Reverbnation is a sinking ship for sure. I personally have be a professional artist well over 10 years under the Reverbnation musical family platform. But just recently I've encountered a situation where I was in the process of receiving up substantial amount of royalties via Spotify and distrokid distribution. Which was represented via Reverbnation. Unfortunately within the time frame of them getting ready to execute the royalty payments, Reverbnation sent me a informational text message indicating that they had discovered they had to close my account, with more than 250 plus songs remind you; over 250 songs within 10 years of excruciating song writing, production work.
I entrusted reverbnation platform to represent this large catalog of my music. However the reason I believe Reverbnation is a sinking ship,
Is that they only indicated they had to close my account because of security flaws or security purposes, they never directly explain to me in details what the problem was with the security issues, so until now, they still have not release my royalties, as well as they have taken down my complete catalog of music, at the same time cleaning out my complete account; including my artists bio as well as retaining my banking credentials (debit cards and checking account information) etc. Everything within the framework of tweethyfour hours. Let me remind you, I had been a dedicated artist for Ten years on their music platforms, now my hard intruthed work had been totally removed! After a major investigation, my personal thinking is that, because I had a substantial amount of royalties due, reverbnation alone with distrokid decided they did not want to pay out the royalties,so in order not too, the only way that they could continue to keep my funds was to completely close my account, wipe away any evidences, so I would not be able verify legally that I have had the account. If any of you upcoming or professional artists have experienced a situation such as this with Reverbnation, or in the future you may experienced it, now is time for this particular type of company to live up to their responsibilities. Willful wrongdoings such as this one defiant act against any artist, should not be taken lightly and can lead to more strenuous possibilities of a major class action lawsuit (within the jurisdiction of a USA superior court of law), If any artists such as myself, do not appreciate fictitious online perpetrators such as Reverbnation taken advantage of their musical rights, something can be done about these types of negligence, such as petitioning a court of law to hear our complaints in the contents of a civil lawsuit sued, Because it's not fair that companies like Reverbnation ( with a substantial net worth over 29 million dollars) sinking or not, can just steal hard-earned royalties and music from artists; just because they feel that they can cover it up and getting away with it. We entrust our creatively on their music platforms.
I sincerely hope this text discussion is helpful to other artists that maybe going through some of the same situations I am with Reverbnation. Thanks for checking this out,
Your fellow artist, Danny Deliicfunk Red say, if we fight together, we can make a difference, by posting our dislikes and grievances on other social media sites for others to participate in sharing theirs feedback.

My name is Halshack! I'm NOT here to defend the company. It appears you folks have all had a terrible experience with the company. For that I'm terribly sorry. I don't WORK for the company nor am I under any kind of monetary arrangement. I was approached by Lou Plaia the original owner and co founder of the company back in Nov 2020 asking me if wanted to be a part of their opportunities network offering radio play for their membership. I have IN FACT done that but I'm very strict about who's allowed on the show. I come from a major label background as well as my partners so we look for only the most top quality talent. II take in about 1 to 3% sometimes more of who submits. Yes there is a canned letter that goes out to all that are denied that comes through the system. I get 1000 to 2000 submissions per campaign. Ive completed 8 successful campaigns through the company and have even scored a song from a band who did a collab with Eminem and one of his close friends Swifty Mcvay with Disaster Theory all worked on a track called Overcome. That was submitted to me under Reverbnation. Ive been working with the band to promote the track on my show and radio station on ZENO FM. I also scored a collab with Gabe Lopez and Belinda Carlisle with permission to promote their track California Blues. I can assure you folks the opportunities the company offers are real. Its whether that source they networked with to provide the service goes the full length to do a good job. I get hit with 1000 to 2000 submissions per campaign. I listen to EVERY SINGLE submission every campaign but your material has to be on par with top tier label bands from all years of history. I don't take in bands or artists who don't have a commercial viable potential regardless of the genre. If you're good at what you do you make my show. So when the time runs out on the campaigns the company generates the denial letter for each campaign for each network partner. When I go to accept, I click on each artist and send them an acceptance letter typed by me along with the canned company acceptance letter. The last campaign was about 1000 artists and I took in 37. About half of those were repeats. Ive worked with the company for 3 years now. My 9th campaign with the company starts on Feb 8th. You can find all information about me and our campaigns at Halshack.com. The last 3 years since the campaigns with the company Ive brought in 330 artists, bands, rappers and more to be promoted on my podcast, radio station, music blogs, contests social networks and much more. I cant speak for the company regarding their business practices but I can attest to the fact if you submit to my show under Bandlab or Reverbnation you may have a chance of being brought into the Halshack universe but I digress its a low probability you have that commercial potential success about you but its not out of question for anyone. We have helped 40 to 70 artists per campaign over the last 3 years. You can find me anywhere on social media or my website. I'm not here to hide or duck out. Halshack is real and a growing force in the industry. I email with the company on a regular basis but only with the people who handle the campaigns. The company was bought from Lou Plaia and the other owners about 2 years ago by Bandlab in Singapore. My contacts are very real people who are good hard working individuals. Again I cant speak to what happens on the financial side. I don't work for them. I just have a very strong very credible working relationship with their Opportunities program coordinator. They feed me lots of quality radio ready talent. And Ive built a successful show and radio station because of it. Now were building a local festival company here in NC for future starting at Caraway Speedway in Asheboro with the High Rock Promotions Nitro Notes Music Fest. We are bringing in many big names to help bolster all this indie talent that has been discovered through our efforts with Reverbnation.

I hope this helps some people who have questions or concerns. I'm here to help with anything I can.

Hal Jester
Owner, curator, host,
A&R, festival promoter
Halshack Indie Rockcast
Halshack.com

Do NOT trust this company, very shady and will rip you off for your money and sell you CRAP!

HOW TO DEAL WITH NEGATIVE REVIEWS WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR MUSIC:
As a top ranking pop artist when it comes to negative reviews on my music, I know I am not alone. Many of the music superstars in today's music faced very negative reviews from the public during their inception. But with help from the record companies who had faith in them, they have become multi million dollar world famous superstars. Rumor is that Rod Stewart got a lot of negative reviews on his music during his inception. But now almost everyone I know likes his music. I worked all day to create the song with the richest synthesizer quality so why would it get bad reviews. What the heck? Maybe Santa Maria which really emphasizes Spanish or Latin turned people off. With a bit of racism in this country. Songs with Spanish titles don't tend to do very well in the mainstream music market and can be controversial. Maybe it was something else. I know through live performance, social media interaction and through the music industry there are an awful lot of people who love my music. Hundreds of thousands to be exact. At number 3 on the Pop music charts in Salt Lake City and 14 in the Western United States, somebody likes it. Salt Lake City a city of about 7 million, it is hard to achieve that level of recognition. But I have worked hard and have used the internet as a vehicle to rapidly spread my popularity. I recorded at Spirit West Studios where Barry Manilow and Snoop Dog also recorded. The family who owns the studio thoroughly enjoyed working with my music and are a permanent part of my fanbase. I know I am at home in their recording studio anytime. They were responsible for doing the music of the 2002 winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. In fact of the hundreds of thousands of people who like my music, I've only met 3 people that didn't like my music. Plus the obvious novices on Reverbnation. And that's ok because my fanbase is worldwide. I was writing music long before Reverbnation ever existed and before there was an internet as a kid. I have spent hundreds of hours in session with a professional voice trainer as I stretched myself to the professional limit. I was a member of Sonicbids for a long time but finally cancelled my artist membership because Sonicbids is a spreading cancer some say and they are right. Serious artists like myself don't have time for this kind of nonsense, we're in it for the long haul. Profiteering off the backs of improvised artists who can't ever get ahead because the company intentionally pits against their music. But when people at Reverbnation give my music nothing but negative bias reviews when I pay for reviews I know I have been scammed. Because actual fans never heard my music in the paid review and it was obviously office staff or other artists who reviewed my music, not actual music fans who are crazy about my music. Hate to say it but my music should have easily scored at 8.5 or above in the reviews because there are very few artists who can compete with my level of world class quality. I know this from experience and extensive research, as I'm always researching the industry. Some promoters have said they are intimidated by my level of professionalism. This ruins the good faith I had in Reverbnation and makes false advertising seem apparent after I have had a profile on this spot for over a half a decade. Obviously these people are in love with hard rock music, on drugs or something. They wouldn't give Lady Gaga a good score. I fear Reverbnation is following in the same footsteps as Sonicbids and will also sink their boat like Sonicbids did if Reverbnation does not quickly change its way. There are to many artists and not enough fans on Reverbnation. I think I will cancel my paid membership go back to the free forever membership and sign on with a site like Airplay direct where radio promoters would bend over backwards to have my world class music on their radio rotation. Reverbnation, where they Never answer the telephone. There is almost no clear line of communication with promoters. Not a good thing. In a real professional music world, communication between artist and promoter and face to face teamwork is frequent. With three decades of expertise in the music business I can tell you dishonest people don't last for long in this business. My understanding is Sonicbids had to file for bankruptcy and they can no longer afford to have a call center. So contact is by email only. People who want my money answer their phones and can reflect a good score on the Better Business bureau without a paid membership. They will also make a sincere effort to secure me a good record deal. I've seen numberous companies sink the ship in this business because they cannot learn the one lesson. Honesty is the best policy. Those who don't play by those rules in this industry sink fast. I'm just saying Reverbnation needs to straighten up their act or learn the hard way. That said I'm going to join a site where their actually serious about promoting my music. Because I know I have what it takes to make it big.

My overall opinion of RN remains about the same - they host my website - the Site Builder templates are simple but not elegant. But there is not much detail furnished from them (or anywhere) about their marketing model - which I actually didn't understand as I implied in my first review. So. From personal experience I've noted a few observations - both general and related to marketing. I've used most of their distribution offerings - including:
1) Fan Reach - the best utility offered. If (the key word) you have acquired lists - from RN subscriptions, and/or the various social media outlets (RN/SoundCloud/FaceBook/Twitter. Ect) - these my info/song distribution points. There are many others but if these don't deliver some result - then alternatives have to very competitive. Fan Reach is basically a distribution client that allows an artist to contact any subscriber on the lists mentioned. If you have 5 RN email subscribers - you can compose an email "Hi - I''m Me!", "Dig My New Song!", "I'm Back - and Cookin'" - that sort of message and RN has a template that composes the message in an acceptable format then mails your 5 emails out. There are options to also send the same to FaceBook and any other media with a list of your subscribers. OK. This is an essential service that works fine.
2) Promotion Campaigns - where a song is promoted to music sties for a weekly fee. It is not well-defined what a 'music site' is - but I would expect music blog, personal music list sharing and such. I would not expect any pay services or radio streaming sites - but it is not clear. The fee varies depending on the number of distro sites used by RN - which suggests the size of the targeted streaming audience you want to reach. Once a campaign is started - statistics are provided - as an example of a 1-week campaign: total number of Ad Views - 9745, number of websites with Ads - 2115, number of Fan Interactions - 344. For only $21.00. But, the total number of Interactions can mean someone liked your cover photo, your artist or song name. But not that the song has been sampled or played. As a result the campaign may not contribute much to your RN fanbase or song plays at all. This is the chance you take - I usually gain a few of each - but I always choose to spend about 20.00/week for a week of two max when I finish writing a new song that I would like to measure the response to. Campaign stat
3) Single Song Promotions - RN has offers to promote a single song based on some internal criteria - and for 15.00-20.00/offer you will be promoted on either a 'local' list - like Phoenix, AZ or more general list (unknown distro extent) - for 35.00/wk - which I have just tried and will review the results when time permits.
4) Crowd Reviews - do not affect your statistics at all. They are a list of individuals answers to a review after listening to your submitted song. There may a reward consisting of a one-time spot on the RN Homepage. The criteria is having an average review of 7.5 out of 10. It is an interesting exercise to personal opinions - though it would be very helpful to know how the reviewer panel is selected - randomly, of course - but from RN members - a volunteer/paid reviewer list? The song I submitted fell far short of the 7.5 milestone required for the 'reward' - which consists of a snapshot link in a list of 6 on page 4 on RN Homepage. The statistics provided are interesting and well-formatted. But without achieving/exceeding the required review value, of little use for promotional strategy use.

As most RN members know - your receive a lot of 'Opportunities' that you can 'Reach 3 million fans' or win an 'Exclusive Interview'. I have had no luck when entering these 'contests'. Most are judged by RN then the contest promoter - presumably by RN first. But I would be curious if there is any bias introduced from RN first judging a song that perhaps they have already rejected once - a question that I will ask the folks at RN soon. If I were them, I would sell the contest win for a fair fee - it's just business.

Another aspect of the RN fanbase. Since it is a forum used by artists - it is also almost exclusively composed of artists. I often notice that when reviewing someones songs to compose a comment (always 4-5 songs - or a whole list if it is not too long - and some prolific artists may have over 100 songs to choose from), there are other commentors with whom I've recently communicated - that tends to imply that RN is a small, genre-connected world. It should be noted that artists do not often purchase each others songs. However to have your talent recognized and commented on by other artists, who themselves are often talented, is personally very gratifying. And those who actually take the time to listen to your material - the essential reason most of us create music - is the main reason that number of song plays is more important than size of fanbase to me.

ReverbNation & how to skin small musicians

So let me state some facts here about my terrible experience with ReverbNation. Solely to raise awareness about these activities.

1. From the moment I had become a member, ReverbNation urged me to try to promote my music by using their tools and features. Naturally they only highlight the 3 day free trial and hide the small letters and conditions. A lot of companies do this, but still, there are limits to these shady ways of promoting. Let me explain:

2. At first I was cautious about using my credit card, but what the heck. Whats the worst that can happen? Its a LEGAL platform and surely theyll have the decency to ASK ME if I would like to continue with a paying premium plan and clearly mention how much I would be paying. One would think that, right?

3. Well, they dont! After the 3 day trial (I DID NOT GET ANY NOTIFICATIONS about payments) Reverberation started using my credit card details to take 70 DOLLARS EACH WEEK for something I presumably had signed up for. Fortunately I saw this when I received my bill from my MasterCard. Unfortunately, by then, ReverbNation had already taken 450 DOLLARS (!) of my bank account without my permission or without even giving me the option to continue or cancel, which is usually standard procedure with online payments. Even your laptop asks you if you are sure you want to continue or cancel every time you click on something (I mean, come on!)

4. When I addressed customer support with this misunderstanding, I was expecting some support (hence the name customer support) in this matter and hopefully some refunding, because I didnt even use these so called services I paid for. But no, over 3 times I received a standard reply referring to some small letters in a multi-paged agreement/disclaimer. Sorry, Im lying, I did get a refund offer of 19,95 eur (of 450 dollars) for some reason.

5. Well there you go people. Thats whats wrong in todays society. Soul -and heartless companies that thrive on the backs of hard working people. Providing a dishonest service that highlights the join us! It's free!, under cover of legal loopholes to ensure they get their money, with or without your permission. I think this is the exact definition of RACKETEERING (which is illegal by the way).

ReverbNation, I hope you enjoy my money the way I would have enjoyed it.

Forget them.