The Gauntlet ends the nightmare with Buzznet

The Gauntlet's nightmare from the start deal with Buzznet is now over. Signed on May 5, 2008 as an attempt to launch The Gauntlet into many new exciting areas, things quickly went south. I should have known things weren't going to be great after they ended their lease on the production studio which was followed by a number of layoffs including the people they sent to contribute to writing at The Gauntlet. And who can forget the 'forgetting' to pay me. I wonder what ever happened to all those checks they sent over that never arrived?

One also has to complement them on their ability to break contracts like it was no big deal. A large part of the deal was to free me up from much of the monotonous backend duties I handle daily. From server maintenance and security to ad sales and press releases, these things take a lot of time. According to the contract, Buzznet had 30 days to begin hosting thegauntlet.com on their servers. This got pushed back to 60 days, then 90, 120...then they fired most of the tech team. It isn't cheap hosting The Gauntlet and it accounts for a large part of our monthly expenses. I sent over several press releases in the beginning, but it became clear that they weren't interested in metal at the time.

The Buzznet ad department...the bane of my existence. When they took over advertising, The Gauntlet nearly failed. I really should have watched things more closely; that was my fault. When I finally began checking their numbers and they were serving 1/40th the daily ads I served, red flags went up and I quickly pulled the plug when they took over two weeks to begin looking for any issue. You gotta love having no money come in from Buzznet and me still having to pay to keep the site running plus devote my time to keep it full of content.

I am sure a lot of Buzznet's issues were they quickly went from music to celeb after signing The Gauntlet. Where does The Gauntlet fit in a world of Twilight, Tila Tequila, and Kim Kardashian?

I am sure Buzznet hated dealing with me as much as I hated them, although telling their lawyer to fuck off was very gratifying. There are blue skies ahead. The Gauntlet has emerged and run out the clock on this deal. There will be a ton of exciting things launching soon, like our online MP3 Shop, weekly and monthly metal podcasts, a live video news show, and much much more.

A lot of labels over the last 2 years have emailed me their thoughts on Buzznet: (removed names to protect the innocent)

"Sorry to hear you signed on with Buzznet, see you in the unemployment line when they go belly up"

"Liars, they are just liars"

"I hate working with them, their writers know nothing about music"

"Are you going to become a scenester too?"

"Way to sell your soul to an evil corporation and sell out all your visitors"

"hope they don't ruin your site like they did AP [absolutepunk.net]"

"Can i still go though you? Nothing ever gets done when I email "

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Tags:  The Gauntlet, buzznet, it's over  

jason fisher    May 08, 2010