Photo by D.Magone ©2010
I was doing some random reading because my red flags went up about N1Music. My friend had posted a new project there that we collaborated on and was telling me about all the new listens and comments. Being a Virgo realist with some Libra influence, I thought that was either really awesome or some trickery. My reading lead me to this reasonably thought out blogpost. Check the comment section of this post after reading, to see others who had similar experiences .
Thanks for posting dynamics plus !
http://dynamicsplus.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/number-one-music-is-a-scam/
Deborah Magone "Rock & Kick Your Ass Blues" 
April 18th, 2014 at 11:54 pm
Thank you for sharing. As artists and musicians, we have too look our for each other. It almost as if- the moment you declare your passion for the arts, someone standing behind you thinks to themselves “How can I rip them off?”
April 24th, 2014 at 9:32 pm
So true DM. Artists are not protected as they should be. Thank You for your vigilance and for sharing. Please alert me to any other important news and I’ll pass it along.
April 24th, 2014 at 10:16 pm
Your Welcome Deborah!
When I sent N1M my complaints in Russian…they happily announced that I wasn’t going to get charged for the subscriptions any more… & pulled my page from their website…the only honest things they’ve ever done…fastspring ( their money processor) will reimburse me for 2014..but not for 2012 & 2013…I can’t find the billing info. even though I sent fastspring the countless phony baloney fan emails I got from N1M with dates on them…not enough proof…I do take the responsibility for not REALLY researching these crooks…Songwriters out there, steer clear of the crooks! I’ve contacted a consumer watchdog in the States & their looking into it. All the best to you with your artistic endeavours Deborah!
April 23rd, 2014 at 11:40 pm
1700 fictitious fans along with fictitious over the top compliments…& oddly enough when I sent out emails to each & everyone of my supposed fans…all I got was fake email addresses, deactivated emails… & not 1 single reply…I thought ” There’s something rotten in the State Of Number One Music…” Steer Clear!!!…They are somewhere in Russia…with no phone # …the money processing company they use is fastspring…
April 24th, 2014 at 9:30 pm
Thank you Kim! Its the negative side of internet freedom. Just about anyone can open a storefront. Musicians & Artists with hopes and dreams are ripe for the picking.
April 25th, 2014 at 1:48 am
Your Welcome Deborah!
All the best to you!
Kim Kondrashoff.🎼🎶🎸😊
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 21:30:52 +0000
To: kkondoff@hotmail.com
June 18th, 2014 at 6:09 pm
Well, this isn’t even an article about anything. The title doesn’t describe anything that has to do with what they wrote and they didn’t write much of anything. All they talked about was their horoscope. As far as Number One Music goes. Its a great website!!! Rumors are a real bitch sometimes. Number One Music does everything legally. How can you tell??? They have been a music site for quite some time now. Which means they have great opportunity to make money.
August 13th, 2014 at 5:31 pm
Your right knbonti…they have a great opportunity to make money…for themselves…
June 18th, 2014 at 6:11 pm
Well, the title has nothing to do with what is written for the very short article. All they wrote about was their horoscope. Number One Music is a great music site. Don’t buy into rumors.
June 25th, 2014 at 5:58 pm
Knbonti Thanks for commenting. Please tell us about your experience. Have you earned decent money from N1M ? Is your mailing list of followers active, are they responding to your queries? Are you selling mp3’s or cd’s? Inquiring minds want to know!
Deborah
July 7th, 2016 at 7:57 am
Well, I have messages from different people from time to time, different parts of world. I have music in 2 categories: Metal and Ambient/Instrumental. From time to time somebody is joining my mailing list. I’ve never used paid part, I do music for myself, for fun and relax so I know DO NOT EARN on it. Few times people asked me if they could find my music on Spotify or ITunes but I’ve never joined that portals/ stores and I’m not going to.
Your question about earning money is a bit awkward for me. I have music on myspace, reverbnation or soundcloud as well and never put songs any of those places to earn money. But it’s my point of view only. Maybe I should try to earn on it but it’s not my nature. If people are happy to pay for ticket when I play gig and I have travel cost back it’s good. As I mentioned: I’m not a professional artist, I create music for my own fun and relax
August 13th, 2014 at 3:06 pm
N1M is a scam knbonti. You need to do some research.
June 18th, 2014 at 10:48 pm
More on N1M’s MASSIVE fraud!
http://numberonemusicisaripoff.wordpress.com/
August 13th, 2014 at 3:05 pm
N1M is a scam. Fake followers. Email addresses that lead nowhere and over the top hits.
October 24th, 2014 at 4:15 pm
I recently have discovered the same thing. I put up songs I did by myself and songs with a partner of mine. I am #1 in Americana after two weeks and me and my partner are #2 in Alternative. The fan mail began to tip me off. It’s just too easy. I paid them no money and won’t but if they want to show me as #1 I will let them.
January 11th, 2015 at 11:44 pm
I just took all my stuff off N1M after spending $199.99 on a Diamond Membership. Check out Bjerke & The Ripsters on N1M now… I wonder how long they will allow that post. You WILL get a kick out of it. I was suspicious from beggining, but still bit on it. Your article sealed the deal. This IS definitely a scam in that subscribers are FAKES, or 99%. Fuck off N1M. http://www.livemusicisdead.com
January 11th, 2015 at 11:45 pm
Beginning, not begginning….duh! To Russia with love….
February 4th, 2015 at 9:35 pm
I’ve been on N1M for a few months now. I have to admit I got excited after receiving an email each day notifying me of all of the plays and new fans signing up for my mailing list. I paid for the yearly and now I wish I’d found your blog earlier. If it looks too good to be true (sadly) it probably is…… I almost made N1M my official music site, but really glad now that I didn’t…..Hope they eventually stop these rascals……
February 4th, 2015 at 11:24 pm
I’m sorry too J! Last year I was working with a project in CA. The band leader subscribed and kept telling me “We’re 40th in the nation for Rock!” after publishing only a few months before. I thought, well why isn’t anyone interviewing us,or giving us FM airplay or even a gig etc? That’s quite an accomplishment! I’d been really studying social media marketing the last few years, and it sounded too good to be true. So I investigated and found others stories. Artists. Including myself. are so emotionally driven that they’re easily taken advantage of. Scammers know this. Stay true to your music , post, and gig as much as possible! Only make friends and fans that are supportive of your work, best wishes! – Deborah
April 3rd, 2015 at 8:52 am
Yep, me too… darnit… Luckily didn’t pay them any money but nearly did, and like the guy J.Norman Stewart was thinking of making it my main upload place…. Really disappointed… There must be a way of getting this N1M off of the internet surely… I mean. this looks like its been going on for years ???
The other thing is, I cant find any way of deleting my N1M profile on there.
If any one knows a way, that’d be great ((8
Anyway thanks Deborah (x) for starting this blog, and to all those that have confirmed my suspitions,,,,
Spread the word people,,,,,
April 3rd, 2015 at 7:07 pm
Your very welcome Mark! Musicians helping each other is a must in order to survive, take back, and reshape the business side of things.
May 13th, 2015 at 4:03 pm
It is FAKE, BUT if you don’t care about the fake fans and
emails you get, you still get a few of your songs out there
and they are searchable on the Internet. So any exposure
for your own music is good. And I’m not talking about
the Fake plays, and fans. I’ve always used their FREE account
for musicians, and have never and will never give them any
of my own money. It’s almost impossible to make it as a music artist
so use this as just a place to hold a few songs, maybe someone
real will hear your tunes. Good luck everyone, we need it.
Musicperson
May 13th, 2015 at 5:28 pm
Thanks for your comment Rob. I tried your website and it couldn’t be found?
Deborah
May 13th, 2015 at 5:34 pm
@ Rob…maybe someone will hear your tunes…that’s a very BIG maybe…
May 13th, 2015 at 10:20 pm
when it comes to NM1 Music…
May 27th, 2015 at 1:17 am
Funny thing I’ve signed up to N1M last year and paid it no attention. I kept getting emails about where i was on the charts yadda yadda yadda still paid it no mind and this went on for a year just recently I got on saw 170 subscribers last month so I said so wow I this thing looks official so I started checking it out more because I didn’t know I had all these fans so N1M sent me an email say you have to send out a news letter to your fans and interact with them or you’ll loose subscribers so I sent the letter out. I then started to receive emails from these subscribers everyday saying your track is amazing and this and that, and I admit I was hyped up only one person responded back to me out of all of them and as I’m reading these emails I did sense a vibe like it too much good feedback but I don’t know if I wanna give them $200 so I said to myself let me attach my wix.com beat store page to N1M and if they truly are real fans they’ll click the link go to my beat store and buy my music (NOT) lol. My subscribers are at 200 now and still climbing but no sales and then I clear my history on my computer waited til it finished now when I type numberonemusic I started seeing scam, then I come here and read your blog right when I was good and ready to pay them for a gold membership smh God is working I tell you cause I was just about to give them some money now I’m not.
May 27th, 2015 at 12:17 pm
SO glad to be of service!! Us musicians must stick together.
Best wishes JR!
August 27th, 2015 at 12:41 pm
ok, so its a scam. I too am on N1M. Have been for some time now, i have a few originals there and I am seeing some movement but nothing in the way of sales. I too paid for services and am still, But I am at a loss as to where else I can promote and get my songs out there to be heard. I am on youtube, reverbnation,cdbaby, soundcloud and Itunes but have not sold much of anything, either I am that vad or that site is that crooked. Where can i get some legit exposure? Thank you. Ronnie Barboza. AKA (Ronnie Bar.)
July 7th, 2016 at 11:43 am
Ronnie thanks for posting.
So many of us are in the same position. It’s also happening with folks who have regular 9 – 5 jobs. They can no longer make enough to pay bills with just one job working for slave wages and no benefits or pensions. Thats what Unions used to help ensure.
For many years I’ve told my kids and clients, being self-employed is the way to ensure not being enslaved. I’ve been an independent contractor most of my life. I tried 9 – 5 and was always taken advantage of by my employers.
I believe Everyone has gifts or a service that SOMEONE needs. Now there are articles appearing as of late on main news sources, saying that very same thing. The trend is finally returning after decades of corporate greed.
For musicians I believe that having your own website, and selling your music from there is the way to go. Use Paypal links and a music player playing parts of your songs. If your on youtube, only use parts of your song, maybe 1 or two full song videos. Mp3’s are easily ripped from youtube.
Spend your valuable time promoting YOUR WEBSITE instead of someone elses that uses your music for free to make billions like Spotify does. They do not promote US. They just provide a platform. We can do that for ourselves by creating our own website and promoting that.
Also, new Indie community radio stations are popping back up again. They will promote you so target them. There are some great online LEGIT stations who do a great job with promo. Check out my twitter feed and you’ll see a few of them there that promote my songs almost daily and I retweet their posts. A legit station has a legit online presence. Check their numbers, followers and how much promo THEY do.
I started teaching private music lessons again to pay my bills. It keeps my chops up, keeps me informed of new artists (when my students bring in new material) and I still perform , only now I include performing with my students at a recital a few times a year!
Keep Rocking and Creating !
Cheers,
Deborah
November 11th, 2015 at 1:25 pm
Never mind US musicians, the WORLD’S MUSICIANS must stick together against N1Ms and other scam sites like it!
EXPOSURE TO THESE FRAUDSTERS IS THE ONLY WAY TO BEAT THEM.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:29 pm
If you need any more convincing, check this out:
December 11th, 2016 at 12:51 pm
Funny things happen in the world of music. Recently joined n1m and first I was delighted. Fans increased very quickly, lots of plays, remarks and e-mails. Going high in the “instrumental” charts. All this while my work is niche music. Today no n1m website anymore. Got suspicious and found this. Thanks for making me awake! Fortunately never spent 1$ on it
December 11th, 2016 at 1:07 pm
My fans are merely women (75%) as the demographics of my spotify streams show. N1M fans didn’t raise any doubt as the fans I kept getting reflected this as well, Well to end this story, number one music is history. But that being said, I’m afraid that the tracks I uploaded will show up in another Russian fraud site.
December 12th, 2016 at 4:28 pm
Thanks for sharing Abdel ! We empower each other by communicating and sharing these things. We as musicians (and humans 🙂 ) must stick together. Because of our giving spirit, and our emotional need for creative expression, we are targets for heartless sharks. Stay strong , keep creating, and Thanks again for posting !
January 7th, 2017 at 4:40 pm
Artists should know better by now. No successful artist has EVER, EVER, can you hear me, EVER!!! paid money to have their music promoted. If you’re paying to have your music promoted it is because of one of two reasons. 1. You’re not talented enough to be in the music business. 2. You’re not talented enough to be in the music business!!! Stop pretending and being delusional. If you’re paying to promote your music, finish college, get a good-paying 9 to 5 or starve. Your choice. Otherwise, you are a fool to continue. Here’s your official wake up call:)
January 7th, 2017 at 7:14 pm
True Dana, and at the same time when you reach a certain level, you must pay to promote. People like Madonna have paid tens of thousands of dollars for marketing and PR monthly. I once read her PR monthly budget was $45,000. Its also a matter of finding legitimate PR people as well. However, WE must be our best PR til we reach a level of networking, and artistry that puts us in touch with real PR agencies. Grammy members pay to promote their music every year. Some PR firms are better than others.And then in the long run it takes enormous budgets to be ” in the game”, if at all. I have learned there might be only 2 or 3 categories where an Indie actually has a chance. A great book by a friend who accidentally broke through “Who the Fuck Is Linda Chorney” tells it all about Grammy. http://www.lindachorney.com/store.php
Another aspect of this financial lack of abundance is not enough people getting to the voting booth armed with info to vote for those who would make laws to protect us and our music, instead of the reverse. Look up the voting records before going to the polls, get involved locally, and with American Federation of Musicians.
I’m not promoting Grammy, because they are extremely questionable, however become entry level Grammy members if for no other reason than to network, and do battle as a group, on Capitol hill.
I now teach private music lessons and make a decent income. I pick and choose performances wisely, but will never again pay to submit my songs for anything, except maybe Grammy, because of the wonderful network of global musician friends that I’ve made, and the ability to have a larger voice on the hill. Its also tax deductible. 🙂
I’ll be posting in the near future about another PR person I’ve come across, to be wary of. Peace, Health, Wealth and Happiness ALL
January 17th, 2017 at 5:32 pm
Well said Deborah! Well said!
January 17th, 2017 at 5:51 pm
Thank You Kim! #solidarityamongmusicians #knowledgeispower
January 17th, 2017 at 5:55 pm
You’re welcome Deborah & Yes! #knowledgeispower!!
January 19th, 2017 at 9:25 pm
Yeah l met another songwriter on NM1 which was good then told by my sonand alerted to the fact they r fake, l am inclined to agree they told me at Xmas l had 24 hours to start paying a subscription l declined, since that time l have gone from 200 + plays per day to zero that tells its own story
March 13th, 2018 at 6:07 am
Gratitude! I got no further than the photo upload. I actually uploaded the wrong pic and that pic went on to be my profile pic. There was no way to delete it. Big-ass RED FLAG. Thanks everyone. Self promotion has helped me a more than the paid promotion. I was #1 on Reverbnation Dance Charts for Chicago all of 2017-February 2018. The Fans are real. I am #2 as of this date. https://www.reverbnation.com/eddieedableonecarter I paid for their premium package and sold 1 copy. LOL. After the Album was released, I was asked if I had seen my music being promoted on sites such as; facebook, youtube, twitter, VH1, MTV, BET, etc.HELL NO!!! is what I sent back as my reply. I started sharing and posting my own links in different places where the music had relevancy. Real people shows up. If this site gets you any plays they can be monetized through places like soundcloud, which is not paying me for every play that they show to the public. BeatStars also. The ripoff is real folks. Take your chances, but be very careful. Never pay someone to continue to get paid off your back while you bring them new Musicians /Artist to grow their business. By the way. REVERBNATION nevr offered a free premium account for making it to #1 and staying for as long as I did. I even reached out with an email, but got no response. Figures. I wish success for us all. I FELT IT WAS A SIDEWAYS SITE. How do you think I ended up here? WOW!
March 26th, 2019 at 3:19 am
Does anybody have info. on this outfit? https://www.promobuzz.fr/
September 27th, 2019 at 3:45 am
Sorry for the late response Kim. At first glance I’m seeing some red flags. I don’t have info, but theres not much activity on their facebook site and not many testimonials. Their promo says they will “submit” to so many stations but I didn’t see a list of stations or examples of what they’ve done in the past.
September 27th, 2019 at 3:57 am
Hi Deborah. A woman who runs & owns a radio station said this about them, quote, ”I know all about those Airplay Buzz people. I will put it to you bluntly, they SUCK! They don’t focus on your music, they just put a list together and send it out to Tom, Dick, and Harry who don’t care about your style of genre.” I guess that says it all…I hope you’re keeping well Deborah & still making music! Cheers!