Beware the latest scams targeting musicians

By Jess Santacroce
Music Writer, Phoenix Radio 

Musicians and other artists are growing increasingly independent. While it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to land a contract with a major record label without securing an agent and having your music professionally produced, today’s technology does allow an artist to design, maintain, and grow a more localized career on their own, or perhaps with occasional collaboration with others in various parts of the field of music. 

This flexibility and opportunity to take greater control of your own career has both benefits and drawbacks for the artist and for the music business overall, one of the most dangerous risks being greater exposure to scammers who target musicians. The most common scams targeting musicians in late 2025 seem to fall into one of three categories. 

Catfish: Agent, manager, and music PR person edition 

An entire television series, numerous blogs, and multiple channels on YouTube have been devoted to “catfish” or “romance scams” in which one or more people target those looking for some form of dating relationship online. Some romance scammers pretend to be entirely fictional people, stealing photos, portions of biographical information, and names from a collection of profiles to craft a character, trick the target into falling in love with them, and then manipulate that person into sending them money. Others use portions of their real identify, but falsify situations and fake the relationship for the same goals. People who do this are more than willing to revise their story if something else will work a bit better to get them to their true goal, getting their targets to send them money. The same people who are online waiting to pretend to be somebody’s boyfriend, girlfriend, or fiance have no problem pretending to be your adopted aunt or sister or your second mom or dad if that’s what they realize you’re looking for…..and that flexibility extends to faking a professional relationship. 

One of the most common scams targeting musicians today is the exact same scam as the now well-known romance or friendship scam, the person is just pretending to be an agent, manager, or public relations person looking to advance your career rather than someone seeking some type of personal relationship with you. The story unfolds in a similar manner. The person approaches you, or baits you to talk to them in some type of online environment. They “love bomb” you, telling you how talented you are, how effortless it is going to be for them to turn your talent into financial success. But just as there is always an excuse as to why the couple or the pair of friends can’t meet in the classic version of the scam, in the musician-targeting version, there is always a reason why the album can’t be made or the gig fell through. Of course, you just need to pay one more fee or pay them for one more month and everything will work out in the end. 


Processing fees to get your music placed 

Instead of claiming to be your future music industry professional, scammers using this tactic to separate you from your money play on that independence so many musicians and other artists are embracing today. No manager, PR person, agent, or producer is needed, these individuals claim. You can grow your own career by getting your music placed in movies and television shows created for and produced by Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, placing your work in front of an audience of millions of people every time they sit down to binge watch the latest show or watch a movie at home, all the while drawing royalties. 

Like the fake agent or manager, these scammers first approach you with a lot of flattery. They’re brimming with compliments for you, your music, and your entire career. Not only are they impressed with you, these scammers claim, they know that your music, or even just one particular song, would be absolutely perfect for this show or that movie. All you have to do to get that placement is to pay them a processing fee for doing a little work on your behalf to get it there. 

This may sound reasonable to an independent musician who is used to hiring out various individual tasks while he retains overall control of his music. You’re just paying a person to do some promotion for your art. It isn’t. Anyone asking for any type of fee or payment to get your music placed anywhere is only setting you up for a scam. 

People who legitimately place music in movies and t.v. shows are not just random people with connections and a willingness to pepper a movie or t.v show with your music for a small fee. They are music industry professionals called “music supervisors.” These people are in charge of all facets of securing and placing music in movies and shows, including licensing and budgeting. Their jobs involve dedicated and careful research, networking  and collaboration. Anyone claiming they can just place your music as soon as you send them some cash is not a real music supervisor. 

Pay to play scams

Pay to play scams can be the most difficult ones to detect, because there are situations in which the offer to pay to play someplace is legitimate. For example, a local business might host an open mic event in which all attendees are asked to pay a cover charge to enter. Some venues may choose to waive that fee for those who sign up to perform. Others may not. 

The key difference between a legitimate “pay to play” situation and one that is a scam is that in a legitimate situation, the musician or other artist receives some type of compensation. You pay that cover charge to attend a business’ open mic. They get your money. In return, you get exposure to the audience that is made up of everyone who showed up there just because that particular place hosted the event. 

If the pay to play event is a scam, the audience won’t be there. Some pay to play scammers misrepresent their connection to real events. They claim to be collecting cover charges in advance for this showcase at that bar or coffeehouse, but in reality have no connection to the place or event, and no ability to add you to the list. Others collect fees for completely fake events, pretending to cancel or even simply vanishing with no further contact as the event draws near. Still others operate in a bit of a gray area. They may legitimately own, manage or work for the venue or event, and there may actually be something scheduled, but they may have deliberately and greatly misrepresented the size of the audience, guaranteeing “a crowd” when they know their place will likely be empty at the time, or making outlandish promises, such as claiming a famous music producer might be in attendance when they know this is very unlikely to be true. 

Time and careful research are going to be your best defenses against these scams. Demand verifiable results from anyone claiming they can lead you to success in your music career. Talk to people who have worked with them before, preferably offline, in person, and in a public place. Check out venues and other businesses both online and in person. 

Verified outside experts are another important resource. If you know someone who is a  lawyer, music producer, music PR person, or manager, run the name and online presence of anyone who approaches you by that person before signing or even verbally agreeing to allow them into your music career.