promosquad.com

I'm going to lay my cards on the table from the start. I'm a skinflint. If something's going for free you will find me in the queue with my hand out. I love music but just can't afford to buy as many CD's as I would like and my battered old PC finds it hard enough just to stay connected to the Internet - forget trying to download any MP3's.

So one day, partly out of boredom, partly out of curiosity - without much hope at all I found ...
...surprised to find in amongst the usual rip-off offers a link to a reward site named Promosquad.

After first double and triple checking that this site wasn't only valid for US residents (I'm not bitter me!) I duly signed up and started earning points. The premise of the site is that record labels want to know what we the public think of the upcoming new releases and they are prepared to pay for our thoughts. Me getting to tell Craig ... more

I'm going to lay my cards on the table from the start. I'm a skinflint. If something's going for free you will find me in the queue with my hand out. I love music but just can't afford to buy as many CD's as I would like and my battered old PC finds it hard enough just to stay connected to the Internet - forget trying to download any MP3's.

So one day, partly out of boredom, partly out of curiosity - without much hope at all I found myself typing "FREE CD'S" into Google UK. I was pleasantly surprised to find in amongst the usual rip-off offers a link to a reward site named Promosquad.

After first double and triple checking that this site wasn't only valid for US residents (I'm not bitter me!) I duly signed up and started earning points. The premise of the site is that record labels want to know what we the public think of the upcoming new releases and they are prepared to pay for our thoughts. Me getting to tell Craig David's record company exactly what I think of their noise pollution and getting rewarded for it? BRING. IT. ON!!

*** THE FAME GAUGE ***

This is a little pop-up box that asks you whether you have heard of certain artists, whether you like them, how you rate them and whether you have talked about them recently. Per artist that you rate you are awarded one Promosquad point.

You only get so many artists to gauge in one sitting and then you are given a break of around a week before you can gauge anymore.

*** THE JUKEBOX ***

This is my favourite part of the site. Another little pop-up box plays clips ranging from a minute to around four minutes long. You aren't told who the artist is but can sometimes find out in your account area whom you have been listening to. Although I have found that all the songs I actually liked are the songs the record label wont permit you to know the singers of - which kind of doesn't make sense to me... surely a few more sales is a good thing. Oh well.

Once your clip has finished playing you then have to rate how you found the song. You do this by placing a tick into either the hate, dislike, ok, like or loved boxes. You then write a short comment explaining your rate. For each clip rated five Promosquad points are received.

It is so satisfying to reel off a load of (clean) verbal diarrhoea about total rubbish and I feel, maybe naively, maybe not, that at the very least the record companies will see what you feel. Don't get me wrong I don't swear, there are FAR better descriptive words to use in the English language - and I'm getting SO imaginative in my put downs. Of course when I come across a song I like, nay, adore, I am not averse to some virtual bowing down and posterior licking to the talented ones that reside within my pop-up.

It is possible to navigate away from Promosquad with the pop-up box still open and still be able to rate - although I don't tend to do this as too much movement on my screen causes my PC to have a fit and die. Should you crash or disconnect during a clip playing before you have had time to rate you don't get the points - which is tres annoying if you have just sat through four minutes of utter crap.

I gather from other users in the site that when you rate around 20/25 songs in one go you receive a bonus of some kind - I'm not sure what this is as my PC hates me and usually disconnects after ten songs.
One problem I have found is that I am on dial up and the clips can pause for a few seconds whenever I change site or open a new page, this can get very annoying. However if you had Broadband I guess this wouldn't happen.

Every so often you get played a whole reel of clips which you just have to say yay or nay to. For these you are awarded one point and they are just so that the site knows which song styles you prefer and so which ones to play to you. Song styles really do vary from Country and Western to hard Rock and Rap.

*** THE POLLS ***

This is a little fun area of the site. Little polls run and get added to every week or so - general questions like "if you were a band what would you be called?" And "what concerts have you been to this year?" Or even "have you seen the new Harry Potter? What did you think?" For each poll answered five Promosquad points are received so don't dismiss this part of the site immediately.

*** CHAT FORUM ***

Self-explanatory really. Members gather to chat and discuss music. Usual chatroom squabbles are fairly evident and many people seem to take offence at other peoples taste in music for some reason. I don't usually venture in unless I have heard a particularly great song and then I will go in and ask if anyone knows it - there is almost always someone who does.

Most members appear to be American and usually welcome a Brit with great enthusiasm and gusto.

*** MY ACCOUNT ***

This area of the site is where you can amend your address details and also see a list of the most recent songs that you have rated (farty record companies permitting) You can also see whether any prizes you have ordered have been posted to you yet.

*** PRIZE STORE ***

Woohoo! You can start claiming prizes as soon as you have 250 points.

Bronze 250 points: Obviously in this point range the prizes are quite small - pens, promo CD's, and at the moment a little glow fish night light that my daughter has her eye on.

Silver 1000 points - here you can lay your hands on such goodies as packs of recordable CD's, oldish albums and oldish DVD's.

Gold 1500 points - My favourite section. Relatively new CD albums. At the moment the choice is between Outkast, R Kelly and Sarah McLaughlin. Last month it was The Lost Prophets, The Vines... and I'm afraid the last one escapes me.

Platinum 3500 points - New DVD's such as Big Fish, Kill Bill and Lost In Translation. Only thing is the region of the DVD is not stated.

Diamond 5000 points - A $50 dollar gift certificate or electronic bits.

My only gripe is that the prizes only seem to be updated and changed every month or so and when they do they seem to be out of stock almost immediately. The site is very slow to get new stock in and of course all the new CD albums and fun items in the low point range go first.

Also you have a limit as to how many of each prize you can claim. i.e. - two glow fish per member and only one of each CD. Bit of a bummer if you wanted a CD for yourself and then wanted to be an even tighter skinflint and order another for someone's birthday!

I do like the option to be able to request what prize you would like to see in the store - so far they haven't taken the hint at my several thousand requests for Alice Coopers new album though. I would assume that they would have to have a certain number of requests from different people before they acted. Humph!

*** OVERALL ***

The site is laid out in very unobtrusive grey and orange with white silhouttes of people listening to music. (Take a closer look, methinks BB's Dan nicked one of them for his self portrait! Tsk. Tsk) The pages open fast and smoothly even on my old dinosaur

I ordered my first CD a week back and am awaiting the arrival. I was advised that delivery could take up to 28 days but is usually more like 10. I would guess that if you were online a lot and had Promosquad running whilst you were browsing the net then your points would tot up very quickly. Personally I only get an hour or two at most on the net a day and so far have accumulated enough points for my first CD and am almost at the stage where I could order another should they be arsed to re-stock. I don't think that's bad going for only a month's membership so far.

I have heard a lot of new music that I really love (and a lot more that was just plain awful) and I'm getting free stuff. What more could you ask for?

Much as I really love this site I have deducted one point for the slowness in prize re-stocking.

http://www.promosquad.com

What are you waiting for? Go rate!

Thanks for reading :o)

 

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