JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Industry Message Forum Zoomoozik

I don't know how many of you are familiar with this "label" called Zoomoozik. The bill themselves as one of the first all web based internet record labels. In reality, I find the site to be pretty much like many others that offer artist web pages, profiles and mp3 sales with a 2-tier system. There is the free option, that offers the bare miminum, and then the pay option that gives artists their own A/R rep and does active promotion for them including press releases etc. And it is completely non-exclusive which is good.

Now, technically, I am an artist that is "signed" to this "label" (http://www.zoomoozik.com/ManoReza/). I have not gotten any real traffic, sales or fans from the site since I joined some time last year. Of course, the "A/R Reps" tell me that I would get much more if I upgraded to the pay member status. I of course have contacted a few of these "Stadium" members and found that like anything else, you get what you put in. If you are out there playing gigs and promoting yourself and putting your nose to the grind, their services can help. If not, you could easily get very little return for the pay option.

Now since it is free for me to be there, and I can actually list Zoomoozik as my label on webforms if I want to, it's no loss for me to be there. Being non-exlusive also makes it a no lose situation for me.

I was just wondering if any of you have had any experience with Zoomoozik, good or bad, or had an opinion on them.

To be a sucessful Artist you need to be playing gigs and promoting your self in person. If you are just expecting to be sucessful from the internet without the above you probably won't be doing much. You also need product to sell at your gigs.

Ah but that is the issue. If you are doing these things yourself, do you really need to pay an internet label for a few extra promotional things?

And these days, there are a lot of living room artists, that don't really have a band or gig that much. Some have gotten success from alternative means (ie videos online).

But, point taken.

So how is this label actually going to promote you? If they are just going to feature you on their site, that doesn't do much for ya, does it? I'd never even heard of the site until this post. I have heard of CDBaby, tho. I recommend you get some tunes up on CDBaby - for $35 they'll host your album and if you sign up for digital distribution, you'll be on iTunes and other major & minor on-line sites for that one fee. You can link to them from your website. But that isn't enough - you have to create relationships with people and invite them to buy your music.

As far as I'm concerned, you need to be doing your own marketing until you don't have time to do it yourself. I recommended you check out Bob Baker at www.thebuzzfactor.com

H

Thanks Bird,

I will check out the link. And I am already fully invested in CDBABY and their digital distribution:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/mano3

(and I'm very happy with them too)

Looks like their service is similar to PureVolume and the hundreds (thousands?) of other sites just like it. I think the problem with most of those sites is that they are not actually well known amongst music lovers... at best, you are exposing your music to other musicians just like you.

When I released my "Another Day" EP back in '06, I made a profile on every last music website I could find with Google - at least 50 of them. A few notable exceptions aside (Garageband.com, Last.fm), none of those lead to anything. Bugger!

YMMV, of course... but I think it is better to invest in the promotion of your own website and/or your CDBABY page than to have dozens of these obscure profiles on arguably even more obscure music websites.

Jim, I just needed to hear somebody actually say it. That is the way I have been starting to feel.

Thanks.