triple j’s Hack has brought to light a story about Sydney recording label Strawberry Hills Records, who have delivered naught but broken promises.

Registered in January of 2015, Strawberry Hills Records was run by Damian Glebatsis, an entrepreneur with a history of short-lived company registrations in Victoria and New South Wales.

Strawberry Hills was set up as a record label aimed at up-and-coming artists hoping to kickstart their music careers by signing to a record label.

Following an audition process, artists would pay $2,000 to be signed, and acquire a five-song, one-year recording deal, with the possibility of interstate travel and various other promotions.

To sweeten the deal, those who were not signed to the label were given the opportunity to undertake a three-month artist development program, which would result in at least one of their songs being recorded. This particular program would set an artist back $600.

However, soon after its inception, the wheels started to fall off.

Alex Cake, one of the label’s interns, told Hack that Strawberry Hills had signed 10 artists with five more in the artist development program. “The term ‘signed’ is a very loose term for what he was doing,” Cake stated.

“He just basically got people in and sort of let them record and told them they were signed.” While some commenters on Yelp advised against the company as early as May of 2015, many of the artists involved reported nothing suspect about the company’s practices at first.

However, a lack of results and unanswered questions started to raise some red flags. Unanswered messages and missed deadlines came and went before Damian Glebatsis announced to interns at Strawberry Hills that they were folding due to low music sales and excessive operating costs.

Many of the musicians who had formerly signed with Strawberry Hills Records are now aiming to recoup the money they had spent in order to launch their dreams, with some artists claiming that they are owed upwards of $4,000.

Back in February of last year, Strawberry Hills were actively posting on social media as a way to source staff for their company, with job vacancies frequently turning up on Pedestrian.tv and subsequently ending up in our own Best Jobs In Music column.

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