Los Angeles Music Awards; LAMA; Al Bowman LAMA, Los Angeles Music Awards, Al Bowman Los Angeles California

After I respectfully declined his sponsorship offer (or should I say "payment to him") he withdrew TWO of the nominations I had received as punishment!  WHAAAAAT???  Then, when I refused to BUY tickets for one of his shows he sent out an e-mail to ALL the nominees and their representatives embarrassing those who did NOT want to participate!  THAT BORDERLINES "DEFAMATION"!  THEN.....he accused ME of using that e-mail list (that HE sent to all of us) to defame him!  REALLLLLY???  WHAT PARANOIA!!!  Then, after his BIG FINAL show BOMBED he sent me another message accusing ME of sabotaging that show!  Again....WHAAAAAT?  He was so sure that I must have been behind his failures that he procliamed that I was "OFFICIALLY BLACKLISTED".  What a PSYCHOPATH!!!!  What I'm blacklisted from I still haven't figured that out...LOL!!! 

NOBODY needs charlatans like Al Bowman to throw a party and hand out cheaply framed pieces of paper.  Simply upload your (or your band's) music and videos onto the internet and obtain millions of views and fans for a fraction of the price... ; )

How does that song go?  "The internet killed the slime ball promoter..."

---Limo Drivers Anonymous - (NY)

Wow! Let me first say that I was just searching online to see if I could find some videos of this past years LA Music Awards events. I was appalled, when I had come across the negative comments, regarding Al Bowman and the LA Music Awards. In 2013, I was the Solo Performer of the Year and had gotten an award for this. Never in my dealings, had I experienced any negativity. The award was won, based on votes and artist popularity. As a nominee, the artist is required to purchase 20 tickets, below the cost of what they can be sold for. Al Bowman had also thrown in about 5 extra tickets to sell. It isn't very hard to give away or sell 20 tickets to the Whisky-A-Go-Go, which is sold out.

                I was offered the opportunity to get sponsorship and play at the main event, which would have been a tremendous opportunity and great opportunity for further publicity and exposure. However, I was unable to participate on that level, at the time. Based on me not being able to, I hadn't experienced any negativity from the producers of the awards. As a matter affect, my participation in the events had led to many contacts and opportunities, that had stemmed from the marketing, through the events. The winning of the award had opened the eyes of many to "BROBST". Al Bowman had even contacted me, before the main event, to let me know that I was chosen to be featured on the 2013 LA Music Awards Best Compilation. Did I pay for this???? NO!!! I sure did not and would not. This was done, because they had believed in my music.

                I hadn't had the opportunity to meet Susanna Griffie in person. However, I had dealt with her on the telephone, as well as through emails. She was sweet and honest about everything. I do hope that I will be nominated and win and award for the 2015 LA Music Awards. Please remember the saying that "A horse can be led to water. However, it is up to them to drink". In this business, no one owes you anything. Utilize what you have and take the opportunities that present themselves.  If you are a nominee and lucky enough to win an award. Promote the hell out of it! DO NOT slam other people, when you don't know how business is supposed to work. The money that is brought in from the sponsorships is used to put on the events. Where would the money come from, of these opportunities weren't available? For anyone that is unsure about the LA Music Awards, please feel free to contact me directly.

Adam "BROBST"

www.reverbnation.com/brobst

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brobst/156463024541527

I know that for a fact that you nominated someone with 5 nominations, and removed him after he refused to do the sponsorship deal. Before you removed him, he had a lot people vote for him, including me. I emailed you and asked you where my voting money went and you never replied. So, you stole my money and you never refunded to the person in question. All of this documented. I am a successful Artist and you are only trying to rationalize your scamming behavior. I really don’t care how long you have been in the business, but your tactics are false and misleading. I proved this to you in a series of emails. You decided to start a business, you can’t and should not depend on the artist to fund your business venture!! Go to a bank and get the money!! But to prey on independent artists is disgusting!! You mentioned that you don’t go after the artists, but their team???? That is false and I can prove it, from the countless of emails you sent to hound the artists for more money. I have emails from other nominees that would say the same. I know one of the artists that won in the past years, that person told me that they had to spend a ton of money to get their award. An artist should win an award based on their musicality, performance, etc.. Why should anyone have to pay for their award?? I have been to your nominee event, and all you do is bad mouth the other awards shows, by saying “You started this first, and that you are the best??? Wrong, if you were the best, you would keep your mouth shut, and just people how good you are.  You even posted on your Facebook page, that someone made a comment that someone stated that no one comes to your shows anymore. So, people are becoming more aware of your money pressure tactics. I have spoken to some of your sponsors, they say they will never work with you again, because you harassed them for more money!! They emailed me to give me that info. No other award show, that I am aware of, harasses the nominees for money. I forgot to mention the fact that for years you never mentioned to any of the nominees of any of the additional fees associated with nominations. It was I, that told you it was false and misleading and that when I mentioned that to you, you became very nasty with me. Enough is enough. You want to prove you are the best, put your money where your mouth is..Get sponsorships for the awards show with real businesses and use  your own d**n money.

Anybody who actually reads through this charlatan's long and convoluted response, filled with grammatical mistakes, will quickly agree with the author and will understand the kind of person the artists will have to put up with if they are ignorant enough to give him any of their money.  He is a charlatan and a relentless bully!

As founder and executive producer of this program for 25 years, I cannot deny that we are a business. If certain artists invest in their marketing and publicity through our program, they can gain a competitive advantage in the commercial marektplace. This angry and ill informed artist shows anyone who would like to read our sponsorship offer what it is we ASK for in sponsorship backing to be a performer and walk our red carpet as a special guest. What this uneducated artist does not tell you is that we almost always negotiate a much lower fee, especially if an artist that our production staff actually likes has a good business about themself, which this gutless and once again UNIDENTIFIED artist clearly does not have.

The offers she or he posted are meant to be paid for by companies, not by poor struggling artists. If an artist is a strong self believer like we have ever year for 25 years on our stage and red carpets, then they are easily able to convince a company to advertise at our event and all of the media coverage we receive from the international press. As stated in the offers, a large logo and web address placement on our red carpet press walls gets a ton of media exposure through the taking of thousands of photo's and posts and reposts of thoese photo's. 

Producers Guild members and those who run major talent agencies see our offers as too generous and costly on our end to be giving away this cheaply to unknown and unproven new talent. The third offer costs way more than it makes for us, yet that one really seemed to upset the unidentified writer of this post. 10 VIP Dinner Seats cost the LA Music Awards producers almost $1,000 just for the 3 course meal. The video we provide is even more costly. This artist should try and stage what we do for that cost. 1,100 theater guests, celebrities watching you perform, red carpet entrance, your name in our wire service press releases could not be done for that price if you tried to do it on your own. Plus, we really do get our sponsored musical acts in front of the press.

This post does not upset me at all, save for the fact that the one who posted it is one of many artists who show us all that by not stating who they are, they most certainly do not have what it takes to succeed in show business.

The term Pay To Play is also once again totally used out of context here. That term rings for true for us event producers more than anyone else. No one has to "pay to play" more for our shows than we do. We pay venue and equipment rentals, staff, insurance, catering, publicity and marketing, and many other costs, not to mention the manufacturing of each award plaque that run at about $100 each or more. In 2014, we presented 55 of these plaques at our 24th annual event, mostly to artists like to one who made this post. Bottom line here for artists is that if you have no draw and lack the ability to fill a venue, then you have to pay for someone to do that for you. For the LA Music Awards it is very simple how you can win an award with us. If you as an artist can successfully sell yourself to a company who then pays our company to advertise theirs on behalf of you participating as a red carpet guest and performer in our events, then you deserve an award for making that happen. I stand by the 25 years worth of relationships the Los Angeles Music Awards has built with the press, mass media, celebrities and publicists and all of the venue owners we have worked with since 1991. By the way, the fans who support their favorite artists by paying for that privilege via the $1.00 per vote we charge are the judges in our events. We cannot pay production expenses with personal opinions. Fans who pay to support their favorite artists and bands are truly the best judges, just like in the mainstream music business. And no, the money for votes is not paid to me, it goes to our company to cover operating expenses, just like it should.

Sincerely,

Al Bowman

Founder / Executive Producer

Los Angeles Music Awards (25 years)

Hollywood FAME Awards (9 years)

Phoenix Music Awards (8 years)