1. Ok, but what I want to know is: Why do devout Christians seem to always go on a capitalizing spree when they write? Example:

"Church that has awesome Praise and Worship Groups and Individuals, then BurnLounge is the place to get you and them exposure. Maybe you are a Christian Artists who's been trying to find a way to get your Music "....

See what I'm saying? It's just annoying :-)

Posted at 11:26AM on Dec 7th 2006 by Jason

2. Burnlounge

Posted at 1:56PM on Dec 7th 2006 by chuck

3. It appears that Mr. Finlayson hasn't taken very good business courses in college. Direct sales/MLM marketing is a business model used by several major multi billion dollar companies and hense is a huge chapter included in college business text books.

$429 is hardly a "huge sign up fee" and people can own a Burnlounge store for as litte as $29.00. I recouped my "huge sign up fee" during first month that I decided to become a Burnlounge Retailer, as have many others. I've made thousands as a Burnlounge Retailer since first joining and that income has come from both sides of the Burnlounge business. I'll admit that some don't as well but the problem as I see it isn't Burnlounge, instead it's that to often people start a home based business with the hopes of getting rich quickly but without the willingness to put in the adaquate amount of time and energy to make their business a success. Virtually no one ever makes money in any type of business without treating as just hat it is, A BUSINESS!

Posted at 3:02PM on Dec 7th 2006 by Larry Christiansen

4. ummmm.... you have to understand one major thing... it's not the company that is exploiting "faith to make a quick buck" it is the independent retailers that are involved in promoting their own endeavors. If I were you (the author of this blog) I would do a little more research on how exactly this company works… I love how you guys keep referring network marketing to pyramid schemes. Pyramid schemes were OUTLAWED in the 60s. Pyramid schemes offer NO SERVICES or PRODUCT. Oh, and keep in mind that companies such as Prepaid Legal (the largest legal services in the country) and AVON (one of the largest cosmetic companies in the world) are both multi level marketing schemes products.

Posted at 3:51PM on Dec 7th 2006 by michael shane

5. Obviousy you are a little confused by what you call a "scheme" and what makes it illegal. BurnLounge could not and would not be operating if was breaking the law. Clearly companies like Cadillac, Nokia and LiveNation would not be sponsoring BurnLounge if it was shady or otherwise uncouth.

Before you make a knee-jerk judgement about something take the time to actually educate yourself. Visit:

http://www.burnreview.com/ and go thru some of the presentations.

Try also to look up the definitions of some of the words you used. Anyone who has reviewed BurnLounge and taken the time to understand it will know what I mean.

Affiliate marketing and retail is a huge business precisely because it pays average people to recommend products and services to others. This model totally replaces traditional advertising channels as TV, Cable, Music etc go the way of the Internet. Wake up and realize the obvious facts of where this is all heading.

Posted at 4:14PM on Dec 7th 2006 by hogan

6. Dear marketing tools: please kill yourselves. Thank you.

Posted at 8:53PM on Dec 7th 2006 by Bobo

7. I really think it is more like "God Finds BurnLounge" I know that sounds crazy, but do you really think that Godly principle has been what drives the Christian music label business ?

I don't think so......

The major Christian labels have held their monopoly tightly in their financial fist for years and this has kept national distribution from the grasp of most Christian Artists. Not fair in my book.....

With Burnlounge, virtually ANY Christian artist can now own their own STORE and profit from the sales of ALL music genres.

(Customised and Filtered by Genre and Parental Advisory if you wish)

They can even prominately feature their own previously unavailable music right next to the Major Labels who would have never given them a chance.

I bet that God loves it when the playing field gets leveled and the price of getting your music up on BurnLounge is FREE !

Kinda sounds like salvation doen't it? Does to me...

You do not have to join Burnlounge at all to profit from it as an artist and if you own the content you get up to 70% of the gross revenue! That's $7.00 for every $9.99 download and they pay weekly....just try to get a Label or BMI or ASCAP to do that.

Finally, I really think that you write your articles just to get people like me to speak their mind in order to draw attention to your contraversial site. You are probably a closet BurnLounge retailer and do this to gain Burnlounge further publicity. Thanks for that.....

Judge not lest..............well you know the rest.

Posted at 1:13AM on Dec 8th 2006 by Ric Steel

8. BURN LOUNGE STINKS!

Posted at 8:24AM on Dec 8th 2006 by Paul R Nelson

9. Man, everytime anyone does an article on Burnlounge the BurnLounge cult comes out to spread their message of "how we made thousands" with Burnlounge. Bullshit!

The truth of the matter is if you've made thousands it's because you signed up other "suckers" not because you've sold music. So lets cut the crap!!!

Man, and they said us Apple users are zealots!!!!

Posted at 7:56AM on Dec 8th 2006 by Cartel

10. I made more money from selling only music last month on BurnLounge than I ever made from siging up anyone to anything....sorry Cartel.....you are wrong again....

Posted at 9:40PM on Dec 8th 2006 by Ric Steel

11. I am a devout Christian and an avid musician and fan! Burnlounge is very good for everyone whether you serve no God, or THE GOD-in this case, JESUS. I personally like to sell my favorite faith based music, and I don't sell explicit lyric content. But that is the beauty of BL-someone else might sell that kind of stuff. These stores are PERSONALIZED to their owners to sell what THEY want. I am currently promoting 3RD DAY'S new CD- check it out! Why buy the CD in a store for 13-18 bucks, when you can purchase it online for 10! Just makes sense, plus my friends know they are supporting their friend. PLUS I can put my very own work on my site for the world to hear and purchase if they like it and it blesses them in some way. That is the beauty of BL that other sites do not offer....

Posted at 1:31PM on Dec 14th 2006 by Rose

12. i am in burnlounge and it is bullshit and i knew that going in but theres one person in the world that i would get into this for and so i did. if anyone else brought this to me i would have said no. maybe someday i will post some real numbers on here so people can see the truth of the money that the LARGE MAJORITY will not make. i understand how people can get sucked into it but sit down and do some math. you may be lucky and make a shit load but the people under you are probably gonna lose money. i have done enough math to figure this out, and by the way you don't have to go very far to see that. this is a real guess but maybe 5 MAYBE 10 % will make back there investment plus make a profit. you make money by getting people "under" you, not selling music. that is the sad truth from someone who is in it. anyone tells you otherwise is wrong, i'm sorry. i don't think the owners are greedy evil people. in fact, everything i've heard about them(from people who have sat down and had meetings with them) say how genuine and motivated they are about the company. I'm not trying to put down the company, i wish them success. I mean, i 've got money in this thing too! the only thing that bothers me would be people with not alot of extra cash, maybe even charging the fees (me), thinking this is gonna be "extra grocery money" as one burnlounge rep put it. that was part of the schpeel. saying it can be anywhere from extra grocery money to a full-time money making beast. if you don't have the money to throw away, i would suggest you not get involved, being your chances of making that money back are slim. if you do happen to make your money back and some, your friends underneath you will be a bit upset ( like me and the 7 or 8 under me that i'm sure will never even make back there startup costs. burnlounge says we're unmotivated? i own my own home-improvement business so motivation is not the issue here. It just won't work for most people. Bypass the flashy ads and what people say "so and so" made and do the math. I believe you will agree. Sorry.

Posted at 2:04PM on Dec 20th 2006 by josh

13. Man, I just do not understand your ways of thinking, just like i never understood a racist persons way of thought?? Only nonsense, and no backbone. Nocking religious peoples thoughts now.. All time lows here lets just stone them or something. Dude my man I am finding it hard not to cuss at you. So now anyone totoing an ipod who is listening to christian or new age, or any ohter spiritual concept is on the Fuck you list. Go sell a cap to some tourist in New York. My apologies for being so pissed at your brain?? It stinks...Pew Emanuel

Posted at 10:02PM on Dec 23rd 2006 by Emanue Daffron Jr

14. Wake up yuk mouth! Tool your own way.

Posted at 8:59AM on Dec 24th 2006 by Emanue Daffron Jr

15. United we stand, does this mean anything to any one anymore??? Seems to me like it has no value to some of you I am reading in hear, and other places on the amazing place this www.? Not only regarding a digital store that is empowering to hundreds of thousands, but in general? Whats going on when a very legitamate, trustworthy super sonic opportunity that is very very very real is being mocked and ripped on like the underdog at elementry school? Are those people unaware that some of us, "I am speaking for myself here and quite possably a community"? from a hard working mans perspective!! ME since the age of 10. Sorrry, what is the problem? Are these Negators so repubate in mind that when an awesome opp. comes around they just have to knock it for fun? Just bothers me, and I would really appreciate if you would stop it Now. My Burnlounge is going to be a very fun, and good business for me and my Child after I am gone, so get over it and If you must??? go find some other classmate to ripp apart! Ass
Emanuel Daffron Jr www.myspace.com/wemuse 02809 /emuse

Posted at 9:11AM on Dec 24th 2006 by Emanue Daffron Jr

16. If you've made any money on burnlounge, it has been through signing others up.... period. That revenue source will quickly dry up. The underlying "business" is not going to make you enough money to even cover the monthly fees. Run the numbers for yourself.

The fact that money has been made and continues to be made by some people does nothing to make burnlounge legitimate. Any pyramid scheme can make those claims. If suckering your friends and family makes you feel good, then I feel sorry for you.

I suggest continuing this debate over here:

http://burnlounge.proboards92.com

Eddie

Posted at 12:01PM on Dec 26th 2006 by Eddie Inirmo

17. In case you missed the news flash:

Let's apply some reality to the BurnLounge business model, shall we?

Amazon, iTunes, and eMusic all have affiliate programs. Unlike BurnLounge, they cost nothing to join. Unlike BurnLounge, you can play the purchased music on your iPods. The music you buy from eMusic (Mp3s) or Amazon (cds) can be copied any way you like. You can move them from computer to computer, or to your cell phone or portable music player.

Let's do a little math.
You manage to send 10,000 people to your BurnLounge page (YAY!). Great job. Then the reality of internet conversion rates sinks in. The average conversion rate on Amazon (one of the highest rated online stores in the world) is about 4%. Unfortunately, BurnLounge doesn't work with as many browsers, and it only works if you have a specific version of Flash. There goes 30% of your audience.

Okay, how many are left? 7,000. Now I'm going to be very generous and assume that BurnLounge can manage a 1.5% conversion rate (that's really good), and assume that the average customer transaction is $3 (about what it is on iTunes). That makes 105 sales of $3 each. Yay! That's $315!!! Okay, so BurnLounge members get what, $.05 per song. At $1 per song, that's $15.59. Not bad for an hour's work, eh? Wait.

You have to get 10,000 people PER HOUR to look at your site to make a half-decent wage on a BurnLounge store? Hahahaha.. not looking so great anymore, and we haven't even discussed the membership fees.

Now let's look at eMusic. They pay you $6 per customer lead (free trial offer, where the customer downloads 25 songs risk free). The average referral rate with their good links amounts to about $20 per thousand visitors in your pocket X 10 = $200. Oh, and no fees whatsoever. No minimum buys. No quotas. No selling your Mom a mogul account.

This is a no-brainer, folks. And eMusic isn't even the biggest competition. Lest we forget, it's easy for ANY indie musician to sign up on CDBaby and get their music in tons of stores including iTunes and eMusic for less than $40, so the whole indie band sales-pitch is moot.

Sorry guys. When you run the real-world numbers, BurnLounge starts to look really, really bad.

Posted at 2:50AM on Jan 5th 2007 by Eric Hamilton

18. I have no time for this! So much to do! So little time! And so little HELP!!! Remember the story of the Little Red Hen??? YOU can stay cooped up if you want but I'm OUT and I'm letting all the dogs out with me!! It's YOUR choice!! Just remember the ending of the story and don't say I didn't warn ya!!

Posted at 12:59AM on Jan 6th 2007 by Dale

19. Gordon Finlayson is an apple zealot. Don't listen to anything he says he is a byist writer. All you have to do is read through his articles. All good about Apple and Ipod. All bad about anyone else. He is scared of burnlounge and it is a shame that irrational people like him have a voice.

Posted at 10:24PM on Jan 10th 2007 by Marion

20. I liked Eric Hamilton's breakdown here of the way BurnLounge sales work. What he didn't mention is the split between the label, BurnLounge, Loudeye (their distributor), the BurnLounge store owner and the people upstream who got that owner involved in the first place.

Let's remember folks. The labels take about $0.70. LoudEye takes $0.12 to $0.18 per track. BurnLounge takes $0.10 per track. And then you have to split your profits with the upstream BurnLoungers who came before you. That leaves you with less than $0.05 per track.

I think I estimated that you have to sell 14,000 tracks to make up your initial BurnLounge investment.

And then, you have to reup each year.

So, BurnLounger's have their work cut out for them.

Tony

Posted at 3:54PM on Jan 12th 2007 by Tony Zeoli