StarNow Reviews 127

My casting call was removed and then my profile was deleted. Why? Because I was casting for a film with violence in the script... It's crazy. What is this company doing?

didn't ask ask thing doggy or something just post a very basic casting.

"all I said Initial ideas for something different are as follows: Burlesque, Punk, Goth, Suicide Girls etc"

even clearly said not nudity required

there is something called explanation or reasons. but look they are doing this with everyone when they don't like it. doesn't matter if that is right and wrong

kept everything clear in casting and then got this email

They sent an email saying that: After careful consideration, your profile has been removed from StarNow, as we believe your use of the StarNow service is not in line with our terms and conditions/community guidelines.

not recommended at all

Someone has made a fake account of me on this website, using photos of me aged 12-14 and Starnow won't delete the account due to me not knowing any of the account details. How am I meant to know account details when its a Fake account?????

I have advised them in writing that they do not have my permission to use the photos, or store them on their system. I would like the account removed ASAP.

Absolutely appalling services, causing me numerous anxiety attacks. I will be taking legal action and reporting to the police. Please, please avoid this website.

Money started being taken out of my account without authorisation. Customer service is terrible and is now ignoring my emails after asking for a full refund.
Looked like a decent site until this started happening. They trick you into putting in your payment details to upload a video then bam, the scamming begins.

Most disgusting, backstabbing company I ever used. I can't even put into words how abhorrent their customer service is. It's absolutely appalling. Don't waste your time on these amateurs.

Stay away from this SCAM website. They are very deceitful. I know from personal experience.

I started my acting career 3 years ago at 48 years old.. I have had unpaid and paid roles and featured roles .I have also appeared on TV through starnow roles. I now have an agent and am a co director of a production company. I can hand on heart say I couldnt and wouldnt have achieved this if it hadn't been for STARNOW. HIGHLY RECOMMEND

Great website to stay up to date with work opportunity in the music industry, as well as other entertainment fields.

I was advertising music jobs on Starnow
I have been advertising on Starnow for a bit. I worked with musicians from there and paid them well for their work. There was never any problem until they unceremoniously removed my profile without any previous warning whatsoever (clearly because I relisted my listings a couple of times - as they removed the listings first before they removed my account).

They sent an email saying that: "After careful consideration, your profile has been removed from StarNow, as we believe your use of the StarNow service is not in line with our terms and conditions/community guidelines." I even paid Starnow for their services which I didn't fully use until my account was removed but they didn't even issue a refund for that.

Their email ended with "If you disagree with this decision, please review our terms and conditions prior to contacting us, and get in touch with any information that would be useful in reviewing this decision.

Kind regards,

Max"

I sent them an email asking them to explain why they removed my account but they didn't reply. I lost money because of this company and they didn't even issue a reimbursement. I did nothing other than advertise for legitimate jobs that I paid for in the past.

I'm very disappointed with this company for what they did. I just want to warn other advertisers that if you relist listings a lot of times they will remove your account without any warning even if you paid for their services.

I just don't understand how a company can do such a thing without warning the advertiser first.

What a company! I honestly am not one who would impatiently leave a review or do so out of mere vendetta. I had given these guys enough chance to right their wrong but it is apparent they may be more incorrigible than I thought.

I upgraded membership so I could message a few people within my network about an unpaid collaboration opportunity (filming), and I was getting good interest from some of the people I contacted. I could have sent them the audition sides directly from starnow messaging tool but I wanted to do things the proper way and create a listing.

StarNow became very intrusive and they lumped everything under 'policy' when it was clear that discretion ought to have prevailed in my situation.

It was a passion project, and I offered to give a few perks in return (showreel, expenses paid, refreshment on set) yet StarNow kept insisting that it had to be a student film to be listed as unpaid.

Nowhere was that stated anywhere and I have seen other unpaid roles in the past which were not student films. It really upsets me that they not only deleted a listing I had spent hours composing, they went into my Sent Folder and deleted messages which I sent back to the talents whom I had informed about the imminent casting link that was awaiting approval. My emails were just to advise the interested parties that I was still looking into the issue with StarNow, explaining that they were not being as quick at resolving the issue. Lo and behold, SN went in there and deleted my messages.

Is that even legal? I know it's their site and they can snoop on messages but to go into members inboxes to intercept general conversations like a little child that's pulling some tantrum is just plain wrong to me.

Shame I upgraded, only to face issues. I would have been best as a Free member that I previously was.

I will continue to dissuade people I know who care to listen, not to bother joining or take the site seriously. Once my subscription is over, I'm out and not looking back.

PS - may I say that I took the same listing to another (much bigger and popular) site than theirs and the listing was successfully posted without any issues.

I am very upset about the stress SN has caused me. A good discretionary review would have resolved my issue and avoided me coming public this way.

Hopefully someone reads this, and makes an informed choice.

UPDATE:

Yes Customer Service Manager contacted me but he/she did not demonstrate that my plight was in the slightest understood. Everything sounded like some template response, still.

Messages you are deleting are personal conversations I am having with my network, whom I am even conversing with via email outside StarNow, is what now baffles me. What is the explanation behind the constant pestering and rude intrusion on my messages and deleting them willy nilly. It is clear that the motive is you're not happy that I am sharing my frustrations with those members. While I get it that you don't want to be painted in a bad light, surely I reserve the right to freedom of expression or is that abolished within your Policy as well? You shouldn't try to cover up anything or worse, silence me from speaking my thoughts to members on the forum. That is very domineering, autocratic and unprofessional.

And the claim that your paid subscribers are complaining that they mainly want paid jobs on a 'subscription website' seems shaky. Surely, the website accommodates both paid and unpaid jobs, it's just the flexibility and discretionary considerations when approving listings that is lacking. Your policy is flawed, and needs reviewing asap. That's a honest feedback!

FINAL UPDATE FOR THOSE WHO CARE TO LISTEN 19 DECEMEBER:

Stay away from StarNow. Sooner or later, they might make you cry and frustrated.
I eventually requested for a refund which after ignoring me a few times they finally refunded me.
Reason i asked for a refund you ask? After the frustrating episode re: my deleted listing and messages, StarNow continued to delete every single unrelated contacts I made to talents on site which for the life of me I understand not. Some were messages that had nothing to do with the deleted listing - just me linking up with talents and asking about their interests and whether we could collaborate. The last deletion was the final straw. I had seen a guy that fitted a project I have in the pipeline but I had not finalised it neither had I put the listing on StarNow. I reached out to him and just acquainted myself. Out of nowhere, StarNow deleted that too. So every time I message anyone, they were too scared I’d talk about them and they will just delete it. I felt handicapped, bearing in mind that the reason I upgraded to a paid member was not to look for Jobs but to have access to directly message talents. Job search would only be an icing on the cake.

Conclusion - stay away from them!

Starnow are an amazing, affordable platform for actors, dancers etc to be seen by Industry professionals. They really champion new talent and have made a huge difference to my life. Lucinda Kay even called offering help with a listing and went way byond the call of duty. Thank you so much Lucinda and Starnow. The work you do is gives hope to so many!!!

I have been a member of StarNow since April 2020 (7 months at the time of this review), and found their help and advice invaluable in starting my voice over career. I've had a lot of castings and no problem with fees.

I've just been upgraded to 'Pro' status thanks to their suggestions and assistance.

I highly recommend StarNow - be prepared to put the work in at your end too and you'll have a great partnership.

Amazing and would be even better if there was an app.

I started out dabbling in the Film,TV, Modelling industry in 2013, initially joining Starnow as a starting point to gain experience and learn more about the industry.

Seven years later I still use the service and plan to continue doing so in the future.

Although many of the posts relate to unpaid shoots these were initially useful for gaining experience, clips and stills/images for my profile and building a network of contacts that have always been happy to share their experience about work etc through Starnow and outside of the site itself.

Having for some time now undertaken only paid work through the site (albeit irregularly), although Starnow isn't a means to gain full time employment on shoots etc, it does compliment the work that I do with other agencies and I have on occasion had some of my best paid one day shoots with them over time.

With the site being very easy to use and quite comprehensive I now also tend to use Starnow as an online CV (along to some extent with Instagram) and a good reference point for the work I have done and for storing images and voice/video clips etc.

I think that it is very unlikely that anyone will ever make a fortune or find fame through Starnow however it is very much the case that the more that you put into it, the more you will ultimately get out of it and if you can get enough paid shoots from it you can happily cover the costs.

In addition, staff have always proved to be helpful with enquiries, potentially 'dodgy' posts get investigated and removed if necessary and they always seem to be very proactive in maintaining and developing the site.

With various payment options available I have at times stopped my membership but then restarted it again subsequently so that flexibility also suits me and again the staff have always proved helpful with any queries.

As such, for me it works and I have found Starnow a very useful tool that I would recommend especially for people who are just starting out. If you don't mind the outlay, aren't expecting overnight fame and fortune and and are prepared to put in the effort to make it work for you unlike many other sites out there that will happily 'scam' you Starnow won't. How well it works however is down to you!

I was constantly harrassed by various members of the Star Now staff over the content of my ad, which was perfectly acceptable and above board. I told them to take my profile off the system, because they were sending me e-mails everyday with some criticism or another.

I've spent the past few years putting together many music videos for one big industry push that should be happening in a few months. So I will end up having been on both sides of the production, one as "video maker" seeking performers and now as a potential performer (provider of song content for other acts) in my own right. Starnow has literally enabled me to find scores of performers, with quick validatory links to up to the minute Insta / FB / YT images for mere pennies. I've now just become a paying member to promote myself but for years as a "hirer" I've only needed to spend a few quid every 6 months or so to enable me to approach advertisers looking for lip-sync / dance video work. I've read some of the negative reviews from people seeking for example acting opportunities and I am now for the first time in a position to be seeking furtherance as a supplier of content driven opportunities myself but as a video maker seeking performers, Starnow has been invaluable and I have been amazed at some of the performancs I got from aspiring people ranging from some just starting out right through to acting pros. If I get nothing from Starnow as an advertiser I can hardly blame them and by the same token I can't understand these people who have that "life isn't fair" vibe etc. I've read a lot of reviews on here and I haven't seen one that criticises Starnow as an easy to manipulate pool of available talent.

My experience with StarNow has been fantastic. Such a great variety (and also regular) job postings. Many of my best roles also came from here, so many thanks StarNow :)

I have been with Starnow for the past three years! Even during lockdown/Covid 19 I have had paid jobs, which I am grateful for. In general Starnow has opened many doors for work and networking. Definitely would recommend to start out especially if your new, it will help to find more opportunities.

Thank you!

I would not hesitate to recommend StarNow- IF my only acting experience had been the role of a tree in the background of a play that I did when I was 11 years old.

I signed up during the pandemic when I was a bit restless. I wish that I had done some research and read the reviews first. These guys are either inept or corrupt. Either way, don’t waste your time.
Most of the “paid” listings are not jobs at all, really just ads for tangentially related crap that merely says "PAID!" It ranges from useless workshops to "Special Q&A events" with no one you've heard of...
Some listings are from jobs that already shot a month earlier. Rookie stuff.

StarNow doesn't have .001% of the legitimate casting leads found on Mandy, Backstage, Casting Networks or Spotlight.

IF you join and once you cancel, they are TRICKY about refunds.

Approach StarNow the way you would if want Coke or a Pepsi, BUT all that's available is a can of something suspicious with a warning label and tiny print.

Although I am with Spotlight and Mandy, my membership with Starnow is invaluable - I have booked many well paid gigs here. The profile allows me to show me off to the best of my ability and is easy to use in so many ways - I love that I can show display many show reels and photos as well as CVs! I'm not a big social media person so none of that interests me except to say that it is functional and possibly could help an artiste in different ways.
Starnow is also a great place to direct future clients so they can see the extent of your work.
I don't normally do reviews but for this, I really wanted to!