For my recent venture Bad Boy Blog, an unofficial Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group (Diddy, Bad Boy Records, Sean John, etc.) fan blog, I have attempted to contact many people at and related to Bad Boy. I have contacted Bad Boy artists, Bad Boy producers, artist management and/or promotion companies, Bad Boy PR people and Atlantic Records PR people (Bad Boy is a part of the Atlantic Records Group, which is in turn a part of Warner Music Group). Most of the initial contact was done back in April.

I didn’t expect much of a response from artists and producers, but most of them did actually respond. I tried to contact three artists and one responded (Nelson). I tried to contact three producers (one of which being an artist counted in the three above) and two responded (Ryan Leslie and Tony Dofat). These are busy people (aren’t we all, of course), but they responded and have made themselves available/said they would do what they could. I’m not going to mention the people who didn’t respond as that isn’t my style – I’m not here to trash anyone specifically or try to draw attention to myself by doing so.

The people that I expected to respond were the artist management/promotion companies and the PR people at the labels. The artist management/promotion companies didn’t really disappoint. I contacted three and heard back from two (Clockwork Entertainment (Jordan McCoy’s management) and Stompin’ Groundz Media Group (Yung Joc’s marketing)) and both of them have been kind, helpful and responsive.

However, the people I expected most to get back with me were the label PR people. And this is where I have been disappointed. Back in April, I e-mailed one person at Atlantic and one person at Bad Boy. These were both recognized PR people and I got their contact information through reputable means, such as at the bottom of label issued press releases, etc. My e-mails didn’t bounce and there was no response from either. It is worth noting that in my e-mails (an example copy of which is included at the bottom of this post, for reference), I said that if I was contacting the wrong person, I apologize and if they could please forward me onto the right person, I would appreciate it. Still, no response.

If it were not for someone at one of the companies mentioned above forwarding my e-mail to someone at Bad Boy, I wouldn’t have been in contact with any Bad Boy PR person. But, she did. She said to e-mail her again if no one got with me in a week. No one did. So, I begrudgingly (not wanting to seem like a pest) e-mailed her again and she forwarded it again. This time, it got a response. It is my understanding that the person she forwarded it to, forwarded it to someone else who was either an intern or at a similarly lower level, which is certainly fine by me. I’m after information. As long as someone has access to that information, I’m happy to be in contact with them, whoever they may be.

So, I had been in contact with this person as needed up until a little over two weeks ago. At that point, he informed me that he had left Bad Boy and he gave me the e-mail for someone who he said was the director of promotion for Bad Boy. I thanked him and wished him well. In the meantime, I was on the MySpace list for someone who supposedly distributes audio to DJs for Bad Boy (among other things), so I e-mailed him (outside of MySpace) to see if he could help me (we have a promotional audio box). That was June 10. No response. I e-mailed the contact (he said it was the “director of promotion”) that my previous contact had given me on June 13. No response on that, yet, either. Maybe he’ll get back to me eventually, but it’s been 10 days. I can’t help but get the feeling that I am simply being disregarded and that if not for that nice lady who passed my info on – that I’d not have been in contact with anyone. I cannot believe that from the 4 label PR/marketing people that I have contacted personally, myself, I have not received a response.

If Microsoft, Fox, O’Reilly, McGraw Hill, etc. feel I am worth responding to – why don’t Atlantic and Bad Boy? This troubles me from a business perspective and here is why.

PR people need to respond to fan sites like mine. They need to. PR people need to respond to press, which is what fan sites must be considered, but that’s not the point. The fact is that fan sites are better than press. Why? Because they are fan sites. They are in your corner. They are supporting you and what you do. They are spending money (the amount of money that I have personally spent on Bad Boy releases, Sean John clothing and related things is really mind boggling, up into the thousands of dollars), they are keeping your buzz going. Fan sites like mine are continual good press. They give you the benefit of the doubt, they want you to do well. Unlike some fan sites out there, my sites condemn the illegal distribution of music. We want Bad Boy releases to sell well. We respect the rights of everyone involved. We are helping them in every way, hurting them in no way. This is big. This is why they should respond to fan sites. Or, at least, to any that presents itself in a professional manner.

So, why do I want to be in contact with PR people? The biggest reason is responsible journalism. I really do not like reporting on rumor. I like going to informed sources – I like knowing the truth, reporting accurately and squashing rumors. Sometimes I have to report on rumor, but if at all possible, I do not want to. I want to contact the company and get their response. Is this rumor true/untrue? Is this happening or not? What are the official release dates for so and so? And on and on. I want the right information so that I can pass it on to my readers, who are Bad Boy fans.

Another reason is promotional materials and PR mailing lists. Press releases, promos, whatever. I want to know what’s up at the company so I can pass it on, which increases their buzz. We also have a promotional audio player at Bad Boy Blog. This is cool to me because it only features audio that is given to me by people who have the right to do so. PR people, artist management, artists and producers themselves. We don’t just accept audio from anyone. We’re all about respecting the rights of everyone involved, as I said.

I could understand not hearing back from artists and producers. Their job is producing content and that is what they spend their time doing (they need to be a part of the promotional process, as well, of course). But, I cannot understand the lack of response from PR and marketing people. Their full time job is to promote and if they are not responding to fan sites, websites, blogs – whatever it is that caused them to decide not to respond to me – they are not maximizing the potential of the internet.

Here is an example of an e-mail that I sent out:

phpBB 3 hit beta a couple of days ago. Through the phpBB 3.0.0 (Beta 1) Demo at phpBBHacks.com, I have had the opportunity to take a look around. Wow. That is going to take some getting used to.

It definitely looks great, but man, am I overwhelmed. The work and time it will take to get all of my communities upgraded (including all hacks and data created by hacks) is going to be immense. I just spent 10 minutes writing up a document highlighting the key steps involved. Still, it will be really sweet once it is all done.

I’m always a little astonished when “professionals” come to my websites and disrespect my operations, violate our User Guidelines and just act like idiots in general. In the last half hour, here is a prime example.

We had a guy who left a comment on YanksBlog.com. His comment was inflammatory and vulgar and was deleted in accordance with our User Guidelines. Open and shut – a very easy call on my part. He left a comment asking why his comment was deleted. Of course, that was deleted in line with our User Guidelines (no comments relating to comment deletions, etc.). Open and shut again. I contacted him and politely informed him as to the violations in his comments as is standard procedure on my sites – and many others. His response to this was name calling. He’ll never visit my site, I’m a “Nazi pig” and “long live free speech a******.” He left another comment at YB that I am sure I do not need to describe, as well. Real men died in real wars against real Nazis to allow this guy to call me a “Nazi pig.” Ok, so this is nothing new. Just another idiot online.

But, I looked at his e-mail address and found it has a unique domain name attached to it. Went to the site and found a law firm in Alabama (Mobile and Birmingham). Turns out he’s a “partner.” He’s 38 years old. And, apparently, he likes to play a big man online by personally attacking owners of websites with actual guidelines that don’t allow him to act however he wants. I don’t understand anyone who acts like this. But, a 38 year old attorney? I mean, yes, I’ve always said that idiocy knows no age and bad people come in all shapes and sizes, but does he just assume that he can go around mistreating people and it never will catch up with him? I wonder.

I answered a couple of questions related to the iFroggy Network in the Ask The Staff section of the latest issue of the SitePoint Community Crier.

Today, 06/06/06, PhinsBlog.com launched.