Precisely why a ‘press@domain.com’ email should always go to your PR people – not the CEO.

I’m not surprised. Do you actually think that everyone knows your site? If so, you are more like what the critics say then I thought.

Unbelievable. How dare you contact the press email to get information for a…press story!

It shows that there are still tech people who do not know about TechCrunch. You should see this as a growth opportunity.

pasan - nope. we just wanted to talk to their press people. really.

Well, it doesn’t take a genius to look up the domain an email came from and do two seconds of due diligence. Plus, there are just more professional ways to answer a cold inquiry.

Fucking hilarious.

Either a bold move by the CEO (who’s TC??? Explain!), or just simply funny…for the simply point that TC can finally go “f** ourselves”

I HEART BOTH PARTIES INVOLVED

Thanks for the smile in the middle of my day.

For sure my favorite type of story on TC. Thanks for the bounce in my step, Mr. Arrington.

This was already tried with mp3.com so I don’t see the value.

As for the “cold contact”, I think that was snotty and rude. I also think it was pompous.

If you want to jet over to the link in my name, I am actually paying bands $10 a piece to sign up to our website and upload MP3s. If you know some poor musicians, please tell them that they can earn the $10 via paypal if they sign up their own band.

Thankx!!!

MP3.com part deux fail

@ #2

Regardless of what people say or think about the people running TC, the fact that email for their PR department goes to the CEO who then gets mad and acts like a jack ass telling you to contact the PR deparment (which means contacting him) makes them look pretty small time and foolish.

guys, Jeff Price is not dumb. He did this on purpose to get this story.

Yeah, good point. Michael, chalk this up as a learning experience!

Case in point, there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Very funny post.

This may actually suggest that they don’t have a PR rep. they might not even have a team. forget they, it’s probably a one man show in a basement somewhere.

I don’t like his tone just before writing thank you. *thumbs down*

Where’s the email from Peter? I know when I reply to people defensively is because the original email provoked it.

How come Arlington doesn’t reveal email of both parties but only the party he hates?

Wow. I bet he is going to have an awkward conversation with some investors. If they have investors I guess.

Unbalanced - good point. here’s Peter’s first email, to press@tunecore.com:

Hello, I’m currently conducting research for TechCrunch’s company database (CrunchBase.com). Can you give me information on the funding TuneCore has had to date? Can you provide me with the rounds, amounts, dates and investors? Thanks for your help.

Peter

Here’s Peter’s response to Jeff’s first email back:

Hi Jeff,

TechCrunch.com is a blog that profiles new Internet products and companies. The site is read by many people in the Silicon Valley crowd (venture capitalists, angel investors, people involved with startups, etc). We are independent and a small startup ourselves. You can read about our founder and the company’s beginnings here…

http://www.time.com/time/speci.....48,00.html

Crunchbase.com is our database of companies, people and financial organizations. The database shows general information about companies/people/finacial orgs and we try to show how things are connected. For example, if you go to Google’s CrunchBase page you can click on their funding, click on Sequoia Capital, and you’ll be shown other companies Sequoia has invested in. Or if you click on their address, you can see other companies located nearby.

TuneCore’s page can be found here…
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/tunecore

I’m a CrunchBase Analyst and one of my jobs is to make sure pages are as complete as possible. I’m asking for TuneCore’s funding info so we can place it in CrunchBase. Hopefully that answers your questions. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Well come ask us what we’re doing at Apricado Music (for indie artists) and we’ll gladly share http://www.apricado.com/

I would of responded with “err you do realise I contacted your press email don’t you.” and then put in a link to this post.

Mr. Price’s nasty tone aside, I think he’s right that the publicly available press releases are the logical place to find the information Peter is requesting.

It would be great to know what the “actual e-mails” sent to TuneCore press contact. It’s great to see the response, but how can we judge based on the response? What was actually given?

Also, I think its also bad communication on TuneCores’ part. What if it was a potential customer who happened to send an email to the “press email?” Relationship & Context? Does that even matter in the “Information Age”?

For a start-up, wouldn’t they just be interested in any type & style of press? Of course, they will have their own press releases to provide for information. However, in the beginning, who cares about “how the info” will be used, who’s funded. None of that should matter. As Donald Trump says, “Any Press is Good Press,” regardless.

haha, i wish i told you guys to fuck off and not write about my startup.. cause you might have actualy write about it
i still love techcrunch

darrin - the emails are in my comments above.

Well it’s a shame that they are blatantly refusing some serious free publicity. They might not know TechCrunch but it’s not really a way to respond none the less.

I hope TechCrunch never writes another word about TuneCore. They don’t deserve the publicity.

Who is the guy in the picture?

BTW, that’s Brooklyn attitude for you…

This is BS and you’re right to be upset. The old rule was that the most important person in a company was the receptionist. You could tell everything about the company by the type of person they hired for the front office. Well, in an online world, it’s whoever answers the email.

Disappointingly, it shows that the company is not careful in the types of people they hire. This PR person should be SO fired.

Whoops! http://www.tunecore.com is apparently down for maintenance now. I wonder why?

I sent press@tunecore.com a nice email hoping it still goes to the CEO… what a bunch of jerks.

alex - I’m not upset. I’m just laughing.

Now tunecore.com is not working maybe techcrunch effect. because they wrote there they are in maintanance.

Michael,

While I am a daily reader and fan of TechCrunch, I think you are a bit out of line, and border on becoming hyper arrogant lately. As shocked as you may be that you are not a household name across the entire planet or even simply outside of Silicon Valley, it is fact you are not. Seriously, get grounded.

Peter’s initial email made a huge assumption that the recipient of his email is aware of both TechCrunch and CrunchBase as well as their respective motives. Peter asked for sensitive business information without first establishing any connection. Jeff reacted appropriately, especially considering the huge demands of a CEO.

Be the better man, and offer an apology to correct the situation before lambasting the very people that give you the opportunity at hand.

HAHAHAHAHA! PWNED!

Michael, if you or Peter would like to talk to anybody here at GameStrata feel free to contact me, justin@gamestrata.com. I promise not to tell you to GFY, although I can’t guarantee what others here may say to you

TuneCore sucks! That was mean and stupid, and you know what, that guy looks like a rapist (allegedly…I allege it!) I know i won’t do business with them…ever if that is the way they treat TC, but it also many mean they are in dire financial straits and that is why they are so pissed. No matter what it wouldn’t be good to be tunecore.

I guess this is what “Pompous Price” wanted. lol. Maybe now you can ask, “who funds there hosting company.”

you can still access all of their website through their ‘page not found’ page …

http://www.tunecore.com/images

The funny thing is the CEO basically told TechCrunch to fu*k off but TuneCore still gets some publicity with this post in which the first paragraph basically gives a mini profile of TuneCore. You guys just basically rewarded that clown.

Again, we are paying $10 per band you get to sign up and upload a song up to 10 bands. $100 can buy you at least 7 cases of beer. Please tell your poor musician friends. Our promo lasts until the end of June. Please tell them to invite their fans too.

Since this thread is done due to the Digg effect on their website.

Mike you can relabel this to the TC effect. Not as bad as diggs but just as deadly. Especially to startups with frail server archs

CLASSIC! It’s content like this that keeps me reading TechCrunch.

uninterested - that apology you demand is coming right up. keep hitting refresh, you’ll see it momentarily.

you do realize that by posting this we are laughing at ourselves, right?

“As shocked as you may be that you are not a household name across the entire planet or even simply outside of Silicon Valley, it is fact you are not. Seriously, get grounded.”

Stop trying to make a boring business person out of Arrington please.

You fail.

Maybe the CEO knew exactly what he was doing and thought it would be a good way to get some press, otherwise it would have been just another email.

Geez Arrington you’ve had a tendency of late to be rather melodramatic. e.g. “The break in at Tech Crunch headquarters” that wasn’t a break in and now trying to stir things up for a company that didn’t know who you were.

“DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!?!”

I think TechCrunch is being just a weeee bit vindictive.

Careful guys, power corrupts. The man made an honest mistake, no reason to lynch the guy…

hmm, my email to press@techcrunch.com bounced? no catch-all email address?

anyway, here is my email.

Hi Michael,
I am working on a story for my blog. Please send me annual revenue numbers, as well as break down (advertising, shows, etc).
– Thanks, Damon

Mike,

I like the way you take care of your team… Reminds me of our Tech. lead who always protects us.

You make a good tech lead.

P.S : Probably next time it would be a good idea to tell about (TechCrunch) and request for information.

Peter, It happened to me couple of times, I was in a similar situations earlier. Just take it easy.

Cheers, Nag

Jeff Price is clearly more clever than TC. And I wholeheartedly agree with Rob Abbott (7) - great stuff, makes me laugh.

this whole thing is lolz. jeff price, grab a clue, bro. if i were an an investor and saw that the ceo didn’t have a clue who tc was, i’d pass. obviously, his lack of knowledge will prevent him from seeing where partnering ops are and he’s likely to miss certain convergences that are happening.

put some failjus on your thumb and suck it.

But they did get a mention on TC front page with that, didn’t they