Here Today... Gone To Hell!

Is this legit? what should I do?


My name is Derek Palermo. I am a Director of A&R for Illumina Records. Illumina is a Boston-based independent record label, entertainment public relations and marketing company.

Today while searching online for bands and solo artists in your area, I came across your page. I checked out your music and I would like you to contact me directly because I liked what I heard. The song that I listened to was ?Altaration ?.

It is important for you to know that each band I send this to, has been listened to by me before they are contacted and only bands I?m interested in get contacted!!

I would like to discuss the possibility of you participating in a massive public relations campaign. The campaign associated with this project will literally expose your music to millions of potential new fans.

We are currently working on a Drunk Driving Prevention campaign called Ground Control Awareness. We are creating a series of publicity campaigns called ?ROCKERS FOR LIFE?. In the next calendar year, Ground Control and Illumina Records will be producing large marketing and exposure projects in over 40 cities across the United States, and the musicians that are involved with this project will be getting loads of local and nationwide exposure and publicity.

Are you serious about your music career? If the answer is yes, please contact me. I will show you how to attract the type of national exposure that matters.

The campaign includes the following:

1-Your music will be sent out to over one hundred record labels.

2-An electronic press kit will be created that showcases your music and logo, as well as bio and contact information. It?ll be sent out to over 500 radio stations, newspapers, DJs, writers, and much more.

3-Your music will be released to over one hundred thousand new music fans in your market.

4-You will be featured on the cover of ?CUSP? magazine.

5-Your music will be made available to new music fans on major online music retailers and your music will also appear on a national professional quality CD.

6. Last but not least, you will help change the world with your music. You will make a difference and utilize your talent to actually save the lives of people from your country, your state, and your hometown.


Please click on the following links to learn more.

http://preventdrunkdriving.org/rockers_info/bandscheckthisout

Do me a favor when you respond and call me rather than email. I receive hundreds of emails a day, which makes them difficult to respond to and easy to lose. Also, the twenty artist slots fill up pretty quickly, so if you are interested give me a call ASAP.

By the way, I deal with thousands of bands per month. The ones I like, I send them this email. While it is not a mass email, I will encourage you to not be alarmed when other bands receive it as well. We work on such a large scale with so many bands that I send out a lot of similar emails.

This is not, however, spam!

Be confident enough to believe the following:

If you are reading this email, I liked your music.

If you want to see what we do for our client acts, click on one of the links below, we are currently working with over 800 bands nationally.

www.myspace.com/orlando_rockers

http://illuminarecords.com/epk/boston

www.preventdrunkdriving.org/directcontact/epk.pdf

http://preventdrunkdriving.org/rockers_info/bandscheckthisout

I will await your call.

Derek J Palermo
Director of A&R

Illumina Records
Direct Line: (978) xxx xxxx
Cell Phone: (617) xxx xxxx
Fax (978) xxx xxxx
Email: derek@illuminarecords.com
Website: www.illuminarecords.com

SAVING LIVES... ONE SONG AT A TIME


I blanked out the numbers.

Wow, congratulations D! It looks legit and even if it's not, what have you got to lose by making that call?
I say go for it!

they look alright . Been looking around their website. seem legit but you never know .Give the dude a call and then you can know for sure what is the deal .

If he asks for any personal info or money then you have something to be concerned about.

Proceed with caution.

I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.  This kind of in-depth email would never be sent if the label were genuinely interested in you.

It's a mass email and it reeks of bullshit.

However, don't take my word for it.  Ring the guy up and have a good chat with him.  Then contact a music solicitor (not a general one) and ask him/her to look over the mail and any other correspondence.  They wont take long to let you know if it's worth pursuing or not - and a decent music solicitor wont charge you for that service.

Sorry to be negative, but I do have a wealth of experience when talking to A&R guys and dealing with labels in general.

And if all that's not enough, have your attorney look it over.

Hope everything turns out for the best.

looks pretty legit...and if it is


congrats D! :beer:

Exactly SLC.

I've seen situations like this before.  They want start-up money in order to help with CD costs and promotion.

It might be legit, but like SLC said, proceed with caution.

Just make sure someone with a very strong music law background looks at the contracts before you let them have any access to your tracks.

Regardless of if they wanna charge you ?rape to include one of their tracks, the real problem is that by entering into the agreement you often sign away your rights to your song and it's use for any purpose.

Yeah I have heard about stuff where they want like  600 bucks etc and If the guy asks anything like that I am gonna say No thanks.

So did you call the guy or what? Why are you sitting on your hands?

yeah, hands aren't made for sitting on...if you catch my drift

dude, these are bottom of the barrel people in the music business trying to make a buck off of hard working, honest musicians. the moment they ask for money, be done with it. been thre done that. dont fall for any of this BS.

I honsetly wouldn't even give these people the time of day.

well i've never seen one of these documents so it looks good to me but it might be an elaborate hoax by one of your friends but before you think that ask your self "are my friends that smart"

i say go with it do what ever you need to do and i'll see ya on the mainstreme :beer:



ohhhh if there doin' a "dont drink and drive" thing you should see about doing a cover or Crash Diet by G'n'R ;D just don't ruin it.

maybe D could be an opening act for the guns. Alot of posibilities man run with it :smoking:

D, this is not a legitimate offer.  They are trying to solicit you for money.  It looks like they're going to act as a PR agency to get your band exposure, but this is not a real record contract opportunity.  The 2nd paragraph on the first page reads "see just how easy and affordable it can be for you to achieve the type of music business success you deserve.
I don't know much about the recording industry, but I don't think a legitimate record company will ask for money up front for them to sign (or represent) you, which this place IS going to do.  And the fact that you got a form letter explaining why you shouldn't be offended it's a form letter is chessy.  And he wants you to call him in person so he can give you the hard sales pitch over the phone.   I think it's the same with modeling agencies.  If an agency asks you for ANY money upfront, even for pictures, they're not legit.  A real agency will put up all of the costs because they believe they can recoup it from you later.
So while this place may not be scam artists, it's not the opportunity they are making it out to be.

Yeah they wanted some cash to help "Promote and get me heard" etc.

Oh well, I guess the fight continues but Im not gonna give up. : ok:


one day it may be for real. : ok: :peace:

so..
you gave the guy a blowjob for nothing?