Artists Beware of Scams

SOME SAY "KNOWLEDGE IS POWER,"  BIG G ARTISTS AGENCY SAYS... ABSOLUTELY AND UNEQUIVOCALLY YES!

The following article was published by CBC News/Canada

Chris Brown B.C. concert promoters duped in "alleged" fraud. Brown had "allegedly" been scheduled to perform at Pacific Coliseum on Nov. 10.

Contracts signed for November Pacific Coliseum concert are "allegedly" worthless.

This is one of the main reasons why Big G Artists Agency started its BlogSpot to educate artists regarding "business first." Many artists are duped on a daily basis either by an imposter, promoter and/or sometimes their own record label.

Certainly, the artist is not responsible if an "imposter" contacts a venue purporting to be the artist's representative and/or agent. If the venue fails to do its "homework" by verifying whether the purported booking agent is legitimate, then who is to blame?

Considering that today's computer techno-savvy criminals are always at an advantage of hacking into our most sensitive database, i.e. cell phones, e-mails, online music stores and etc., artists need to be particularly careful when downloading songs to unfamiliar and/or unknown web sites (whether their songs are for sale or just for promotional purposes.) First, do your homework and check out these web sites very carefully. Ask other artists if they recognize the online site and whether they're having any problems or issues. Lastly, read the Terms and Agreement very carefully before accepting. Otherwise, you can be waiving your rights to payment of royalties. Ask yourself this question. If this happened to you, what would you do?

In the article reported by CBC News/Canada this "unnamed" company thought they were "signing a legitimate contract and forwarded an undisclosed amount of money" (mostly likely, a lot of cash) to the phony agent. Once again, do your homework!! If the company would have just taken a little time to run a background check on the so-called "phony agent" than they could have saved themselves a whole lot of heartache over loss of money.

The unknown company argues that a Chronico spokesman said the company learned of the scam in a call from Brown's publicist.

"..... called me and told me to cease and desist,” Priorda told CBC News Tuesday night. “The agent that we were dealing with was a fraudulent agent. He gave us imposter phone numbers, bank accounts, everything."

Once again, artists do your homework! Do not trust any such agent(s) nor their agency without first checking out the company. An agency and/or its agent should never have a problem providing proof of organization, charter number, and/or agency license number and/or union affiliation depending upon that state's or foreign country's legal requirements for talent booking agents and its agencies.

If someone purports himself or herself to be a talent booking agent claiming to work for an agency or claiming to represent a particular artist or artists, before you go any further. STOP! Ask for this person's credentials for verification purposes. If the "so-called" agent or the agency fails to provided their credentials to you within a reasonable time frame or at all, I say to you, "run for the hills!"

A reputable talent booking agency and/or its agents should never have a problem providing its portfolio to a potential client. Treat the talent booking agent as if he/she is on a job interview!!

If you take anything from this article, remember this "it's never personal only business."

Written by: J. DuCré

DISCLAIMER: Big G Artists Agency, LLC does not purport to confirm nor has it verified the authenticity of the information reported.