May 04, 2005

• I think there are assumptions made here.. Looks like a lot of people made poor decisions about a mail order music service and now are unhappy about it. The FPP seems a bit misleading to me based on what I read. They all wanted something for nothing and didn't read the small print...
• four words: "REFUSED- RETURN TO SENDER." And if you didnt give them your soc#, a "collection letter" is totally meaningless. I'm sure Im not the only one who used to sign up for CD clubs with silly names and then get those bogus collection letters for "Homer Simpson" or similar...
• I was with BMG Music for over a year and raked up up more than a hundred dollars worth of those free CDs. I just the albums and never paid the bills they sent. The ones I liked are in my CD rack right now and the rest I sold to used record stores. They never sent a collection agency after me or put it on my credit rating or anything. In fact, after I cancelled my account, a few months later BMG sent me an email asking me to rejoin. So I did and now I have a dozen more cheap CDs. Don't give them you credit card and use a fake name. Oh, and you can cancel your account right on their website.
• Ahh, at LouisianaCajun.com.... a little swamp-based activism makes me feel good. Uggh, okay, his website is ugly as hell... let me return to being ashamed of my roots.
• Are you serious? I built (the mainstream elements of) my CD collection on BMG. I returned several selections when I had actually missed the return date and they always took it back. I know, I know, anecdotal evidence -- but so is this story. And I've "been" several different people in BMG -- a whole family, in fact (each signing up another member for extra CD's). "All of us" eventually bought our one disc and buggered off. A heck of a lot better than Columbia House. Six discs my ass. I even paid regular price for the Led Zeppelin box set (through BMG) because it got me so many frickin bonus CD's and fulfilled obligations. It was bloody hard to go wrong. Unless I could't be bothered to send stuff back, of course, in which case I would have deserved it.
• Yeah, really- it takes some talent to get ripped off by BMG. Kind of like losing the ass-kicking contest to the proverbial one-legged man.
• Ah man, now I feel all square... I joined and paid for all my CDs, and I even forgot to "decline" the special CDs several times and paid for those too. That was 15 years ago, ok?
• Rather than the "scam" perspective, I think the more telling aspect of this post is how fucking difficult many companies make it to get in touch with a real person about a problem. I just went through the same thing with Yahoo. They said that they hadnt recieved payment, and cancelled my service, but my bank statement showed the payment was made. I could not find any number for them anywhere. And I had to dig through layers of help menus before I could even find an e-mail way to submit my problem. Then it took me restating the issue 5 separate times (I was starting to feel like Hotmail guy), before they final understood and resolved the problem. Even reputable companies bank on the fact that most people will give up pursuing a complaint.
• well thats the irony here- BMG has long had the reputation as a company so unknowing or uncaring that they would give accounts to the likes of Homer Simpson or Jesus Christ... so to turn that about and actually manage to BE taken advantage of by them takes impressive skill... And as for bad customer service, Dell is the champion. They have human beings all right- they are just assholes.
• I was a Columbia House man. /smugly superior
• The trouble that I have with BMG is that the CDs given away are considered promo copies and therefore the artists doesn't get a cent. But do we hear a thing about this from the RIAA? This is the same damage that are getting pre-teens fined thousands of dollars! The artists are getting ripped off by the evil, communist laden record clubs! No...probably because the record company still gets its cut.
• Addendum: the only time I had reason to be angry with BMG was when... I had little reason to be angry at all. I had already taken out memberships for legitimate and imaginary members of my family, got the three bonus discs for signing someone "new" up each time, kept track of their individual musical tastes, mailed all their cards in together with one stamp, etc, etc, etc. Then one day, my real sister was talking about getting a couple of discs I knew that BMG had. "Hey, why not get me to sign you up? I'll take care of everything. We'll get you 16 discs and you just pay for one" (I'd never actually purchase one till those "buy one, get two for free" deals rolled around, so 10 + 3 + 3 for signing her up). "I'll take care of all the paperwork and reply cards and everything. You just pay the total. Deal?" So off we go to sign her up. Shortly thereafter a letter arrives from BMG. "We are sorry to inform you that we cannot provide further memberships to persons living at your address. We sincerely hope that you continue to enjoy BMG member music services." So off I write a letter, INCENSED: "How dare you tell me that I cannot get a membership for my sister! I can't help the size of family I have..." (etc, etc, etc) Result? They give her a membership. After which I actually felt kinda bad. (I DO have a big family but... my parents don't even have a CD player)
• Isn't this the same thing they always used to do? Used CD stores around here were always full of the "selection of the month" that was sent to everyone whether they wanted it or not. Most of the time I just buy used CDs to begin with, and avoid these record clubs. Wasn't aware that BMG was considered as promo copies, but I did always wonder why there was no bar code on the back of the disc packaging... Guess that explains it.
• isn't there some law that says if someone sends you something unsolicited, you get to keep it without paying? (fes, i was thinking the same thing. heh.)
• I don't think it's unsolicited if you explicitly sign an agreement saying you agree to them sending you a cd once per month and you will either return or pay for it. It's fine print sure, but it's there and you sign off on it when you get those 12 cds for a penny (plus shipping and handling of outrageous amounts).
• I dunno Bruise, I don't see how their techniques, however unscrupulous, justify stealing.
• I agree. I don't know how these "agreements" obligate people, and I'm sure the big bad faceless megacorp deserves a kick in the ass. But a thief is a thief.
• BMG was considered as promo copies I read about this when Hootie and the Blowfish released their second album. In an interview they stated that half of their first album was "sold" though record clubs and as such they only got paid for 3.5 million units instead of 7 million. So they stipulated that album two would be retail only. At the time I was dubious of record companies, but after this I was really jaded to the whole industry. This is part of the reason why when CD burners first became economical I was first in line at CompUSA to get hooked up. If only the bastards at the labels were making money and the artists were getting screwed then I felt okay with just making copies. The promo copy thing was my camel's straw. I'm fine with business making money, but with the history of artist screwing that record labels have always had I decided to write them out of my budget unless they were indie and/or not evil.
• Nonbinary— They aren't listed as "promo" copies, which the artists actually pay for (recoupable fees), but artists generally don't get paid for them. Often, that's because they're send-backs, albums that have been sent to stores and sent back unsold (which is why there's often a record of the month the month after it was supposed to be huge). Or, they're "record club edition" albums, which the artists get a reduced rate in royalties for. just clarifying.
• CD Club FAQ "Artists do not receive full royalty payments for CDs sold through the clubs. While the percentage of his/her royalty an artist receives on club sales is dependent on the artist's contract with its label, generally an artist will receive no royalties for CDs sold as "free or bonus" selections and only one-half their normal royalty rate for CDs sold as full priced selections." (This actually quoted from another source) Dina LaPolt of LaPolt Law, P.C. gives a class at UCLA with all the materials online. This clause was taken from a .doc (HTML'ed via Google) file of a sample recording contract. With respect to Records sold through a direct mail or mail order distribution method (including, without limitation, through so-called "record clubs"), Company will pay you fifty percent (50%) of Company's net receipts with respect to such exploitation.  No royalties shall be payable with respect to Records given away as "bonus" or "free" Records as a result of joining a record club or purchasing a number of Records from a record club or in connection with any introductory, incentive or other offer made by a record club. So not only are the artists only getting 50% of their normal profits on that $18 cd to fulfill your commitment, on all those freebies the artist gets nothing.