Music Gateway Reviews 

-$20 just charged me for subscription that they turned on. nice business

charged me 17 pound when i dont even have an account with them fraud scam

Edit:They are flagging reviews as defamatory so I'm having to reword it.

Sent an email telling people they were deleting all their free tiers on their site and that if no replies they'd move them onto a paid tier. Therefore silence = consent?,
I located the email after the payment was taken, it was located in my spam folder, dated 3rd March.

I got the trial on June 2024 and cancelled it for the FREE trial which puts you on a free trial. Like anyone, when you cancel a trial you imagine that is the end of it....

So timeline, signed up June 2024, cancelled trial, like anyone cancelling a trial because I DON'T want to pay for their service. Terms and conditions state free Tier is Free.

I forget about the website.

Changes stated in an email, and rather than have people do something to agree to the change, they use a "if you don't reply or delete your account" as a way to gather consent, this is factual, if you didn't delete your account regardless of how long you've had the free tier, they would now charge you.

19th March payment taken.

I also wasn't placed on a £17 tier I'd like to point out like others, I was placed on a £25 tier. So why is it so inconsistent?

Imagine if all companies suddenly used old bank details to charge you for something you tried as a trial of their product and cancelled months ago, sent you an email considering a lot of the emails go to spam or like me you get inundated with so much junk emails you don't see these emails. I'd probably have thousands taken out of my account for every free trial I cancelled.

Edit: day after this review and starting a case with my bank they replied saying they are looking into it and also flagging my comment to get Truspilot to remove it.

They charge me for nothing. Scam !

Took £17 out of my account on a card that I didn't physically receive yesterday. I did not sign up or have even heard of this company. I reported it as a fraudulently claim. Had to cancel my card.

Upgraded my FREE subscription to a PAID subscription without my consent and now are refusing to refund or even reply to my emails.

To clarify I registered for a free account over a year ago, decided I didn't like the service and never even visited the website in all this time - before suddenly being charged £17 yesterday out of the blue.

Their logic is they sent me an email allowing me to opt out, which I didn't see. Surely this is illegal?

UPDATE - They are so far refusing to refund my £17. I have evidence of never even uploading music to the platform - I signed up years ago then never logged in since. My email address is alexreadsmusicatgmail.com if anyone else is experiencing the same and can help? MG - You have no idea of anyone's personal circumstances and this is such a violation of privacy and trust. I did NOT give consent to be put into a premium plan, and no consent should mean no. I cant even log into MG as its been that long since I used it. Outrageous and a violation of privacy ie HELPING YOURSELF TO MONEY IN MY BANK ACCOUNT.

I received an email out of the blue thanking me for upgrading my membership and £17 taken from my bank account. I havent logged into MG for about 6 months and havent 'used' it for about 3 years. How DARE they just help themselves to money in my bank account. Full boycott necessary, we're skint enough.

They just took €19 from my bank account without my consent. I understand why they want to charge for their services but you can't just take money without agreement! Very bad practice and i'm sure it's illegal.

I signed up for a free account with Music Gateway, but recently, they informed me via email that they would automatically upgrade my account to a paid subscription unless I deleted it. I never agreed to this upgrade, yet they still attempted to charge my bank account without my consent!

This is completely unethical and possibly illegal. No company should be allowed to force customers into a paid plan without explicit approval. After noticing a pending charge in my bank account, I will now to take immediate action to block the transaction.

Their customer service is unresponsive, and this entire experience has been frustrating. I will be reporting them to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Trading Standards for their shady practices, if they won't send me the refund.

Avoid this company at all costs! If you’re thinking about using their services, be very careful, as they might try to charge you without warning.

Reply:
Thank you for your response. However, your explanation does not address the core issue. I cannot "miss an update" for something that I never consented to in the first place. Automatic upgrades to a paid subscription without explicit agreement are not only unethical but may also be unlawful.

Furthermore, I have already deleted my account and therefore have no access to your chatbot. Instead, I have sent multiple emails to three different addresses, including your own (which I found on gov.uk), yet I have not received a single response until now.

Given this lack of communication and the unauthorized attempt to charge my account, I have no choice but to pursue this matter through other channels.

Additionally, during my research, I discovered your previous involvement in the gambling and betting industries. While this is not inherently an issue, it does raise serious questions about the true intentions behind your business practices—particularly in light of the unauthorized upgrade and attempted charge on my account. Such practices are also associated with industries that rely on opt-out models and aggressive billing tactics, which only reinforces my concerns.

Update:
Yesterday, the 26th of March, I received a response from Sophie regarding my refund request. She directed me to a refund request form, which requires me to delete this review in order to proceed—something I find completely unacceptable and legally questionable:

According to the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, businesses cannot pressure or mislead consumers into removing honest reviews. Additionally, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has made it clear that companies must not condition refunds or services on deleting or modifying a review.

Additionally, the form states that the refund process can take up to 31 days (a full month) to be completed. However, under UK law, this is not justified:

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, businesses must process refunds within 14 days if a payment was unfairly taken or misleading.

Since this was an unauthorized charge, a delay of up to 31 days is completely unreasonable. That is why I chose not to use the refund request form and instead sent an email with all the required details, exactly as stated in the form.

I have given the company 48 hours to respond and process my refund. If I do not receive a resolution within this timeframe, I will explore further legal channels if necessary.

THEY LITERALLY JUST CHARGED ME FOR A PRO PLAN I NEVER PURCHASED!!! ABSOLUTELY SHAMEFUL AND INCREDIBLE!!! STAY AWAY!!!

They charged me for a subscription I never signed up for. I had registered with their free version just to see how it worked. Months later, on March 20th, they charged me 19 euros. And of course, when I go to their website, I can’t contact them directly—I’m stuck with a bot that obviously doesn’t understand what I’m asking.

On top of that, when I checked my account, there was no active subscription, since the first thing the interface asks me when I log in is whether I want to subscribe to a pro plan. Stay away—this site is a scam... I know I’ll never get my money back. I just deleted my account and hope I won’t have any more issues.

They randomly increased the price on my free account I never even used and is now charging £17 a month, I do not remember adding my bank details and I was not notified, I have tried accessing my account but keep getting bad gateway errors or the website will not load and when it eventually does it doesn’t let me log in , I tried using the virtual assistant but it said no one was there to help, so now I’m stuck I would like to cancel it because this is a scam and an outrage absolutely disgraceful practises I do not have that kind of money.

SCAM! I had a dormant account from years ago that was their free subscription, and then I got a £17 charge! Emails on their website bounce back to the sender, and I requested a refund, but no confirmation of request or fulfilment.

They charged me £25 for a subscription I didn't agree to. Went back through my emails to find one email in my spam folder notifying me that they're switching all free users to a paid account with 2 weeks notice, after years with the platform on various accounts. The email stated I'd be switched to their lowest tier account, but I actually got switched the highest tier, more expensive subscription. The only way to avoid it is to delete your account.
I can't comment on the quality of their paid service as I've not used it, but automatically switching all users to a paid plan after a decade of offering a free account is a huge red flag. I'm sure there are plenty of people who signed up and forgot they had accounts that are now going to have to be applying for refunds (but I'd imagine this move is banking on enough people not noticing to balance their books). Contacted their support and was directed to a refund form, which conveniently has terms to sign saying you won't leave a bad review until the process is complete. (a process that they say can take up to 31 days, conveniently enough time for your subscription to be charged again).
I understand the need to make money to offer the service they do, but this change was handled terribly at best, and at worst seems fairly predatory and a cynical money grab from unsuspecting users.

if you are musician or songwriter AVOID THIS COMPANY. Like many out there this company preys upon on the hopes and dreams of an aspiring musician or songwriter. It promises much and delivers nothing. Poor customer service, inexperienced A&R, terrible UX and backend that is full of bugs and problems. Avoid like the plague.

Absolutely unacceptable behavior from this platform! I had two releases that took more than six weeks, and every time, they found new excuses to delay things further. One of their worst excuses? "Track cannot be played", even though they later admitted it was fine. Then, my third release was stuck with them for five weeks, only for them to reject it with this ridiculous message:

"Urgent changes needed – We can't release your track right now due to one or more issues that need fixing."

And their so-called "issue"?

"Subscription type no longer valid."

Are you kidding me? What kind of nonsense is that?!

If that wasn’t bad enough, the platform itself is a nightmare to use. Trying to gather my own music data was an unnecessary struggle because they throw up an annoying popup that forces you to select a plan before you can do anything. I had to bypass their nonsense just to access MY OWN information.

This service is an absolute joke—cheap, unprofessional, and completely unreliable. Stay far away unless you enjoy wasting your time and dealing with pointless roadblocks.
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My reply to your comment:

Thank you for your response. However, it seems like you're missing the point of my review entirely. My concerns are not about the cost of your services—it's about the unprofessional and unreliable behavior that I experienced during my time with Music Gateway.

The repeated delays, the contradictory excuses, and the arbitrary rejection of my third release due to a "subscription type no longer valid" issue are the real problems. It's not about the price, but rather about the lack of clear communication and accountability on your end.

Additionally, you gave me only a two-week notice to decide whether to pay for a subscription, and on top of that, you introduced an unclosable popup on your website that wouldn't allow me to gather essential personal track information unless I paid. The frustrating part was that I had no choice but to literally use F12 and bypass the overlays and pop-ups just to proceed. That’s not the type of service any artist should expect when managing their own work.

I understand that costs are involved in running a platform, but that doesn't justify the poor service I received. I was simply trying to use the platform to manage my music, and the numerous obstacles made the experience extremely frustrating.

I won’t be continuing with your services, and I would encourage you to reassess how you handle customer feedback and make your platform more user-friendly in the future. It’s not just about paying for a service; it’s about delivering the quality and reliability you promise.

Incredible experience. Music Gateway has a team of knowledgeable experts who are collaborative, well-connected, and highly skilled in what they do.

Got an email telling me the free plan is automatically moving to a paid plan in 14 days, clicked on the delete my account link in the email and have now spent an hour going round in circles trying to delete this rubbish app. Complete scammers and crooks

The options on the website are endless! From sync and playlist placements to mastering and much more. I got a code for the PRO membership and I personally messed up by not adding the code and paying full price. You know what happened? They refunded the difference back the same day🥺 I think I found my long term music business partners🫶🏼

They do not have quality graphics tools or skills, despite this feature being a selling point for their overpriced campaign. In lieu of using the custom top quality audio clip I provided for social media ads, they dumbed it down to the hook which was overlayed onto a cliche stock animated GIF rather than sequencing the pro photos I sent. The 1st font they put on it was illegible, though they replaced as soon as I asked. My song credits were wrong, meaning royalties & splits were misdirected...big legal problems. The briefs on their site are not exclusive, and you're being cross-sold. If they mess up credits what would happen with sync?! They did not get the playlisting they boasted either. They also dodged all questions to correct their serious errors.