Brian,

You are mixing things here. The people that you are talking about are rarely the studios. That is not what studios do. They are usually independent contractors who hire the studios. In all of these cases of these "services" that promise this and that, they are rarely the studios themselves.

But there are roughly three thousand studios in the city of Nashville. People have GOT to take some responsibility for themselves. The people who went down with Madoff took the hit and the responsibility. Some have sued and some assets have been sold off but that money is mostly gone.

The people who make the claims you are talking about end up with people here asking about them all the time. They tend to be well known and focus mostly on people who don't know any better. But here is the deal. I have talked to hundreds of people that have done these services and STILL support them. One was a member here.

When you tell someone NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!! And they STILL do the same thing, what is anyone supposed to do. If you were to be a judge on almost any contest anywhere you see these people over and over again. They enter song after song, recorded the same way over and over. They end up at conferences, attend web sites and usually get very defensive over themselves. You have dealt with them too. Many over here that you have finally gotten to a point where you have to show them the door.

Almost getting into music now do Google searches and web sites now before they do anything. If they only go to one they are not doing their homework.

I push very hard for people to get out of the living rooms, and get around local writer's nights, open mics,attend songwriter related events,go to NSAI or meet people who have some experience. That is why I do what I do. If you get around four or more writers you are going to find someone who has gone through these scams.

If you can't do that, due to whatever reasons, people can't really help you. The scammers actually do exactly what they say they are going to do. They make recordings, "pitch" the songs. The pitch goes right into someone's garbage can but it is a pitch nonetheless.

That is why you can't sue them, accuse them of unfair business practices, or slander them in any way or they can sue YOU. You can't prove they are NOT doing what they say they are doing. Because in the definitions of what they are doing, they ARE doing exactly what they say. They use the name dropping and usually you will find it is like they say. Only it is more the six degrees of separation of Kevin Bacon than anything else.

As Niteshift says, there are lower eschilon studios that might be doing this. But almost all studios are simply to the job at hand and that is it. They are not involved in the promotion of anything. They are work for hire and do their job to one level of proficincy or another.

I do my best to tell people what works and what won't. But trust me on this one. There are people that you CANNOT save from themselves.They go looking for this kind of thing. And they find it.

In spades.

MAB