Quickstar Productions – Scamming, or Grossly Under-delivering?
This post goes out to all the unknown indie musicians like me who are willing to consider any avenue that may provide even a little boost in exposure.
I rarely spend money on any music service for unknowns, but after undergoing what I considered extensive research, I was willing to give Quickstar Productions a try.
Here is what they promise for the compilation project I signed on for entitled ‘A Call For Healing’:
- You pay $165, for which you will receive 50 CD’s you may sell for whatever you like
- Each CD will contain 15 to 20 good songs from other bands
- Every CD will be professionally glass mastered
- Every song will be digitally remastered by their talented staff
- The compilation will be available at 300+ digital retailers
- The project will be finished within 3 to 5 months once all artists are on board
- You may contact Quickstar Productions at any time with questions or comments and they will do their best to get back with you ASAP.
- You will receive 50 percent of royalties after 10 dollars of sales which will receive a statement and check semiannually.
- Your project will be well promoted by Quickstar Productions, who has a strong presence in Baltimore, and on Myspace
This is what I expected:
- I pay $165 for a glass mastered CD containing 15 to 20 okay songs from random bands contacted by bots on myspace
- Once all artists are on board, this CD will ship in 5 to 6 months
- These CD’s will hopefully be just good enough to sell for enough to recoup my investment and gain a little exposure
- My song will sound a little better on the CD and digital download due to re-mastering
- I may contact Quickstar Productions by phone or email at any time, and I will be contacted at some point, even if it takes a week or so.
This is what my experience has been so far:
- I sent my CD toward the end of November. I was really excited. I made this blog post which you can see dated Nov. 23rd 2009.
- I waited and waited for a confirmation that they had received my CD. I finally sent a couple of emails and left a voice mail for my project manager. I eventually received a two-liner that stated ’Yes, your submission was received. Thank you for being a part of this project. Phillip’ That’s part my bad on that one, I had a confirmation from admin@quickstar.com in my junk mail folder. It just took days to hear back from Philip.
- Dec …
- Jan …
- Months down the road, I had heard nothing from Quickstar Productions. It was February, and I had really hoped I could at least meet some of the other bands on the compilation. I emailed my so called project manager again twice, and left him voice mail and heard nothing, ever. Not even a little two liner 5 days later, like last time. So I emailed an owner, Brendan Bosmans. It seems he spends most of his time searching the internet for conversations about Quickstar Productions so he can register for the forum or comment on the blog post to interject the Quickstar is not a scam, and the service they provide bands is amazing, they don’t myspace spam with bots, they aren’t a song mill, etc. He had left his email and number on one of these forums saying anyone could contact him directly anytime. So, I did, and surprisingly, he returned my email quickly with a list of bands. Some of my info that would appear on the CD was wrong, but no problem, I sent corrections and he passed them on. Then I excitedly wrote this blog on Feb. 12th, 2010.
- By mid March I received graphics proofs with my info still wrong, so I carefully sent my edits again. I didn’t hear anything back, so I hoped that they applied the changes, though they didn’t when I clearly sent them through Brendan, and directly to the admin@quickstar.com address. So here’s hoping…
- April …
- May …
Now I’m getting restless again. I sent and email to admin@quickstar.com on June 8th, 2010. They had not responded by June 10th, so I called Brendan’s line at Quickstar Productions where I had to leave a voice mail. I also followed up with an email which included a forward of my earlier email. He or the first person I emailed had not responded by June 12th, so I sent this forward to everyone on June 12th:
FW: A Call for Healing
From: Haven Yates (havenyates@hotmail.com)
Sent: Sat 6/12/10 11:25 AM
To: admin@quickstarproductions.com; joe@quickstarproductions.com; brenden@quickstarproductions.com; bryan@quickstarproductions.com; danny@quickstarproductions.com; Phillip Petty (phillip@quickstarproductions.com); amanda@quickstarproductions.com
I am inquiring for the musician Haven Yates on the project A Call for Healing. Could you please respond with some sort of estimate on when this project may be completed? I’m getting the impression 95% of this company’s efforts are on acquisitions, because once you had my money, I didn’t hear anything for months. I have called on many different occasions, and no one ever answers the phone, nor has anyone ever returned my voicemail. Up to this point, I was able to count on 1/3 or less of my emails being answered. That stat is falling sadly lower. I had very low expectations for this project when I signed up, and your company is still not meeting them. Please respond, I have not yet gone very far to publicly communicate my distaste for this whole process.
Sincerely,
Haven Yates
From: havenyates@hotmail.com
To: brenden@quickstarproductions.com
Subject: FW: A Call for Healing
Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:36:19 -0600Hey Brendan, I left you a voicemail, but I wanted to follow up with email as well. I’m curious as to the ETA on shipping for the project, A Call For Healing. It’s the one with Haven Yates on it. I’m doing my best to update and excite my “fan base,” but I’m a little in the dark at this point. Thanks in advance for the update.
-Haven Yates
havenyates@hotmail.com
http://www.havenyates.com/
From: havenyates@hotmail.com
To: admin@quickstarproductions.com
Subject: RE: A Call for Healing
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2010 21:07:04 -0600Hi, I’m just checking to get an ETA on the CD project ‘A Call For Healing.’ I’m not sure what volume mine is, but I sent the song ‘The Cost’ by Haven Yates. I received an update in March with proofs on the CD art. Is the project running a little behind? We’re a little past 3 to 5 months now; I’m hoping my shipment isn’t lost in the mail.
Thank you in advance for the update; I’m looking forward to seeing the CD in person. Have a great day!
-Haven Yates
havenyates@hotmail.com
http://www.havenyates.com/
This email is still unanswered as of this blog post on June 14th. My compilation is called ‘A Call For Healing’ which has at least 11 volumes so far, I’m assuming I am on volume 12 or later. I’ve been contacting artists on volume ONE, and none I’ve contacted so far have received their CD’s, and Quickstar Productions will not respond to their inquiries via voice mail or email.
Are YOU considering responding to a Quickstar Productions spam bot invitation? I wouldn’t recommend it.
Please comment if you’ve worked with Quickstar Productions before, and share your experiences with the readers here. I would appreciate hearing from you. I hate seeing good musicians who are working hard enough already receiving terrible service from companies who wish to exploit them.
While there are many discussions as to whether they are a scam or not, I believe Quickstar Productions is just a bad company.
UPDATE: I’m being as fair as I can about this. I just wanted to add that Brendan has emailed me back since this blog went up. However, there are still many artists out there who haven’t heard back for months. At this point, I may just be the squeakiest wheel. He says my project will be completed, but did not mention anything regarding my inquiry for an ETA. I’ll believe it when I see it, and if I see it, I’ll be fair and post about it. I am doing my best to objectively post the positives and the negatives. This is a fairly negative blog, but my experience has been very negative at this point.
