Despite my intention to not stir up debate, a whole mess of folks are rolling through the site looking to defend Burnlounge. Judging by some of the e-mail I have received, some readers might have confused my opinion with what other readers say in the comments.
So, to reframe my previous post, here’s what I think of Burnlounge:
- If anybody wants to legitimately sell more downloads, more power to them. Competition is good.
- Personally, I like MLM when it replaces traditional marketing. Even here at spinme.com, we use an affiliate program instead of spending tons of money to advertise the site. I’d rather put money into the pockets of our members than into the coffers of an ad agency. Of course, we don’t charge folks to join our affiliate program.
- Personally, I would stay away from any online business model that required a huge upfront cash investment, especially when other, similar business models allow me to get started without spending any money. (Burnlounge requires a fee, the iTunes affiliate program does not. Point to iTunes.) Some folks in the comments say that $400 is not huge. I think that, for nearly every musician, every expense over ten bucks requires a little analysis. (That’s why I lowered the price of our own premium service.)
- The biggest danger in MLM is that some overzealous fool in one of the top two or three tiers will start doing something totally stupid to build their team. Whether that activity is sanctioned by the head office doesn’t matter — all these goofballs going nuts and charging Burnlounge store owners extra training fees doesn’t bode well. Likewise, the inflated language makes folks lost trust in the core service.
- The second biggest danger in MLM is that a bargain-seeking audience starts looking for cheaper sources for the same material. Unless you add lots of value to your Burnlounge store or you inspire tremendous brand loyalty, it can be tough to hang on to your customers. (And I don’t see any clear way to make the Burnlounge store truly private label, though I am sure someone will be glad to share a way in the comments.)
- The Burnlounge advocates are correct: iTunes downloads only play on iPods, unless heroic measures are taken. Unfortunately for them, the iPod owning majority of MP3 player users show no signs of switching, and they’re not going to bother with Burnlounge unless there’s something there that they can’t get from Apple. I don’t know if I would want to battle over the remaining 20% of a market.
Would I want to be in this business? No. I can find plenty of other ways to make money that don’t involve an upfront fee and don’t require the care and feeding of a Burnlounge store.
If a client or a member of our mentoring program asked me whether I thought they should join, my answer would be contingent on meeting three guidelines:
- Paying your Burnlounge startup or maintenance fee must not put you at risk of cutting into your savings or missing a bill payment.
- You should have 10-12 hours per week to devote to marketing your site. It won’t just sit there and sell itself — you have to get people to your store.
- You should already have a mailing list of 1000 people to get your store off on the right track. If not, focus on building your mailing list first.
Technorati Tags: music+business, MLM, Burnlounge, network+marketing
3 responses
Its time to Hate on Burnlounge!
Burnlounge:
1: Has the worst customer service
I have emailed them several times about issues that I have had with my website and downloading music. It has taken them about 2 weeks in turn around time to respond.
2: The Music
You try to download the music and it will give you all kinds of 7 digit errors. You tell customer service and they tell you that its your fault how hard is it to download music? Plus with the music you do recieve your not able to downloaded due to licencing issues.
I am tired of dealing with the program all together and they now, after complaining for 3 months wont give me my money back nor give me a contact number to speak with personally. In my opinion they are just like any other MLM they do not care about their customer not their retailers they just wont their money!
If I dont get a response to my last letter legal action will be my next step!
BEWARE OF BURNLOUNGE YOU JUST MIGHT BE THE ONE WHO GETS BURNED!
WOW! JOE TAYLOR, Jr. the more I read through your comments the more and more amazed I am by your ignorance.
FIRST: You say you like affiliate programs. Well great. A legitimate MLM is just an affiliate program on steroids. Furthermore, I’m absolutely confident more people have made more money from MLM’s than affiliate programs…and yes both require work.
SECOND: Upfront fee??? Who do you think you’re kidding? Are you trying to tell everyone that you never paid anyone to design your site; for hosting your site; to buy your “spinme.com??? URL; for your credit card merchant account, bookkeeping, attorneys, and on and on? As a business owner of multiple industries, I can say any business worth doing will require money to get started. “It takes money to make money.” If you ask any wealthy person, they tell you it’s true. (and the smarter ones will tell you that they use OPM-other people’s money, but that’s another conversation).
THIRD: While I’m aware MLM’s like Amway got a reputation for just selling lots of training products. It is my opinion that was a result of greed, and possibly because the timing to build that company past decades ago, so some people probably decided to make money through training products and seminars more and more as time went on. FOR THE RECORD: I know most everyone at the top in Burnlounge and to my knowledge (outside of the included training DVD’s you get when you sign up) THERE ARE NO FEES FOR TRAINING MATERIALS OR EVENTS being sold by any top retailers.
FOURTH: As for concerns about “BRAND LOYALTY”, again just look at the history of MLM’s for your answer. There are thousands of millionaires receiving weekly royalty checks because of MLM brand loyalty from customers.
FIFTH: Get your statistics right. Only about 10% of America has converted over to downloading from CD purchasing. While it is obvious that itunes is in front getting the majority of the people who’ve already made the conversion, I think you’ll find that it is easy to bring some of the 90% who haven’t chosen their download path yet into Burnlounge. I’ve also had plenty of success getting itunes users to convert over.
FINALLY: My stomach cringed when I read you have a “mentoring Program???. Who are these fools paying you for mentoring? I think it’s YOUR STUDENTS who ARE GETTING RIPPED OFF and SOLD ON A SCAM. Furthermore, YOU’RE giving “guidelines??? and advice on how to build a Burnlounge Business. Are you kidding me? THAT IS REALLY RIDICULOUS! Don’t you think if people want to be successful at something, they should learn from someone who is successful at it? Unless you’re holding out on us and you’re a top retailer in Burnlounge, maybe you should save the advice giving and mentoring to those of us doing it. To those of you reading this, you don’t need to spend 10-12 hours of marketing and have a mailing list of 1000 people. That may be a system that works for other online businesses, but this is a MLM online business, which is built on existing and newly created relationships. I’m in Burnlounge because a trusted friend told me about it. Two months prior to him calling me, some idiot like Mr. Joe Taylor tried to email me through his big database and I actually read it and then deleted it. I know lots of people who have tried the email marketing through heir database and they are not the superstars in Burnlounge, they may have had some success, but that method is a difficult road in direct sales because people need more than that to get involved in a business with you. If you want to know how to build a Burnlounge business go to [redacted]. Find go through the steps there and do some homework instead of listening to someone who clearly has never done it.
PS: I found no need to respond to “Glasshouse’s??? comments. This person sounds like they just need to learn how to work their computer. They might also need to look into anger management and spelling lessons. CP
Hey, CP. That’s your potential customer there. If you can’t make it work for Glasshouse, you won’t make it work for most folks.
More response here:
https://spinme.com/2007/02/thanks-for-all-your-thoughts-on-burnlounge/