Got this email:
(html apparently not working)
----------------------------------

Hi, David!

My name is Brett Westbrook and I'm the founder of Beezer Entertainment, LLC!

Here at beezer.co, we focus on the distribution of digital commodities such as video games and music. The core of our business is allowing customers to purchase these commodities in various ways, but most importantly with cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, litecoin, and dogecoin. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

I'm contacting you in regards to The Music Machine. I've been looking at your game since you were available on itch.io. I'm a huge fan of your artistic style. It's great to see you on Steam now!

I'd like to help out in terms of distribution and driving sales/downloads. We've got a platform available and running and the capability of furthering your success.

Why work with Beezer Entertainment?

Effective marketing via various social media outlets such as Twitter, Reddit, etc.
Grabbing a seat in the niche market that is the cryptocurrency crowd (if unaware, please notify me so I can elaborate )
Quality customer rapport and effective communication between Beezer Entertainment, the developers, and the customers
Full transparency and monthly reports on inventory and revenue tracking for your products in our storefront

Having this game appear in our store would be greatly beneficial to the both of us! We'll put you on a platform to increase your success, and the community surrounding this game and those you've published will leave happy and satisfied. We've worked with several developers and publishers both on and off of Steam and working with you would be great!

Eager to hear back from you :)

Any questions you have, just ask!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

He is using words that freak me out. Like Bitcoin. I am suspicious of this. Any thoughts from anyone who's more savvy than me are very welcome.

What does their web profile look like?! - Don't think I've ever heard of them.

Edit: found them I think - http://beezer.co/

I haven't heard about this company, so can't help you there, but... using bitcoins in itself doesn't make them scammers. Lots of legit companies use it and it has its advantages.

There website looks ok, not many games already on there though. They say on their about us that they don't pay them selves for what they do, so presumably that means you get 100% profit of any sales? But whether that's in bitcoins or a regular currency I don't know...

Maybe contact one of the developers of the games they sell, or one of the musicians whose music they sell and see what they think of them and how well they do from it?

Well, looking at their website it seems polished and serious enough - BUT - if it were me they
contacted the "About" page would have my alarm bells ringing:

"We do not currently pay ourselves for our work. Any donations made to Beezer Entertainment will be put towards website development and improving infrastructure. Customer satisfaction is our priority to ensure you visit us more than once. We happily accept your donations as they will help make the user experience much better. :)"

- theres no mention of where they are based or any registered non-profit status, so its basically a personal promise. Nothing bad about the latter, but it does show a lack of public accountability and transparency and makes me question who they are, where they are etc and what level of security you'd have working with them.

Edit: they're Texas based, so should probably be registered with the IRS as a non-profit or some kind of community organisation - unless its very early days and nobody has clued them up yet. Sent you all the info on the other channel!

Business letters with "!" exclamation points and smiley faces would set my alarm bells ringing. The use of I and We makes it sound like an identity crisis. Their Marketing Dept needs a bit of work, Between that and the bitcoins stuff it all seems a bit too "virtual".

The guys personal FB profile checks out as non-scummy, and also is part of an indie team. Just an inexperienced college kid I'd say - if Jefesquo decides to follow this up, I'd just suggest he gets a solid contract in place. Already have all the guys details.

Yeah, It just strikes me as a very unprofessional outfit, so expect the commensurate results.

EDIT: Just noticed your link and saw the "Donate" button....ouch.

Unprofessional in the sense its a bunch of college kids / geeks who are passionate about an idea and dont yet have the experience to present it better and on stronger foundations?! - YARP!

But... I dont really see it as being too different than some bundle sites on those grounds - nor a massive drawback as a result. Like I said - if he goes with it and gets a solid contract / checks further down the line with the info I sent him, his back will at least be covered.

Anyways, ball is in Jefe's court now as he has the knowledge.

I'm probably not going to take them up. It's actually not really in my best interest to spread my game over a bunch of small distributors, since that makes it a lot more complicated to track my taxable income (something I'm quite bad at to begin with). And I especially don't want to get involved in figuring how/if stuff like bitcoins gets taxed. And unless there's going to be a significant financial return (unlikely), I don't want to spend my time and energy dealing with that stuff. Not when I have so many other things on my plate as well (I'm currently working on three different games in one way or another, in addition to doing marketing/business stuff for The Music Machine and running a Greenlight for Fingerbones).

Thanks all for the help. Sounds like the boat I was in (arguably still am in, since I'm running to a forum for business advice -_-) a year ago. Wish them the best of luck.

Ok, thanks :)

Don't do it. Work with ME instead! I am a Nigerian prince. I come from the royal bloodline and I can help you market your products to our entire country. I just need you to help me unlock some funds.

As a company it seems legit and fairly new judging by their blog, it does seem very unprofessional though. The letter is written poorly with too many !!!!!!!oneone111oneone marks and that Donate button on their site doesn't help either. Stick with Steam and if possible extend your game to Humble Bundle and of course GOG.

Wait a minute, i've been living under a rock... Dogecoins is a thing? O.o