ReverbNationReviews 142

I'm sorry to give one star but this isn't just bashing.
I joined reverbnation many years ago.
The site has gotten better. What a mess it used to be, with endless nested settings, impossible to find things, and the SPAM. Oh please, dozens of lists to unsubscribe to and all just trying to get some money out of you.

Their new scam is a pop-up that you have a "credit" to use for a free promotion.

Giving it a try, they signed me up to two subscriptions, to one there was an unsubscribe link, to the other, none. So I found out later from my bank a month later.

Dumbfounded I contested the charge.

Because I contested the charge, reverbnation disabled my account. Not just the pro features (they wanted to start billing me 19.95 a month) but the entire page, including free features.

The bank quickly refunded the money, perhaps based on strong precedent with reverbnation billing. Reverbnation employees never acknowledged my suggestion that they process the refund rather than have my card company do it.

They told me "once we receive notice of a charge-back we must suspend the profile from which the charges came."

In other words, if I don't pay for this pro plan (which I never wanted) then I couldn't keep the free account.

reverbnation won't reactivate the account, because, get this; "contesting a charge by reverbnation is "is a violation of our Terms & Conditions"'.

quote: "Due to this violation of our Terms & Conditions, this account will remain suspended. If you wish to have this profile removed, please verify the Artist name and location of the profile and I can have it removed."

Reverbnation treats users like this, when everything they do is more to promote themselves than the user. Who needs this?

This site has great widgets that you can use on your own site, or does a decent job presenting your material if you don't have your own site, but when it comes to paid services is a ripoff. First, if you sign up for something that auto-renews, and you cancel mid-month, they stop the services right then instead of giving you the full month's worth that you paid for. Second, the opportunities seem to only ever go people who have done whatever they've done to accumulate ridiculous amounts of fans and there's no guarantee the promoters ever actually listen to your material when you submit. So, have an account there but don't bother to pay for services.

I purchased an mp3 album from reverbnation site and never got working download link. However my credit card was of course instantly charged. When I contacted their support with complaint they told me I should contact Audiolife instead since it is them who run their store. So I contacted Audiolife which at first pretended they will solve my problem but then nothing happened. After waiting a month I sent them (Audiolife) another urgency email but the only result was they deleted the store page as well as my tickets and never answered me again. Needless to say I got no refund. It was little money of course so not worth further trouble for me, but I will surely never buy anything ever from audiolife (or reverbnation) again. They seem to be basically the same company.

3 months in a row, REVERBNATION a. K. a. E MINOR, INC. have pulled $20 from my bank account. The first time they did it, I wrote them and told them to stop - that I did not want nor expect to pay for their 'promotional service'. They responded saying it would be taken care of. That was 2 months ago. Charge #3 showed up on my account today. Sadly, Paypal is in on this scam as well. I am prepared to close my bank account if necessary.

I wrote Reverb Nation to find out why I was paying for opportunities to submit my music to record labels and it was being rejected, but Reverb Nation's own Play Stats showed the music had NEVER BEEN PLAYED! Reverb Nation claims that the Record Labels and people looking for artists actually hear your submission. This is NOT the case!

I just received this reply from one of Reverb Nation's employees in the community section:

EMPLOYEE
Zack (Official Rep) 10 minutes ago
Sorry for any frustration here. We are sorry that you have yet to be chosen for an opportunity. We at ReverbNation do not choose the winners of opportunities, we are just the submission platform for the opportunities. Our live team vets each opportunity. We do not guarantee that every artist will be chosen as a winner, but we do guarantee that a winner is always chosen from ReverbNation.

According to Zack's official reply, the Reverb Nation team "vets" opportunities before sending songs to the labels/groups looking for artists, which means that their team is eliminating us from ever being heard by the labels in the first place. This is the same scam that TAXI does. People waste money, and no one ever hears their music unless they have a friend in the TAXI A&R department. I joined Reverb Nation so that I would have a place to get HEARD by the labels and people looking for artists, not to get omitted by reverb nation employees who may not have a clue as to our genre of music! This is a ridiculous scam and I have wasted a lot of money for absolutely NOTHING!

I think I need some legal advice about now.

This is of NO BENEFIT to any musician songwriter performing artist other than getting your stuff seen and heard by others just like you that are looking for the same exposure you were looking for. So it is a inward circle. This is not a valuable promotional tool. Take a look at any of the acts/talent reverb page and you will find that the overwhelming majority of any one acts fans or any one that has interacted with this act/talent on their particular site will be primarily other musicians songwriters etc. This may make you feel good about yourself but it does nothing for the promotion of you product. FB and a web site with a little creative work on your part will do far more for you especially if you are a performing artist. I personally am part of a group that has a fair amount of success in our region of the country and I can honestly say that Reverbnation has done absolutely nothing of any benefit as for bringing me a larger fan base other than other musicians. Bar owners and other regional venues and event promoters may have a reverb page but even they see just how un effective it is and they stop interacting with it. I am not telling you not to join Revebrnation just understand what it is and what it won't and can't do for you

At one point I considered a merchant account but decided against it when I got to the end of the sign up and discovered the price. 9 months later, I find out from one of my fans in Belgium that she ordered one of my CDs several months ago. It was sent by a company called Audiolife. When she got the CD, it was just a blank disk and case with no graphics. I never authorized them to sell my music, and I never received any money for them selling my music. I've been in contact both with Audiolife and Reverbnation but neither can tell me how this happened. Neither will they pay me for my music or my fan for an inferior product.

This company does not have a phone number to contact them directly. They do have a feedback bar that after you offer feedback they tell you you are not who you say you are because they do not recognize your password! Its bad enough you are already logged into your admin panel with the same password, so your in your site already, but they still say you are not who you say you are! So they're asking for feedback they wont let you give them! WHAT A JOKE THESE PEOPLE ARE! Its all good unless you have something to say.

Reverbnation offered me a free trial for their services, then automatically charged me for the service as soon as the trial period was over. I never gave them any authority to charge me, they used my paypal account I registered for merchant services I had on their site. This site has nothing decent for free and is just a rip off, BEWARE! Artists trying to make a name for themselves are pretty poor and to try to take advantage of them with no guarantees of any return is just a rip off and taking advantage.