drum thread: any drum company that contacts you FIRST about an endorsement is probably NOT worth the price or product they’re offering. you may get a glorified artist page on their website, but you are still paying full price under a “discount” and are now a marketing tool.

preface: the companies I endorse are all amazing. this does not apply to them. I tried for years and years to land them, application after application. I cannot thank them enough. Zildjian, Vic Firth, and Vratim are there the absolute second I need them.

do not fall into the trap of a company “A&R” scout leveraging your excitement towards a successful drum “endorsement” to get you to buy drum products from them. they will do this to drummers who have a small to medium following, however this is done by companies big and small.

this happened to me early on during drum videos on YouTube and before I was touring. I was contacted by an artist rep and given a “great artist discount”. I made an undercover email asking for the same exact specs of equipment only to find my discount was $10 on a $2000+ sale.

in reality, they were expecting ME to pay $1990 and provide them advertising to 30,000+ people in drum videos, hoping the idea of using their name and logo would somehow increase my reputation as a drummer. this is not the case, but young and naive drummers will believe it.

I see this company on social media pretty often, and can spot drummers who have fallen to this trap vs drummers who authentically endorse the company. I won’t name the company, but trust me when I say there are multiple.

this isn’t to knock on smaller companies as an attempt at marketing and growing their brand; this is a knock on the practice of tricking young drummers into the trap of spending hard earned money on a possibly inferior product under the veil of an artist discount and endorsement.

the exceptions (obviously) are:
- you’re touring internationally
- playing to upwards of 1,000 people
- have an absolute insane amount of followers
- product high quality content on a regular basis

if this contact first happens to you, feel free to DM me and I’ll tell you if you’re getting ripped off.