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Why You Shouldn’t Hide Your Songs Under a Bush

Posted by Mike McCready | May 29th, 2010 | No responses

 

We’ve all heard the old stories about the artist who submitted their song to someone in the music business and never heard back. Then, at some point in

the future they heard their song on the radio as a smash hit recorded by someone else and the whole thing ended up in a contentious lawsuit or simply

never got resolved. These days, some artists believe that when they put their songs “out there” they run the risk of it spreading virally and millions of

people will end up listening to the song but the artist never will never see a dime.

As in every industry, the music industry has its share of unscrupulous people so I’ll never go as far as to say that this won’t ever happen again but in my

opinion, the potential rewards of getting your songs heard far outweigh the risks. Here are four points that illustrate why:

  • There are now over a million songs being created and digitally distributed EACH YEAR. There is no lack of great music and smash hits out there and an

    industry professional would rather do legitimate business with a willing artist than to steal a song. There’s just too much hassle involved in stealing a song

    and in today’s digital age. It’s pretty easy for an artist to prove a song is theirs.

  • If you don’t get your song in front of the right people you have no shot. There are plenty of artists out there who understand that hiding their music is

    only going to lead to never getting a deal. In other words, competition is robust and if you don’t get your songs in front of the right people there are

    plenty of other artists who will.

  • Right or wrong, most music business professionals believe that there is no song or artist that can’t be replaced. That is to say, no matter how good you

    are or no matter how good your song is it really doesn’t make sense for a music business professional to try to “steal” it from you. Why get embroiled in

    contention with an artist and damage your own reputation in the business when it’s so easy to find artists with great songs willing to do deals?

  • Mass exposure gives you a better chance of achieving fame or reaching a deal than obscurity does. That is to say, if you are lucky enough to put a song

    out there and to have it take off virally you will do really well. The currency of the digital age is attention. If you get people’s attention you have a better

    chance of converting it into income than if you languish in obscurity. Unless you are a writer of hit songs with a proven track record, a network of

    contacts waiting for your next creation and top artists beating down your door for your songs you need to do whatever you can to establish yourself.

    Having one of your songs go viral will help you establish that.

There is one last issue you should understand. Most music professionals and companies will not accept music submissions if the music they receive is not publicly visible and streamable somewhere. There are a lot of complex legal issues surrounding this but explained briefly; industry professionals and their companies do not want to be put in the position of perhaps being the only people to have ever heard your music. If they were and someone were to copy your music, they could be liable. Industry professionals would prefer to never hear your music than to be put in that position. Therefore, one of the requirements of submitting music via Music Xray is that the music is streamable from the site. This is explained clearly in our terms of service. If you’re not comfortable with it, please don’t use Music Xray.

But again, there are lots of other reasons (see above) why making your music available is in your best interest.

Tip of the week – How To Make It As an Artists in the New Music Business

Posted by Mike McCready | May 19th, 2010 | No responses

Check out this article on The Huffington Post:

It covers some of the new opportunities and paths to success now open to artists in the emerging new music business landscape.

“… after years of drought, we may now be moving into the best time to be a musical act in decades, if not ever. A time when there is less incentive than ever before for any business person to prey upon the aspirations and naivety of artists and a time when artists can hire their own business teams and be off to the races.

“I am certain that we will see some very creative ways in which artists will become famous. There will be more paths to success than we’ve ever seen. I don’t claim to foresee them all but here’s one replicable way I think it can be done.”

Subscribe to the new Song Cat A&R Podcast to hear great Music Xray songs and discussion about the music business.

Don’t forget to join our LinkedIn group for a more business focused angle on all things music.

How do I set up the Next Big Sound Artists Statistics Module on my Music Xray?

Posted by Mike McCready | May 16th, 2010 | No responses

For those of you who have not activated it, the Artist Statistics module displays all sorts of data about the artist and help you see your traction and

progress at a glance.

However, YOURS MAY CONTAIN NO DATA and instead of seeing cool and informative graphs you

may only be seeing a message that says, “Could not locate any information for the artist name supplied.”

But you can change that

and we HIGHLY recommend you do, especially if you are submitting songs to industry professionals or have some of your songs pending review. Any

changes you make now will still be seen by professionals even though you’ve already submitted!

Here’s how you do it:

  1. Click here (if that link does not work, copy and paste the following link into your browser:

    http://nextbigsound.com/#add) and set up an account at Next Big Sound (requires only email address and a password of your choice).

  2. After that, you should be taken to a screen asking you for the “artist’s name”. If not, go back to the link provided above once you’ve opened

    an account and are signed in.

  3. Enter the artist’s name. It will have to appear identically in the artist name field on your Music Xray song info module so if

    you have not entered your artist name and song title in your song presentation packs you have to do that too before the graphs will appear properly.

  4. Then enter the URLs to all the pages it requests such as your MySpace page, your Facebook page, Twitter url etc…
  5. Once that is finished your Artist Statistics module on your Music Xray should work just fine. Let us know if you have any questions.

Having trouble entering your artist name and song title in your Song Presentation pack?

It could be because you never claimed it after you uploaded it during the submission process.

Here’s how you do that:

  1. Find an email you were sent right after you uploaded your song from no-reply@musicxray.com. Check your spam folder too.
  2. Click on the link that is provided in the email and then follow the instructions. You should be able to log in and make changes to your song

    presentation pack at that point.

  3. Let us know if you have any questions by getting in touch with us via the contact page: http://www.musicxray.com/contact

Tip of the week – How To Best Use Music Xray

Posted by Mike McCready | May 11th, 2010 | No responses

1. Get feedback on your songs from qualified industry professionals.

2. Submit your songs for roster consideration, song placements and much more.

3. Use your song presentation packs to promote your songs across the web while putting their best foot forward.

Subscribe to the new Song Cat A&R Podcast to hear great Music Xray songs and discussion about the music business.

Don’t forget to join our LinkedIn group for a more business focused angle on all things music.