Paramountsong-Is this place Legit???

Help! I'm being ignored.[sm=rolleyes.gif]

i'd call them,

or try and find something about them online, like Semi said.

thats all the advice i could give you.
sorry matey

I don't get it - are you recording a demo with them, or for them?
Are you looking to have your songs published?
Site looks OK, but I'm note exactly sure what they're all about...

ORIGINAL: ronniebee
I am an amateur songwriter/computer musician. My singing voice is not professional grade, and today's major producers and singers will not accept author worktape/disk material.

I'm a bit curious: where did you hear this from? I'm not necessarily saying it isn't accurate, but it didn't used to be that way. In particular, if you heard it from some of the same people who want to have you pay up front for the recording of a "professional demo", I'd consider that advice to be very suspect.

The case used to be that overly well produced demos were considered to be substantially less useful than simple tapes as songwriter submission material because they audibly "locked in" an arrangement rather than allowing the artist or producer to decide what sort of arrangements they could do with the song.

Edit: If you send them any material, you need to make sure you put a copyright notice such as "Copyright 2004 by Ronnie Bee" on the printed lyrics, and keep a copy for yourself. This gives anyone reading your material that you own it. It is not necessary to register the copyright unless the song is published. Then it's like $15 per song, or batch of Songs to register them.

Sorry, but I don't think this is good advice. First off, whether or not the copyright notice appears on the materials does not affect in any way your rights, although it's still a polite thing to do for people that may come into possession of the materials. Second, registering the copyright is by far your best protection against an unscrupulous company deciding to steal your material by registering a copyright for it themselves. Your first hint that a company may be suspect should be if they suggest that you don't register your copyright for your material before sending it to them. (I'm talking about a Form PA registration for the underlying musical work here, not a Form SR which registers a particular recording of the work.)

David, yoo hoo David, it's time to come in.

Now you get upstairs right now and take your bath!

Oh, and get out of that ugly troll costume!

ORIGINAL: Semi Perfect
I guess I just dont get it.. why would a company expect you to pay for your own recording costs and such?

Well Wayne,
The biggest reason is: There's about a zillion other songwriter's out there trying to get their foot in the door. I guess the big production companies these day think if you're not willing to spend a small amount on getting your work ready for them to listen to, that you don't think your own work is worth anything?

It's not like it, "used to be". Back in the days when you could belt out a tune with your old beat-up guitar onto a tape, send it in, and have a chance at getting published. Not anymore.

ORIGINAL: DSandberg
If you disagree with my observations, then explain why.

Well if you are serious, then evidently you are ignorant of the US Copyright Laws. Go to the U.S. Copyright Office Web Site, and look up the laws like I did before I published 7 books.

The law states that unless you put the word "Copyright", or a letter "C" in a circle, the Year written, and by "Your Legal Name", and someone else uses your material, then you are NOT protected, because that is what serves notice to others that you hold the copyright.

Not giving a short answer, but you need to get your facts straight before critizising other peoples advice.

Hey Ronnie,

I was recently offered a 'Songwriting Contract' from ParamountSong.com after I had entered a couple of songs in their Valentine's Day Song contest.  A few days after the deadline, I received a letter in the mail stating they felt I had the talent and wanted to have me sign a contract.  Only problem, there was no contract in the envelope.  So, I called their toll free number 1-888-999-SONG, and guess what?  It's not in service.  Was I surprised? No.  So, I called their area code 615 number and the secretary told me the person I wanted to speak to, David Robinson (Creative Manager), was busy with a client.  I decided to send him an email letting him know I wanted to discuss the matter of the contract.  No sooner did I press send, did the response from David come back. I thought, "Wow, I thought this guy was with a client.  He didn't have the time to speak with me, but he had the time to immediately respond to my email."  In fact, when I replied to his reply, he quickly replied again and again.  So, I figure his clients are pretty forgiving.

In his emails he told me he couldn't discuss the contract until I received it, so I had to wait until it came in the mail, then I could call him.  I waited and about a week later, the next envelope came in the mail with my Director's Award for one of my songs entered in the contest.  Boy, was I excited; a gold ribbon with the prize title printed on it: Director's Award.  In the letter, they state that I'm still 'in line' for the grand prize.  An obvious lure to get me to sign the contract, which by the way, was missing from the second envelope sent.  The only reason I paid $20 U.S. per song to enter the song contest with ParamountSong.com, was to win their grand prize of $2500.00 U.S.  Imagine how revved I was when I received the tacky, three-cent ribbon.  David Robinson and his associate, Norm Daniels the Creative Director, must have thought that I'd be stupid enough to be lured into signing with them.

On their website, homepage, they name drop profusely.  It's filled with names of country singing artists and entertainment giants.  So, I decided to call some of these companies and talk to those in directing positions.  Some of the people of those companies were impossible to navigate to, but I managed to at least communicate with a small handful.  In particular, I managed to get a hold of Debbie Linn, the Senior Director of Strategic Marketing, at Sony.  She told me that she had never heard of, or worked with ParamountSong.com, or Norm Daniels and David Robinson.  As a matter of fact, she was quite perturbed by their name dropping antics.  Once the second envelope arrived, I phoned David Robinson, and you guessed it, he was busy with a client.  I lied and said I had received the contract and wanted to discuss, so I was told to wait and David got to the phone.  I told him that the contract was missing again, but not to worry and that I wanted to discuss specifics.  He was very reluctant to do so, and my pressing would not budge him.  So, I asked about the 'more than 20 new writers (that) have been published with (ParamountSong.com's) help." I asked if he would be nice enough to give me a couple of their names so that I could do some research on them, before I decided to sign anything.  He was very reluctant to give any names.  Then I asked if he could tell me who it was from Sony, that ParamountSong.com had worked with, and guess what.  He couldn't tell me that either.  As a matter of fact, he didn't know the answer to that one.

So, the lesson to this story is: Beware ParamountSong.com.  These guys are running a money-making scam.  I really have a hard time believing anyone has won any money from any of the contests they've ran.  At $20 a song/entry, these guys are making some good money and I really don't believe they are giving anything back.  In fact, I'll bet their contests are tools to generate lists of potential clients for song recordings.  I've read some testimonials on various blogs of how some musicians and songwriters have taken the bait and spent upwards of $500 to have their songs recorded 'professionally' by ParamountSong.com.  PARAMOUNTSONG.COM IS A SCAM!!!!!

ronniebee

ORIGINAL: Semi Perfect
I guess I just dont get it.. why would a company expect you to pay for your own recording costs and such?

Well Wayne,
The biggest reason is: There's about a zillion other songwriter's out there trying to get their foot in the door. I guess the big production companies these day think if you're not willing to spend a small amount on getting your work ready for them to listen to, that you don't think your own work is worth anything?

It's not like it, "used to be". Back in the days when you could belt out a tune with your old beat-up guitar onto a tape, send it in, and have a chance at getting published. Not anymore.

Don't fall for that line of reasoning... it is NOT true. well, some of it is.... last line.. "NOT ANYMORE",  is true.... but paying for it won't make it happen either.

Sure there is more competition these days, and the bar is also much higher. If you can not get above the bar in your home studio, you will NOT get there by paying someone else to demo your music either... it isn't going to happen. The music a demo mill turns out is spotted by the pubs a mile away. There is nothing wrong with hiring a demo studio to record your song. Many of  Nashville's top writers use that method. BUT.... they actually go to a recording studio and hire the musicians from a legitimate RECORDING STUDIO.... not a sham record company looking for suckers. They also have deeper pockets from previous hits.

It would be better for you to contact a reputable RECORDING STUDIO in a town like Nashville and send them the song via mp3 or wave and HIRE a session singer to sing it for $60 to $100. They sign a work for hire and you own their vocal track. You can call them and speak with the owner. They will get a good singer and assuming the rest of the music is ready fro radio, you will have a finished product in short order. Lots of the big stars like Garth and Trisha were demo singers for $50 a song before they became stars, so you can get good singer cheap in Nashville.

In Sonar you should be able to produce radio ready music, if the singing is weak, hire a singer, or find a friend here or at church to sing it if you are broke. 

The dangling carrot of ROYALTIES will lead you into trouble if you are not careful. They play on your vanity and hopes and in the end deliver nothing.

I would also recommend a visit or two to the www.Taxi.com web site. Sign up in the forum...it's free, and post the song..AS IS, there in the peer to peer forum. You will get feedback from WRITERS who actually are getting songs signed and cut by artists and TV shows..... listen to them..... most of them know what they're doing.

Man I would like to see everyone get a cut on a song...... but I really hate to see people buy into a scam in the hope of getting a hit record. Trust me when I say, as long as I have been in this songwriting business, I have sent my music to the sharks and they all said I had hits.... for a price. I always balled the letters up and trashed them. When you get a legitimate publisher interested in your music, there will be no talk of sending money to them for demo's.

Read all contracts carefully so you do not sign something that says you agree to pay for demo's. Keep plugging your music to pubs.... the good ones are hard to get with, but they are the ones that are worth it. It took me quite a bit to finally get with the A-List pub I just signed with. they have a very exclusive group of writers, but it's worth every bit of effort. In the mean time, keep writing, and learn about the craft of writing. It will happen.

Final word..... I'd pass on the Paramount thing.

Sounds good, I would raise the bass a bit, and maybe widen the strings? And the vocals could use more presence.

Hey GH,

I've been to your site.  Like the music.  Nice slide guitar work.
I've been considering Taxi.com for some time now, but have been afraid it might just be another site that promises the sky, while charging all that money.
How long have you been with them?  Could you give more info?

Ando

this is a SEVEN YEAR OLD THREAD which Andomusic resurrected.  

herb - ronniebee hasn't been on the forum for over a year.  I doubt he'll respond.

Guitarhacker


Yeah... missed the date.... but Paramount is still in business roping in suckers. They are obviously doing a brisk business.

Maybe this thread warned off a few forumites that might have fallen for the scam.....

Man O man.. thank goodness I read this before I acted upon such request from paramount sogn.com.. as a matter of fact, here's the scoop.. Last Year I was up at night after not being able to sleep on my laptop.. I always use google.. Well I thought to my self, where can I find someone or somewhere a place that can hire me to write them song lyrics.. Ive always been good at reading & writing in school.. Writen essays where always my cup of tea.. Well anyways, so I went to some website, in which I cant remember right now, but its lead me to http://www.paramountsong.com/ .. There I read & thought, "hey... why not?" So I went ahead & uploaded atleast a good four songs that I had wrote. Two were not finished, but I said," Ah,what the heck".. They said thank you.. Well about two weeks later I had totaly forgotten about this whole paramount thing.. Well oneday as I was geting my mail, there before me I held a letter from paramount song.com.. It had the websites logo aswell.. So I went in, sat down & gave it a look.. There there was a latter about a whole page worth of writing saying, Thank You Jose, Blah Blah Blah, we work with famous people,blah blah blah, We Believe you have song hit potentiol, blah blah blah.. & Last there came to contracts with it..About four papers all togather. One pink form, one yellow form.. I keep one, I send One.. On them there was two of my songs that I had written. Now remember I had uploaded four songs, two of them were not finished! They picked the ones that I had finished. So me being all excited & in disbelief, I just had to post it up on my Facebook, like when its your birthday, everyone blew up my facebook page... I showed some people the letter & they were amazed.. I still have the contracts in hand by the way.. So as time went by, I never sent them nor did anything.. You see Im like Al Bunndy, I have no down time to do anything, I dont hate my life thoe, I just never have time to do anything I need to do. So about a week later I get another letter in the mail by daniel "something" claiming to be the founder of paramount song.com... On this letter he stayed in bold letters, "Dear Jose, We have not heard from you, blah blah blah, I know you may feel like we are just trying to rip you off or dont feel that we are the real deal, but er are".. then he went on to say,"most times all the writer who sumbit songs, we have to tell them that this is not for them".. Once I read that, That kinda had me wondering,"Hmmmm???" still I was abit curious as to," THEN WHY MUST I HAVE TO PAY???" Thats when then I decide to give paramountsong.com a call, & thats when a female answered. She seemed to be very uptight. When asked if I can speak to Daniels she said he was not it. I called 2hours later & she told me he was busy with a client aswell. To me it was all just BS already... I was geting kinda annoyed.. I started telling myself, So.. They wanna work with me yet they cant speak to me by phone??? WTF???.. Anyways, so I did nothing, signed nothing.. & Just left it alone.. Well all this went down in Septmber of 2011. By the end of september I had found a job doing Security on South Padre Island,Texas where my home town is.. I was working at Tequila Sunset & Louies Back Yard. Well one night at Tequila Sunset I figured, hey well Jason my manager aka the Bar owner, looks like he doing good for himself. Drives a Benz & lives ina condo on the island.. might wanna help me out w.the cost for DEMO fees from paramount song.com .. I showed him the letters & contracts & his eyes kinda lit up.. He said he has a friend who is a lawyer on the island who would look into paramount song.com. 2weeks later I heard nothign from Jason. Then one noght I get a call & he said that his lawyer looked into paramount song.com & called & he said everything was legit. His lawyer said fees come from me sending in only lyrics & not demos.. That sometime just cause my writing sounds great, there is no saying how it might sound with out noise.. I was all liked, Yeah I kinda figured that".. But anyways, I guess that threw of Jason who wanted to manage me aswell.. Just the fact that a whole wasting money costing arms & a legs for each song "Guarantees NOTHING"... So I guess thats why he backed down. To This day I wonder, should I just go ahead & just send in the money???I mean my Income tax is right around the corner.. If you must know, I like r&b with a mix of hip hop,dance,& pop music.. I mean teens now a days pay tons fo money to things they can relate to, Examples: USHER, JUSTIN B., RHIANNA, JAYZ & LMFAO. But then again I like Country, techno, rock, & anything that is mainstream or mellow music.. Im that romantic type of writer.. I never right lies, or about drugs, gangs & things that influence ppl to think different of me, thoe some of the singers I mention do, I try not to go there.. I write about love problems I can relate to. Well paramountsong.com is still sending me emails, & currently they send me about this up coming VALENTINES 2012 competition with deadlines. Im still offered cheep deals for demo cost & ect. Last email I got was in Nov.from Daniels the founder of paramountsong.com saying" He was told I call & if anything I was more welcomed to go visit there office in Nashville. Lol, well Ima have to need about $5,000 to go on a trip from Texas to Tenn. if I wanna stay somewhere & go out & eat..lol.. But yeah.. there's one thing the manager I work for at Tequila Sunset told me his lawyer had said that runs in my head" ONLY REASON THEY CHARGE SO MUCH IS DO TO EXPENSES THEY HAVE TO COVER & DO TO THE FACT THEY ARE LOCATED NEAR CONTACTS".. like how a commercial lot for sale costing more then what its worth, being located on a busy highway that has a mall, cinamark walmart, dillards, & plenty of restraunts.. Another example, If your having a party, & you have all the hamburger buns & hotdogs yet you forgot to buy the meat!!! & im the only meat market down the block who sells meat at jacked up prices, I dont think you really have a choice, meaning hey, if that can save the party why not right???? You got to make business somehow right??? They say never pay for anything that is free??? We pay Taxes right???? So as far as http://www.paramountsong.com/ being a scam??? I dont think so, It being Unfair to pay, well that sounds more REASONABLE...

This thread is fast becoming the Dracula of the forum...

Is it not obvious to everyone and his brother here that this guy "is from Paramount?" And that this is nothing more than SPAM? Really? I mean come on? Relax Herb, he's just SPAM. Ignore him and all others like him, and everyone will be the better for it.