Here is the unedited text of their statement, except, on the advice of my attorney, Murray Egelhoffer, I have removed the name of their antagonist, in order to avoid any legal unpleasantries.

Please read this carefully, and we recommend that you - a conduit of honest business in the music industry - spread the word about this to all music related people you know. It is important that the music community stays clean and that publicists, managers, artists and press behave professionally and conduct honest business with each other.

We all know about many scams in the music community, where managers, publicists and lawyers literally steal money from their clients, without doing their job as promised. Few of the artists ever get or even seek justice, in the fear for punishment. This collective consists of artists, publicists, managers and lawyers, who have come together in an effort to improve the communication and trust in the music industry. The collective has a very ambitious goal: An effective isolation of all scam companies, by spreading the word, mainly by e-mail and word-of-mouth. This has proven to be a far more efficient method than an in-door trial, where the outcome may be subject to a decision made by an average judge, who is not specialized in the complicated business of music.

It has come to the collective's attention that XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX (hereafter XXX), which has recently advertised in XXXX XXXXX, XXXXXX and other jazz related publications, has conducted dishonest business with several of their clients.

XXX charged a cabaret singer $ 5000 for a "nationwide campaign of her CD." XXX organized a release party for her in a midtown location but without any press attention. The results were virtually none; no reviews, no interviews or radio appearances of importance.

A contemporary jazz artist, with a foreign CD release, paid $3400 to XXX for a similar "nationwide campaign." The artist booked the release party himself, but XXX was unable to obtain any significant press attention. There were no results during seven painful and frustrated months, according to the artist, with the exception of one on-line review, one under five-minute (remotely located small station) radio interview, two non-jazz related TV-appearances where no one from XXX even showed up. The artist provided a total of 175 CDs, but the final destinations were never reported to the artist in spite of requests for a report at many occasions.

In a meeting on 3/24/99, the collective - having reviewed all XXX related materials - discussed whether XXX's actions are intentional or simply a result from lacking knowledge in the field. A unison answer from the collective is, that XXX intentionally leaves their unknown artists with less - if any - attention at all, while charging them large amounts of money. XXX also represents artists such as XXXXX XXXXXXX and XXXX XXXXXX, who seem to enjoy proper treatment, according to a member of the collective.

The collective has received a few of XXX's 'follow-up reports', which all show shocking unprofessionalism: Numerous unimportant publications, remotely located small radio stations, the text "will call this week" appearing week after week, and denied reviews due to many targets in a wrong genre (Avant garde CDs sent to cabaret press for instance) are just a few of the observations the members of the collective has made.

Furthermore, XXX has told some of its clients that they are not welcome to correspond with his office, except by fax or e-mail. "XXX will be in touch with their clients only on Fridays" !! Is this what the clients are paying for?, the collective asks. While the fax is working, the e-mail address "X@XXX.XXX" results in a failed delivery, although e-mail messages are regularly sent out with such an e-mail identity. To new clients, XXX appears very friendly and promising about their "nationwide campaign." They talk about how everybody in the press "loves" them, and what kind of great results they achieve. The collective sums this up again as unlawful monetary gain by fooling the clients to believe in something they are not going to get.

XXX have also booked performances for some their clients. In February this year, this (note! contemporary jazz) artist was booked at a New York Uptown cabaret venue, with a former client of XXX. The former client did not show up, and later it appeared that she had never agreed to the performance. The contemporary artist was never paid, and XXX later explained in an e-mail message: "Funding has been withdrawn." Through investigations by telephone calls to this venue, it seems that funding was never available, and that XXX had promised salaries which did not exist.

The collective makes the following conclusion about XXX: They are generally disorganized; actions, replies and correspondences are often very blurry; they make many major spelling errors in their letters; but most of all, they lack a candid and professional attitude towards their clients. Instead, they try to intimidate the artist by saying (as one example): "Never piss off your cook or publicist, they can both poison you." Additionally they tries to benefit from the business- unawareness of the artist by charging for stapling, messengers and other inappropriate and possibly false expenses without the artist's prior consent.

After seven months of frustration, wasted energy and money, this contemporary jazz artist was dropped from XXX's "service" with a "final communicae", which reads: "It is not possible to badger, coerce or intimidate writers into liking your record..." and continues: "Šhould you make any defamatory statement(s) about us, we reserve the right to seek both punitive and compensatory damages." The letter is dated 3/11/99.

The collective has been aware of XXX's business style since December 1998, but has not taken any immediate action since no direct threat has been expressed by XXX towards their clients. (The collective does not spread information based on rumors or bitter clients who did not succeed with their music due to a lacking quality of the music itself.)

This "final communicae" has, however, awakened the members of the collective to understand the seriousness of this scam, and consequently to inform the music community immediately. It does not seem enough for XXX that they charge some of their clients without any revenue in return, but XXX also threatens these clients in advance with legal actions, should the client later decide to spread negative word about XXX. This proves that XXX is fully aware of its actions. The collective has been created in order to protect the rights of these clients, against any legal action by XXX.

The Collective For Honesty In The Music Business recommends that XXX be boycotted by press, musicians, co-operating publicists, radio hosts and venue managers.

We appreciate you reading this e-mail and thank you in advance for spreading the word.

Please do not forward this to your mailing list. But, please forward this message to all who you think should be aware of this scam.

Year 2000 with an honest lifestyles that is what we want. And you can make a difference.

Truly for the benefit of the music, THE COLLECTIVE FOR HONESTY IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS

P.S. Feel free to reply if you have any questions or comments. You may be anonymous.

I tried to reply to their email adddress and got the following bounce-back:

The following addresses had permanent fatal errors-----