anything to try to achieve some kind of success with his art.
Yourself being a business man, for you having artists at your feet, artist that are willing to do anything to see example their song placed in some commercial/tv ect are willing to invest /pay /do whatever in advance…
They do not realize and trust me I’ve been speaking with hundreds of artist that the rate of success is minimal 1project= 1″winner”
All others “losers” meaning for a project you can have hundreds of submissions but you will choose only one composition so all the others get nothing in return…almost nothing because you guarantee at least to listen their submissions right?
You say that your practice is fair and what is genius for me is the way you put and present your business practice and yourself to be considered as a good Samaritan who is there to help artist and give more to the artist…and this works with artist in general unfortunately…
I have friends that work in this field that you are working but never ask money in advance….but they say how much time they spend on one track/listen!
How much time you spend on 1track listen??? Do you listen in real-time every song on their entire duration like 2-3 minutes??? I do not think so! But even if you do you ask $15 for lets say 3 minutes that in reality is just a few seconds, but wait it is a submission fee not a listening fee. In my opinion it should be called a listening fee…. And of course because Your time is valued has to be paid accordingly…but the time of artist doesn’t matter…
Do you give feedback to every artist that make a submission???I think not because you do not have time and in $15/person/submission is not profitable anymore if you have to write back a feedback ….
I am still annoyed i admit by your page of success story !!! Because i still consider a marketing/selling stuff that is used for the insecure artist who is not sure as to go down on this rabbit whole and the success story page will land down the deal!!! will make the artist ready to act to put the money in advance…..
You are using strategically this success story for your “business” because after all it is your BUSINESS! You are not here to sacrifice yourself for artist! You are here with your business to make money let’s make this clear!
And of course that “success story” is a pure marketing!!! Has to be reliable I just hope that you pay those poor artist monthlya and well,maybe for them securing continuously “deals” so that they left there their contacts and people can contact them for selling “dreams” and helping your business to flourish….
Bottom-line: you presenting your self as a Good Samaritan where you are NOT! you are a business person like everybody else and decides the following: apply a submission fee to “briefs” “projects” that WE can never verify if they are REAL, there’s no transparency never is given the name of the “person” or “agency” or whatever…no contact so it can be why not a “fake” – “briefs”/ “projects” /”opportunity” and by helping let’s say 1 artist to secure a “deal” you take the money of other 50/100/1000/artist under the name of “submission fee” that you are entitled to do just that I and fortunately many others considers not a “fair” “correct” business practice.
We never charge agencies with $15/second…
And again money in advance for “NOTHING” or for “MAYBE” should be considered …well will not use the word but anyway should not be payed by artist. If i ask advance payment I DELIVER the VALUE IS THERE is tangible, there’s and END RESULT!!! GUARANTEED!!!
In this practice the fee is just a feed that guarantees what? a LISTEN…maybe….who knows….cannot be verified….
I hope this will serve for artist and for future businesses….

[Art Munson]

@domahidimusic: I have no problem with people speaking their mind here. What I do have a problem is when they start accusing others either directly or implying indirectly they are a fraud or their business is a scam. All of these so called accusers say they have proof but without actually supplying any of it. Interesting many of these accusers like to remain anonymous, which says a lot. Besides what would be the point?

This site is not meant to be a judge and jury and certainly does not have the financial resources to get involved in legal battles with various entities. Oven the 12 years I have been running this site I have received enough threatening letters from lawyers to learn that I am not going to be the white knight here.

Please read the “About” page here https://musiclibraryreport.com/about/ for more detail.

Bottom line, and I will say again, I would not “pay to play” but early on in my production music career I did. It was mostly a waste of money except for one instance. It led me to a library that ultimately earned us many thousands of dollars and I still have a great working relationship with them to this day.

So, it’s an individual choice. It’s a simple as that.

[Doug Diamond]

Thanks Art for your response, appreciate that.

@domahidimusic, have you ever had any placements? Do you have any idea how the sync licensing business works – for real? Or do you just assume you understand it with no experience? Honest question.

I can’t speak for anyone but myself and the company I work for, Music Opps. I did not found the company, it’s owned by some other folks, but I do run the day-to-day and head-up the listening and pitching we do as well as the contact we have with all artists who submit their music for consideration for our different opportunities.

You are assuming a LOT about how we operate our business and what we/I think, which is absurd, a bit obtuse – and certainly not fair to either me or to Music Opps.

-As for the time I spend, think about how much time I’m investing in just responding to your accusations here on this platform… that you have no proof of, and yet accuse me/Music Opps of unjustly. I am simply responding to, and trying to set the record straight on what you assume to be true, and yet isn’t – not in our case at least, which again, is all I can speak to.

– I don’t understand how you can disagree with MY business practices when you and I have never worked together on anything, ever that I am aware of. Have we? Would you like it / appreciate it if I assumed the worst about you with no proof? You’re (still) lumping me/us in with all other bad experiences you’ve had with this business model (or have heard of… or assume exists).

-Why we we don’t expose our direct client contacts: Our clients have asked us to never give out their information, due to nonprofessional communication of artists, so we cannot divulge that, or… they won’t be our clients any longer. I’m sure you probably don’t believe that, but it’s the truth. They don’t want people calling or writing them to ask “WHY HAVEN’T YOU USED MY SONG YET AND WHEN WILL YOU?”. See how that can QUICKLY go bad for them?

-I personally listen to every submission that comes in, in its entirety – sometimes multiple times, and consider whether or not it will work with what the person has submitted it for. After that, I WRITE THE PERSON BACK and let them know if it will work or if it won’t and if not, WHY… maybe their production value wasn’t high enough, maybe their vocals need work, maybe their melody/hook needs some attention – all in the context of what our clients ask for and what they choose based on previous successful placements with them – NOT to judge their art. The other thing we do that NO ONE ELSE DOES is: we consider your song submission for OTHER OPPORTUNITIES we have and will pitch it for those opps if we feel it has a chance at a placement. We often cross-pitch songs to multiple opportunities for FREE for just the one $15 submission. No one else does this that I am aware of. Is this still unfair and a terrible business practice? Cross-pitching songs for free? How terrible.

-Most of our placement opportunities are open-ended, which means there’s no hard deadline and are not looking for just the ONE perfect song for that spot. Instead, we often place MULTIPLE artists within ONE opportunity… like a library for instance, or retail radio… those opportunities are ALWAYS looking for Great Music, so it’s not like it’s a one-and-done situation like you’re describing where there is only ONE winner and everyone else “loses”. Again, this tells me you have no idea about what you’re talking about with regard to how we work and what we offer versus other companies. Again, do some research before you start accusing people of things that are not true.

-We listen to and respond to everyone that submits their songs. Everyone is treated the same ~ fairly. I spend whatever time I need to listening to and responding to artists. They often write back with further questions, so I address everything as it comes up. What more do you want me to do that I’m not already doing?

-Is $15 really asking that much for someone who has professional experience placing songs – hundreds of them – into different opportunities from television, to indie films, to commercials, to video games, to retail radio, to satellite radio – is it really asking that much? An expensive cup of coffee? And on top of that, you as an artist/songwriter get to keep 100% of your song’s earnings/potential? We don’t keep publishing or PRO. We don’t even split sync fees when applicable. The artist keeps everything. THIS is somehow UNFAIR?

There’s clearly no point in going on with this as you have your mind made up, however, you are assuming the worse about the company I work for, with ZERO proof of anything. You’re simply stating what you THINK we are about and what we do, but you have NO “proof”. It’s all accusations based on nothing more than a hunch and I resent that type of mentality.

In any case, best of luck to you and know that I will not waste any more time responding to your diatribes on this or any other platform.

Sincerely,

Doug

[Author]

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