Magne,

This is EXACTLY where the industry is going and has been for some time. I have talked about it often on these and other threads. All the pitch services are basically the exact same thing. They are song pluggers. That is a fee for service. That is because so much of the "back end money" that was once in publishing is gone. So they are trying to collect it up front.

That comes from so much music being free, which is driven by artists giving music away in order to bring people to their live shows and add to the fan base. It has been an effect we have been seeing for about 10 years and continues more and more.

The key is "access" and most of the pitch services cant'get that because they are fee for services and don't have the friendship in the relationships it takes. Most of them are "mailing in" songs also. Kind of a middle man for a middle man, for a middle man.

If I were talking to these people I would ask who they know personally, what their process is, how they are presenting songs to the industry. Then I would check out people that work with them much like Raymond is doing here.

The bottom line is it is just very difficult to get through the gatekeepers and then the gauntlet of getting past the artists themselves.

So that is the way the business is. Has been for a while.

MAB