Artist Sp@m to Kill ReverbNation Email Marketing?

Though one email account is not a sufficient tool for diagnosing a trend, I did get a reminder today that many artists are creating sp@m lists, knowingly or not, using ReverbNation's email marketing services.

Here's the deal, people get the clyde(at)prohiphop(dot)com email wherever they find it, for example, off someone else's batch email sp@m that exposes all the sendees' addresses.

So, though I've learned to always say "send all hip hop pr to me at hiphoppress(at)netweed(dot)com" whenever I mention the above email account, I'll still get the clyde@ address added to hip hop newsletters and mailing lists, sometimes even by folks who've read my quite explicit contact instructions.

When that happens I email the sender and ask them to change my mailing list address and use the hiphoppress address since I allow anybody with hip hop pr to add that address to their mailing list.  I've found that if I use the term "address change" in the subject line rather than "please remove", I get a much higher level of compliance.

If they have an unsubscribe link, I also go ahead and unsubscribe.

I used to not unsubscribe right away because some people, even people that seem otherwise clued-in, don't get that I may be getting their news elsewhere, for example, at the hiphoppress address, but I can't be responsible anymore for that kind of cluelessness.

[Side Note: that's particularly annoying when a blogger with RSS feeds feels dissed because you unsubscribed from their unrequested email since you are already tracking them through their feed and don't read any blogs via email.  It ends up making me want to diss them for real for being so foolish.]

In the case of ReverbNation, they say their services are supposed to be used for opt-in email lists only, which immediately eliminates the majority of urban mailing lists from what I've observed.  So I'm being added to artists' ReverbNation email lists in a move that violates both ReverbNation policies and my quite generous offering of an email address for all hip hop pr, hiphoppress(at)netweed(dot)com, that I actually check and clear out every business day.

[Side Note 2: I'm screening more and more emails using the subject line.  Another good reason to learn to write smart subject lines though one could argue that I would have to look at it if it's unclear.  That used to be true but is becoming less so on the daily.]

So why am I picking on ReverbNation's brand when it's their users at fault?  Because a large percentage of the new artist subs I've been automatically subscribed to have come through ReverbNation, which normally would be good news for RN.  But, at this point, they're starting to show up in my bulk folder rather than in my regular email, and that makes me wonder how many people are marking these emails as sp@m.

Since, at least a few years back, it was shown that people were much more likely to mark unsolicited email as sp@m rather than searching for an unsubscribe button, I imagine there are all sorts of folks hitting the sp@m button when they get ReverbNation mailings. 

What's sad is that most of these artists seem to be seriously trying to promote themselves, rather than starting sp@m operations, and ReverbNation looks like a great service, though I haven't taken a serious look under the hood.

So now we have a situation where I'm starting to think "sp@m!?!?" when I see ReverbNation in my inbox and, to be quite frank, the artists' names don't even register.  All they know, if they check and care, is that I've unsubscribed and that the haters seem to be growing in numbers!

I was actually considering using ReverbNations' email services at the time I started seeing all these sp@m subscriptions start coming in that are undermining the service and the brand.  Now I'm just observing to see what happens long term and hoping for the best for ReverbNation cause I think they're trying to offer real services that artists can use productively and that's so much more valuable right now than starting yet another social network focused on music.

Update:
Heard from Jed Carlson at ReverbNation.  He clarified what they're doing to fight sp@m and I'm fully convinced that they're doing everything they can.

Since he asked me not to share the details of their effort.  I'll leave it at that with a big thumbs up for ReverbNation.

Related ProHipHop Coverage:
The Source Newsletter by FanBridge: Sp@m, Baby, Sp@m

Comments

[slav]

u know what? You can write very well. Got it email. Now well be on the same page in the same book

[top rap songs]

nothing like good old SPAM... i hear u.

[Adam B]

Artists abusing Reverbnation and Fanreach has gotten out of control. I get half a dozen new "you've been added to our list" emails a day from folks I've never heard of. Do they really think their unsolicited emails are going to make me interested in their work?

As an aside, I also scan subject lines to see which emails are worth reading. Gotta weed through em all somehow.

[Jed Carlson]

I am one of the founders of ReverbNation and I can't express how disappointed I am to hear that you are receiving Spam from the Artists using our system. We have spent literally thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars doing everything we can to provide the only free email service for cash-strapped Artists.

We have many processes in place to prevent Spam from being sent out by our system, but it is not enough, obviously. I commit to you that we will redouble our efforts.

I have written to Clyde to explain our process and ask for input.

As for emails going to a spam folder, this can occur if the recipient has clicked on the 'spam' link frequently on emails from us. Our delivery rates remain north of 90% to all major ISPs- something that most email services that cost money cannot claim.

None of that changes the fact that the service is being abused by some.

I will be looking into ways to continue to improve our service and I appreciate the fact that this was brought to our attention.

-Jed Carlson
Co-Founder
Reverbnation.com

[Clyde Smith]

As Jed notes, he did write me and I'm going to do a followup post on this topic.

From what I've been told and what I would have assumed, Reverb Nation is doing quite a bit to combat sp@m. My guess is I'd be seeing a lot more than I do if they weren't working on this.

So we'll check that out and post again because this is one of the most problematic issues for people offering large scale automated services and, to a certain extent, it comes with the territory.

More soon.

[The Motion Sick]

Thanks for posting this. It's good to know about. I can tell you that maintaining and building a band mailing list is a tremendously difficult task. We have used a number of opt-in systems and we never add people without their permission. I do like the way reverbnation has integrated Fanbridge with their other offerings and we've begun using it. It's really a shame that some artists aren't using the system "fairly" and I hope that RN will be able maintain their integrity on the matter.

Bands are faced with a serious problem in the design of most social networking systems. On Myspace for example, we have no reliable way to contact all of our friends. So, we sit with 12000 people, at least some of whom believe they've established a connection with the band, and no way to contact them.

E-mail is the only reliable way for us to reach people and it becomes harder and harder every day.