SellABand changes hands... and business model
As I told you in the lastest blog post, SellABand went bankrupt.
Soon after, aquisition rumours started. Then, it was official. And a couple of minutes ago, the website was back online.
Business as usual, right? Wrong.
Users trying to log in SAB again are greeted with a notice of some new Terms of Service - which you agree or you have to cancel your account. The new Terms of Service have a funny clause, one that radically changes SAB business model. In 4.5, they state that a believer can't take back his money if it's on SAB for more than 15 days. OUCH!, this is more than a change, this is not acknowledging the real SAB problems, while failing because they take out the incentive to actually be a believer... What an huge #FAIL: this new SAB is, automatically, a lot worse than what it was.
When canceling (because I don't accept the new TOS) my accounts, they said to me:
Dear Merankorii,Here's my reply:
We would really like to hear the reason why you do not want to accept the new Terms and Conditions and stop participating on SellaBand.
The new 4.5 clause makes believers being forced to loose their money, even if the band they wanted to succeed abandons the project or otherwise doesn't reach its goal. With the new terms, believers stop having the ability to be "believers of some specific artist(s)", and are thus forced to be "believers on SAB". While that might work to some believers and bands, that radical change of concept doesn't work for me both as an artist and a believer. Thus, unless/until you change the TOS again, I want to withdraw my money on SAB and quit both my artist and believer accounts. I don't count on coming back to SAB as an artist until this 4.5 changes to something I feel more fair for me, as a band, to purpose to my fans, and I count to get back to being a believer *only*if* I find a band that I like so much that I'm willing to bet with my money in, taking into account that I might never see that money again -- which doesn't happen with any SAB artist at the moment.
Well that's it then. Total FUBAR. Totally agree with you. No protection for the investors at all now.
ReplyDeleteAs I said in my reply to them, I still consider being a believer on SAB, but only on projects that I was 100% sure that they would reach the target or that I liked so much that I didn't care to *loose* the money if they didn't reach it. I don't think that, in the new model and with the new conditions, they will have many artists and believers left...
ReplyDeleteWell,i agree with you without protection for investor.
ReplyDelete