JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Industry Message Forum Seeking feedback on Danie Cortese Entertainment & Publicity Inc.

Now that my CD is posted on a CD Baby retail page, I'm starting to get email contact from various new services that I've never heard about. That doesn't mean their "good or bad", just that I have no knowlege of them and in most cases, probably no need. But in an effort to not leave any "stones" unturned, I thought I'd post a few as they come along. After all, that's how I learned about other services like Our Stage and Studio Traxx, and that was last before before I got me new CD released.

This morning I recieved an email from "Danie Cortese".
Here's what she wrote:
----
Had a listen to overflowing cup - awesome CD...if you are ever interested in International radio, music media or film exposure drop me a line.

Danie Cortese
President / CEO
Danie Cortese Entertainment & Publicity Inc. (International)

Music Specialist / International Publicist

"No RISK No REWARD"

Website: www.daniecortese.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/daniecortese

Danie Cortese Entertainment Inc.
14-3650 Langstaff Road
Suite # 280
Woodbridge, Ontario
L4L 9A8
Canada

Tel: 905.857.2432 (Toronto)
Email: daniecortese@rogers.com
-----
Just wondering what you guys have heard about or experienced with this "publicity" service. I went to the site and looked around. Lots of media services listed, but couldn't find any pricing or "package deals". Probably it's all custom based on each artist/bands needs.

Thanks for sharing any insights comments!
Michael

Here's a JPF thread: http://www.justplainfolks.org/ubb/Forum3/HTML/001322.html

and here's another: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37763

Kevin

Kevin,
Ok, Thanks! Those links cover a lot of ground!
I see that Brian has already dealt with them with a "lecture" on how NOT to post ads on JPF forums and similar sites.

Michael
P.S. After Brian's input, I've decided to edit this post. Probably there's NO need for further investigation, thanks!

Michael,

What else could you POSSIBLY need to know? SPAM is one thing. Pretending to be someone else is another. Ack.

Brian

Brian,
Obviously "guilty" on both counts!
First I get spammed, then later (here) find out
about the double-identity thing. Heaven help!

I don't need to "know" anything else.
Now we've posted a double-warning for folks here!
Great PR for JPF, not so good for Danie Cortese.

Thanks Brian, JPF and Google!

Michael

YOU ARE A FIRST STRING PLAYER

in my opinion.......you are very good...and i feel you ought to work with the biggies in the major media cities.........ny/la/nashville.....i am sure ontario is a nice place with fine folks but i think you are too good for the farm team folks.....one of my co-writers is canadian-from toronto....he came down to get our demo done and said man this is the place to be.........he is moving down full time next month.....yes i know not everybody can or wants to pack up and go to nashville/la/ny.......but i know my canadian co writer never said he was hoping to hook up with folks in ontario to further his career.......your call of course MICHAEL......best of luck.......keep cranking it out buddy......

TOM

Tom,
Thanks!
Can I move my server there first to test the waters?

I'm in Riverside County, California in a little "two horse" nook called Lakeland Village, but the zip code is formally part of Lake Elsinore, so I'm only about a half mile from the lake, yet not in the city limits. That's a good way to avoid all the city taxes!

Besides that, the next larger nearby town is Temecula, about 12 miles south of us where my wife found a nice part-time job. There's also Ontario, where the nearest Guitar Center store is at a large mall by the 15 and the 60 Freeway, but that's a good 45 miles north of us and no reason to go there much unless we're flying out of the Ontario airport or visiting the mall.

But I'll share an interesting "music connection" about Temecula. There's a music studio there called "Temecula Valley School Of Music And The Arts" (TVSOMATA for short) which you can check out here:
http://www.tvsomata.com

Well, I've never been their to take (or give) music lessons, but what's amazing is that they've been appearing on my CD promotion website as a Google ad sponsor! Another music studio that's been advertising in my group of sponsored ads is:
http://www.lorimoranmusic.com
They have several locations throughout Southern California, mostly around the L.A. and Westwood (Hollywood) area.

I've also been getting a lot of ad placements from music accompaniment services, some karaoke dealers and a few other "odd & end" music services.

Of course the Google ads keep rotating, but you can get a pretty good idea of what they're placing on my page by visiting my cd promotion page:
(Update: sorry, this page has now been removed)
It's only been up for about 3 weeks and I'm already at the top of the google search ranking for "overflowing cup cd" and several other keywords related to my song tracks.

I don’t know if it will ever earn me much money, but at least the google ads are free (to host) and hopefully provides some relevant information for my visitors, probably most of them being "music lovers" to some degree or another.

Best of all, it's nice that my Google ad placements are attracting such high quality businesses to "sponsor" my little dedicated CD promotion page.

If you ever want to try something like this, just let me know. If you like, you can use my page as a template to set up your own CD contents and links.

For domain name, simply use the name of the CD you want to sell and add "cd", "album" or "music" at the end, or maybe "dvd" if it's a video. Usually "cd" works best for music CDs because it's all about marketing and promoting the CD.

Best,
Michael

I received an email also. The same day I did some research of my own. Thus far, Sonicbids has been the only way I can afford to market myself.

Good Luck!

Word of mouth is still the best and cheapest type of marketing you can do. I've found that twitter, facebook and other sites like that still do work. You just have to be patient and consistent wit whatever you do. I'm in So Cal and the amount of venues that are available to artists is countless and some are even going out of business. Get out there and play for any and everybody you never know who is in the crowd.

Also, there are thousands of radio outlets all over that do not charge to play your music. It just has to be good and people have to like it.

This is Danie Cortese. I am amazed at the reaction of any musician that is 'shocked' about receiving emails from industry people networking and introducing themselves. Being a former artist myself, I could only hope that industry was taking notice. There are many wonderful new acts that I listen to on a daily basis, for various reasons and I always introduce myself.
Networking is how I have built my company into an International firm that is studied in universities abroad. In regards to the absolute write posts - we are not an agency but a publicity firm and have the right to charge fees. Easy background check is yet another site slamming my name as an agent that is run by a convicted felon that tries to extort money from successful organizations and when they don't pay up he threatens to slam their name on his website - Donald Trumps empire is there and we all know how successful he is. To all new clients considering our firm, please do use common sense and view 'facts' of 'true' clients that have worked with us. You will find references and testimonials here:

http://www.daniecorteseent.com/MusiciansTestimonials.html

...credits here:

http://www.daniecorteseent.com/credits3.html

You may personally request testimonials of 'return happy customers' if you contact me directly. I would be happy to discuss what you can expect from each of our various campaigns.
Each success story is based on an individuals current status in the business.

I have been solicited by this and other companies via myspace and find that JPF is very useful in sharing our collective experiences.

SUGGESTION: Could we create a forum specifically dedicated to sharing knowledge of dubious (or legitimate) music business proposals? I think this would save us all a lot of time.

Knowledge is power.

Worth it just to see that old JPF board format....made me feel young again.

Post deleted by Zacharyrusk

Post deleted by Zacharyrusk

Zach,

Coming to our site to support a known spammer and someone who was busted for pretending to be multiple people from a post that originated YEARS ago doesn't lead us to trust much of what you say.

Dealing with dishonest companies or people can ALWAYS hurt... your statement that it can't hurt is 100% ridiculous. If you want to learn the basics about how things work, read a couple of quality books, available on Amazon or most local libraries by John Braheny or Jason Blume (or several others if you need more suggestions). Read the book, then pass it on to a friend to read and educate yourself before EVER spending a dime on someone else to do it for you.

Brian

Folks: This company was caught by us being dishonest after a spamming campaign. They pretended to be multiple people posting faux statements as those false people. We have the IP addresses captured. I wouldn't EVER trust those folks in any way I don't care how many clueless victims they might get to defend them or in some cases create out of thin air.

Brian

Guys,

I don't know how to make this any more plain. There are thirty million artists on the Internet. There are one BILLION songs per month downloaded. If you are not out there performing, creating a buzz and only offering your songs through the most passive of ways, web sites, Reverb Nation, CD Baby, etc. HOW have they heard of you?

I know we all want to be known and we all want airplay and we all think our music is so amazing that it should take off on it's own, but be realistic. All of these people who "come out of the blue to find you" are using search engines to get email addresses of people who register music, anywhere. It is a pyramid scheme.

If there is no face to face involvement, you are not going to get a legitimate anything. You are going to get some cursory mention on some obscure chart that actually doesn't exist. You are not going to sell a lot of CD's, you are going to end up on a compilation CD at the bottom of someone's garbage can.

I wish it was different. I wish there was a back door or secret handshake, but their isn't. The Internet does help furthur a presence ones many other things have been done, but it does't create something out of thin air. Particularly not music.

I would ignore all of these similar services unless they can prove to you they are launching careers left and right.

MAB

And be HIGHLY critical of anyone in this day and age who does not have an email address directed to their own domain. Without that you should be working DOUBLE hard to gain peoples trust.

Rogers is a cable company dedicated to providing home internet service, ala Comcast, Cox, etc. If shes using that as a business address then I wouldn't trust her. Email addresses can tell you a lot.

Also, add "scam" to the end of the name and search Google. You'll find some people who had negative experiences with everything. Obviously you have to evaluate them on their own merits (a lot of people have VERY unrealistic expectations) but you'll usually find that someone has had the same worry and done the leg work for you.

I don't mean any of this as a slight on the original poster, merely to help anyone who may encounter the same situation in the future. If people are using the internet to scam you, use it to get your own back.

The internet is so ripe for being ripped off in any way shape and form. Identity theft is the most rampant crime we have in our society. There are people sitting around just coming up with ways to steal from other people.

Just ask yourelf one question:

Does it seem too good to be true?
Probably is.

MAB

The sad truth is that even those who TRY 100% to be honest are struggling to help top notch talent. Anyone who ever suggests they are going to help you specifically find success is almost always a scam artist. It takes a lot of one on one time and observation to assess whether someone was good enough to start with TO be helped. Most people skip that part and just say "for X amount of money we'll do all these wonderful things to help your career." They may even have some pretend happy customers or even real people too stupid to understand what REAL help even looks like (the ONLY chart of record is Billboard in my opinion... I haven't found any that prove me wrong, though some insist a handful of country charts are legit, I am not buying it, not anymore). Any international based success that doesn't put a BIG check in your pocket is bogus. If you chart, you should have a check that follows, going to YOUR pocket, not someone elses out of YOUR pocket.

I will say that adding "scam" to your search might help, but most negative posts about companies are just as bogus as these companies. Angry ignorant people with no talent almost always call all legitimate sights a scam because they couldn't help them. You can't help someone without talent do anything more than learn more about how to write songs. You can't lead them to success or improve their chances as is (i.e. without improvement). People CAN improve and there are legit teachers out there and some services that can help you, but only a few. Ask about them and we'll be happy to let you know if you're on the right track. Just expect most of the time the answer will be no, they can't help you.

Brian

These scam artists have always existed - they used to call themselves 'agents' and 'promoters' and 'management' - one very quickly has to learn the golden rule - if they ask you for money up front, they are trying to cheat you!

Dan

Dan,

Asking for money isn't a scam if you are getting very specific services that are legit and priced at fair market value. But people who "discover" your amazing talent on line by listening to a snippet of a song (if they even did that) are bogus not matter what they are selling. They're just trolls.

But companies who are up front with all costs and all services in return who are offering something you want or need shouldn't be painted with the broad brush of being a scam. CD Baby charges a fee upfront and they are 100% honest. You even have them linked in your signature. And others out there are too.

There's no need for legit companies or individuals to "discover" talent somewhere and THEN ask for money. They should pay the costs as an investment deal to get a piece of you later when you are making money. But a legit PR person usually isn't ever going to contact you first. Instead, you'd find what you needed and ask for their pricing for various campaigns or services. There are very few worthwhile promotional services that would not include buying air time on radio (at legit stations in your US market that people actually listen to) or getting you on TB like the local news or talk show. That's legit publicity if you have something to sell or offer or are trying to sell out a show. Etc.

Brian

Brian

I don't equate CDBaby with these scam artists, because they're not scam artists...they have always made it plain that it is the artist who makes it happen, not them; all they do is offer a very reasonably priced way to get your music digitally (and physically, of course!) distributed. But there are plenty of companies who do the same sort of thing and charge more for stuff which is wholly inappropriate for low cost independent artists. Are they scamming folks - or should artists be more wary? Is it just a case of buyer beware?

Frankly, I think there are many different sorts of scams. I think anything which generates income by feeding off someones desire to be somehow successful is vaguely immoral. I don't mean CDBaby or Disc Makers - they are no more culpable than Fostex are for making me record, or Takamine are for making me play the guitar. I mean anything which says 'pay us and we will judge you and advise you' but yields nothing concrete. OMDs that charge for in-site promo. That kind of thing.

I love the fact that people make music for fun, and some of them do it very well. I make some small effort to get some of it more widely listened to. There is no money in this, of course, but art has it rewards (or so I believe). That's why I dislike all those TV talent shows - they prey on people's desires and preserve the notion that we are only valued if we are seen to be a 'winner' - a winner in a competition we don't own.

Happy Birthday btw!

Dan

Cambridge Who's Who Member Danie Cortese, is a world-renowned leader of an entertainment revolution.
http://www.cambridgepublicrelations.com/Danie-Cortese

I like to say little and mean much. Have a nice day gentlemen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Who%27s_Who

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Who_scam

It's gotta be OK -- Donald Trump Jr.'s on the board!

Kevin

I wonder do the guys from Blaze Trak have a listing there?

I love Wikipedia! = ) What an honor it must be to have your "Who's Who" specifically listed as an example of the scam described in the Wikipedia page.

Anyone who uses such an embarrasingly lame source to prove they are legit is just sad sad sad.

Thanks for demonstrating how useless you are.

Brian

Some links folk might find useful.
http://neverpaytoplay.com/MISC/&NP2Pmisc.htm

http://cdbaby.org/stories/08/05/27/9004168.html

http://www.ukscreen.com/board/Casting/0/28288

http://messageboard.donedealpro.com/boards/archive/index.php/t-17984.html

All obtained by simply googling "Danie Cortese scam"

What you really mean is you charge a lot and offer little.

OK, it is 2011 (so they are a little slow), but I was really deserving last year! Send me $9.99 and I will send you a brochure on how you (yes, your sorry lil' ole self) can be included in one of these things. They are big and heavy and great for dropping on spiders and stinkbugs, if you are into those kind of things.

Kevin

If you google the title of Ms. Cortese's two "hits" the only mention on the net seems to be her own site. Her songs are not available on itunes.

Danie contacted me via email saying that a lot could be done with my music. I invested 5k into two $2500 airplay campaigns with Danie and her company, DCE. In return, a few months later, i received a few pretty much manually- typed rather non-specific / non-detailed (meaning without any specific radio stations nor any specific amount of spins) reports in an email from Danie on apparently airing on several hundred stations in a few countries, however, as mentioned, the stations and number of spins were not listed and Danie has still been unwilling to provide specifics, which makes me question her and her reports’ validity, accuracy and truthfulness. I've called contacts at BMI with whom I'm currently registered and they still have no record of any airplay for my music over two years later. I do not recommend Danie or Danie Cortese Entertainment and recommend that buyers beware.

Everybody, read this:

http://www.mikedunbarmusic.com/sharkproof-yourself.html

If only you'd researched her earlier "former client"

You should come back as yourself and just ask us before you spend any money and most of the time we'll talk you down from doing it, and we don't charge a dime.

Brian

I am speaking with her and frankly am quite surprised to hear everyones fear at her charging a fee...if anything I think her low fees make me more nervous. I am an accomplished artist who has just struck out on my own finally and I will tell all of you ignorant people that a good publicist costs money and most of the really good ones cost a bunch!!! I could rattle off names of friends of mine in bands all of you would know and love and can tell you all that they all, and I mean all, pay big dollars for publicists monthly and that is the way it REALLY works, so maybe get off her back and look at the log in your own eyes...talk about getting burned, obviously people on here got burned and decided to lash out at someone just because they got hurt once or twice in their own stupidity. Wether I use Danie for my latest project, I think it appalling that any of you has the right to judge this lady without knowing anything about her. I googled her and found very little negative except your posts and a couple small things elsewhere but I will tell you there is always dirt on anyone for anything due to the fact that, as one poster said it best, you will always have unhappy people no matter what you do, always. The internet can be a great tool and as with sites like this one, can be a damaging tool. If you work with her, then you have room to critique her, if not, shut your pie hole. The fact that you all freaked out about fees in advance tells me none, and I mean none of you knows anything about publicists! Nothing. Again, they all cost money and most a ton!!!

My word, isn't that a rabied defence of a first time poster who is simply "speaking with her"..... and Goggled her......

What do I know about publicists ? For one thing, they don't come from Ontario. They are based in their city of expertise.

Perhaps you'd like to inform us of the publicists role in the overall marketing process ? Then state your full name, area of residence, and professional history, qualifications if any, and your REAL reationship with the talked about "publicist".

What a joke of a post that one was. Brian ? , you should look for matching URL's.

cheers, niteshift

All right Nite, I'll 'fess up.

I used to freelance for an online reputation defender. So, with THAT background and level of expertise, I contacted the aforementioned party and offered my services.

For a "small fee", I told her that I would flood the internet with positive posts so that the negative posts would soon be shoved to the background and harder to find.

And even though I think my post was a stellar example of superior writing, I guess I shouldn't have resurrected a 4 year old thread that she would probably wish had remained buried though, eh?

My bad.

Midnite-(emphasis on the)Whiskey-Diamond-Bob

Hey Midnite,

I hope said publicist asked for a refund. Or did you drink it all already ?

cheers, niteshift

They asked for a refund, but I did EXACTLY what I said I would do in regards to posting positive comments all over the internet(although I can't verify the number of posts). The fact that it was of absolutely no use to said publicist must have been her fault, not mine.

Midnite

cheers, niteshift

This post is still exposing her all these years later. Good! We've saved strangers untold amounts of money here that we'll never hear about but just know folks that shining a little light on things is often the best antiseptic!

Brian

Here's the link to the original post in the current site format:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=993921&page=0#Post993921

The link from Kevin E above goes to the old version of our message boards which isn't navigable.

Brian

Zachary Rusk sent me an email saying he too had a bad experience:

"I am no longer a supporter of DCE because she did not appear to provide what she promised when i paid her 5k and agfter the fact. The only time i signed up and wrote on your site was with regard to DCE while i now recognize that was mistake." Zachary Rusk

I want people to know NOT to post your name to support someone's reputation, thus ensnaring even MORE people and think you do not bear responsibility for supporting and endorsing that person. He deleted his posts above supporting her, but it doesn't change that he came here, in his real name, and endorsed her. Then in his own words, he got what he deserved. Both sides of it have now been brought to light.

Folks, there's been enough bad stuff posted for us to form a logical opinion. Please keep your money.

Brian

Bump

Mr. Whitney,

You have performed a valuable service by exposing this charlatan. I tip my cyber hat to you.


Reminds me of Hunter Thompson's quote:

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money
trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and
pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.
There's also a negative side.”


Regards,

Bob