News

How COVID-19 Spreads and impacts the body – From Yale School of Medicine

Posted by DJ A | April 3rd, 2020 | No responses

Music Xray is in a unique position to understand the impact COVID-19 is having on the music industry due to the relationships we have with industry professionals across the board and the unique insights we have into the activities and business functioning of our industry professional and artist users.

We will have some info to share with everyone next week, but in the meantime, the important thing is for everyone to stay safe and healthy and to limit the spread of this virus. Norman Dolph has shared this video with us that comes from Yale School of Medicine. It’s an excellent explanation of how the virus works. It’s the best explanation we’ve seen. Please have a look and share it with as many people as you can.

Music Xray is Suspending Its Fan Product

Posted by DJ A | August 6th, 2018 | No responses

After several years of testing our fan product, we have decided to suspend it indefinitely while we consider updating and revamping the service. In short, the product has fallen short of our expectations and we haven’t been able to dedicate the necessary resources to insuring it is a best-in-class product. Until we can do that, we have decided to suspend it.

If you are an artist and you have a fan campaign currently in process, we will be issuing you a store-credit refund.

If you are a music fan, we will unfortunately not be accepting new fan sign-ups until further notice. If your account balance is greater than $20 you can write in to support@musicxray.com to request a payout of your account. All balances under $20 are not eligible currently for a payout and those will be addressed and the products re-launch.

Thank you for your interest in this product.

-The Music Xray Team

Regretfully, We’ve had to remove an industry professional from Music Xray

Posted by Mike McCready | April 10th, 2018 | No responses

We regret that some Music Xray artist and professional account holders have may have received an email in the past few days from someone named Doug Diamond. In his email, he makes a few false allegations and declares he is ending his relationship with Music Xray.

Our issues with Mr. Diamond:

For the past year, Mr. Diamond has been posting opportunities on Music Xray while not disclosing his employment role as the Vice President of Music Licensing at a company which holds itself out as a competitor to Music Xray. The principal partners at the said company had already been removed from Music Xray several years ago. By not disclosing this, he violated specific terms of service. We are investigating whether his activity was fraudulent to Music Xray but more importantly, to the users who paid to submit to his posted opportunities. We believe that false statements he made in his email to recipients meet the legal standards for libel.

Music Xray will begin refunding all affected users this week and we will do better to prevent these types of users from slipping through our review and approval process.

You can read about our approval process here or watch the short video below explaining our policy. This message continues below the video.

Music Xray removes industry professionals from the site when we detect mischievous activity. One sign an industry professional may be using Music Xray for the wrong reasons is that their business and livelihoods depend upon the collection of submission fees. In other words, we only work with industry professionals and companies whose primary source of income is earned through the great music deals they get for our musician users and others. This is the reason Mr. Diamond’s business associates were removed from the site and it is a contributing factor for removing Mr. Diamond. He has been locked out of his account, which of course, impedes him from reviewing further songs.

We are very sorry this occurred and offer our sincere apologies.

Music Xray is an efficient platform which uses a combination of music analysis software, crowd-sourcing of industry professionals, fan reactions, and machine learning to identify high potential songs and talent for the industry. We are obsessed with being best-in-class and with making it faster, more transparent, and less expensive for artists to have their music discovered by legitimate industry professionals. We act with integrity as do the professionals on the site. If we discover otherwise, they are removed.

Music Xray is currently experiencing a sever outage – we will be back shortly.

Posted by DJ A | August 4th, 2017 | No responses

Hello all,

As of now (3PM EDT on Friday August 4), Music Xray has been experiencing a server issues for the past 12 hours. We are working on solving the issue and we expect to be back online shortly. We will post further updates over the course of the day today, here.

Thank you,

The Music Xray team

Compensation for Industry Professionals on Music Xray as of February 1st, 2017

Posted by DJ A | February 15th, 2017 | No responses

As a member of the initial screening team (ratings only) Music Industry Professionals (MIPs) receive $0.50 per song they hear and rate.

MIPs offering professional song critiques and career coaching will receive 70% of the submission fee they set.

MIPs posting opportunities for which they will either Select, Reject, or Hold the submitted songs can earn UP TO 70% of the submission fee they set. But in order to earn the full 70% they must follow the site best practices and demonstrate periodically they are filling opportunities with Music Xray songs and acts.

For each attended song the MIP sees a digital receipt like this one. See key below the image:

screen-shot-2017-02-15-at-2-15-44-pm

A. The submission was attended and the MIP earned the 10% of the submission fee.

B. The opportunity was posted exclusively on Music Xray and the MIP earned an additional 20% of the submission fee.

C. The MIP attended the submission within 72 hours of it arriving in their account and earned an additional 10% of the submission fee.

D. The MIP did not have a profile video and did not earn the potential 10% of the submission fee.

E. The MIP is not linking back to Music Xray from their own website or promoting their opportunity on social media and did not earn the potential 10% of the submission fee.

F. The MIP rated the song after listening and earned the potential 10% of the submission fee.

G. This is the sub total of the potential earnings and the actual earnings up to this point.

H. The MIP has not recently filled an opportunity with a Music Xray song or act so the sub total of actual earnings is multiplied by 20%, reducing by -$4.00 what the MIP will be paid in this example. If the industry professional goes for several months without filling an opportunity with Music Xray songs & acts, they will not be allowed to post further opportunity listings on the site. The MIP may still be a member of the initial screening team (ratings pool) and offer professional song critiques and career coaching.

I. This line shows the potential earnings the MIP could have had for attending this song ($7.00) and the actual earnings ($1.00).

For a more detailed look and an explanation for these policies please read below. For the purpose of round numbers, let’s continue to use as an example a submission fee set by the industry professional of $10.00

screen-shot-2017-02-15-at-1-32-18-pm

  • Attend the submission: The MIP will receive 10% of the submission fee just for attending the submission (listening and either selecting, rejecting or placing the song on hold). Assuming a submission fee of $10.00 the MIP would receive $1.00 for this action.
  • Attend submissions within 3 days: The MIP will receive an additional 10% of the submission fee if they attend the song within 72 hours of it arriving in their inbox. To be reminded MIPs can go to “settings” to adjust the alerts they receive when submissions arrive and how often they want to be reminded. Assuming a submission fee of $10.00 the MIP would receive an additional $1.00 for this action.
  • Rate each song: The MIP will receive an additional 10% of the submission fee when they sincerely rate each song. They do not need to worry about the submitter seeing the rating. Submitters only see the average of all the ratings they’ve received from multiple professionals. This enables MIPs to rate sincerely without fear of being flamed on social media or elsewhere. Sincere feedback is important to the integrity of the community and to Music Xray’s filtering process. Assuming a submission fee of $10.00 the MIP would receive an additional $1.00 for this action.
  • Create a video for your profile: If an MIP has created video for their profile (like this one) they will receive an additional 10% of the submission fee for each song they attend. A profile video builds trust among the community. Assuming a submission fee of $10.00 the MIP would receive an additional $1.00 for this action.
  • Post the opportunity exclusively on Music Xray: You will receive an additional 20% of the submission fee if the opportunity you post is exclusively on Music Xray. Assuming a submission fee of $10.00 the MIP would receive an additional $2.00 for this action.
  • Link back to Music Xray: You will earn an additional 10% of the submission fee for each song if you are linking back to Music Xray from your own site and / or occasionally promote your opportunities on Music Xray via your social media channels etc. If you already have an industry professional account, log in and click here for details on how to automatically create a link-back. Assuming a submission fee of $10.00 the MIP would receive an additional $1.00 for this action.
  • That would bring the compensation for each song attended to 70% of the submission fee paid by the artist. In this example that assumes a submission fee of $10.00 set by the MIP, the potential earning is $7.00

    However, if the industry professional has not demonstrated a recently filled opportunity with a Music Xray song or act, the potential earning would be multiplied by 20%.

    For clarity, this means that an MIP could be following all of the best practices listed above and in theory be entitled to 70% of the submission fee paid by the submitter but only receive 20% (of that 70%) if they have not demonstrated a recently filled opportunity. In this example that assumes a submission fee of $10.00 set by the MIP, the potential earning is $7.00 if all best practices are followed but the MIP would receive only $1.40 if they have not demonstrated a recently filled opportunity.

    This is to insure that all professionals on the site are here to fill opportunities. It’s how Music Xray insures that it is not worth it to a professional to simply take submissions but not actively create value for submitters.

    How great music bubbles to the top on Music Xray

    Posted by Mike McCready | January 24th, 2017 | 9 Responses

    This video explains how great music bubbles to the top and gets the attention of the industry on Music Xray. It begins with a brief history of how Music Xray evolved from a pay-to-submit site into a sophisticated filter for the industry and an indispensable tool for artists.

    Music Xray’s Money Back Guarantee on 20 Submissions

    Posted by Mike McCready | May 25th, 2016 | No responses

    In the second half of last year we introduced Selection Prediction Scores as part of our service to musicians. That is, we tell musicians the probability their songs will be selected for an opportunity on Music Xray provided they submit them to at least 20 appropriate opportunities. We use a complex system of music analysis software, the crowdsourcing of industry professionals, and all the past history of songs that have been selected and rejected on the site, the number & type of all the available opportunities for each genre and we put all of that data into Amazon’s machine learning platform to make these predictions. In the real world our predictions have turned out to be over 90% accurate as has been evidenced in the beta trials of our Artist Investment Program.

    Given how confident we are in our predictions, today we have launched another beta program we’re calling Music Xray’s Self-Accellerated Artist Investment Program. It’s a money-back guarantee on 20 submissions for qualifying songs.

    To find out if your song qualifies, log in to your account. You will see a notification alerting you to which of your songs qualify and telling you how to find out if songs without Selection Prediction Scores can receive them.

    Data-assisted music discovery for music consumers – can the labels, publishers, and others keep pace?

    Posted by Mike McCready | February 5th, 2016 | No responses

    This week we’ve seen another music discovery service acquired by one of the large music streaming services when Irish start-up Soundwave was acquired by Spotify. This is the second Spotify acquisition of a data analytics company it is using to help consumers find the best new music they are likely to love.

    Recently, it seems like every big consumer-facing music streaming company has been shoring up its ability to stay ahead of consumer taste. Pandora acquired Next Big Sound, Apple acquired MusicMetric, and others are working on internal systems all in an effort to provide better discovery for listeners. Executives at the steaming services believe that it is key to their competitiveness to hook users into their service by helping them discover new music they love.

    As thees capabilities improve, traditional music promotion by the music labels will become decreasingly effective. The streaming companies want to channel the best new music to their listeners regardless of whether the artists are signed to a label – although the big labels are employing various strategies to insure they aren’t outflanked – primarily shoring up their advantages in their licensing agreements with the streamers.  Additionally, Universal Music hired Jay Frank in 2015 and appointed him Senior Vice President of Global Streaming Marketing, showing they understand that the ways to reach the ears of consumers is changing for everyone in the ecosystem.

    This is of course all driven by market forces and consumer demand. But it signals that the labels, publishers and others in the ecosystem need to reinforce their early discovery efforts and capabilities if they want to stay ahead of the curve. After all, they only make money if they add value and they can only add value if they get in early enough to contribute to the music’s success.

    This is why Music Xray has been building its own proprietary ecosystem for so long. We realized that you can only go so far with data generated out in the wild and it’s an arms race among those with access to the best data. When upstart musicians and their teams buy Facebook likes, YouTube streams, and other social markers they distort the field making it harder for legitimate players to stand out. By owning their own data analytics companies, Spotify and Pandora are essentially plugging in their own proprietary data they don’t necessarily share with others. But even so, they are using data generated by consumers which is so often influenced by factors that are hard to isolate and account for. Furthermore, there is little online activity surrounding songwriters and production teams who don’t have aspirations of making it as performers themselves. So much new material and talent continue to go undetected by many industry players.

    As we’ve increased our ability to spot the successful music just before it lands its first industry deal, we’ve begun to make actual investments in the music – investments into music opportunities others can’t even begin to see. Together with our investment partner, Digital Daruma, we’re leveraging our predictive model and are starting to own revenue streams in the music itself.

    Music Xray controls the quality of the data in our ecosystem and we use a combination of crowd-sourcing of industry ears, music analysis software, targeted fan reaction, and machine learning to make predictions in which we are 92% confident are accurate. You can hear a small fraction of the kind of music we’re uncovering by listening to our podcast each week.

    Follow us here on the blog for updates over the next few weeks regarding the progress and status of our investment program and learn how we’re making it the focus of our business.

    Why Emailing Your Music, Sending it via Facebook & LinkedIn To Industry Pros Rarely Gets Results

    Posted by Mike McCready | November 7th, 2015 | No responses

    I get at least 100 emails each day from musicians like this one I received a few moments ago:

    2.1 Million plays
    Listen to I KNOW – R*ELL*****6 by R*ELL****6 #np on #SoundCloud
    https://soundcloud.com/****l**6/i-know-r*****re***6

    So, about once per week I click the link in one of the emails and I listen to the song. But it’s ALWAYS the same. A mediocre song (at best) with spoofed data. I only had to listen to 10 seconds to know there is no way that song legitimately got 2.1m plays. Note: I masked this artist’s identity because it’s not fair for me to call out a young musician who is just trying to make his way and who doesn’t know any better. But you get the point.

    Most true artists would never do this. They would never spoof the data to make it look like the song or act has more traction than it really does because that’s the recipe for a bad reputation. It’s not professional.

    But, there are many aspiring artists out there ‘hustling’ like that… to the point I can’t take any promo email seriously. I almost never click. And no one else in the industry takes them seriously either. And it’s the guys like this artist who ruin it for the deserving musicians like you probably are. Not only does he rip me off (my time) by lying to me about his song’s play-count just to get me to click, he rips off all the other aspiring talent who has music very deserving of attention because no one will click.

    This happens in a lot of industries and people say a lot of things to get others to click. Everyone is desensitized. All those legitimate Nigerian princes can’t get a click because the fake ones are trying to take my money! 😉

    So, to bring this around to how it relates to Music Xray, one can think of Music Xray’s submission fees as one would a freeway toll. It doesn’t only help pay for the upkeep of the road, it enables you to drive on one that isn’t congested with time-wasting traffic.

    The tolls are just costly enough that guys like R***Y****6 will find it too expensive to stay on the road. He’ll be put in a position of either continuing to pay for rejection or to hit the exit ramps. While those who are getting great feedback from the industry and fans, are getting great Selection Prediction Scores, and are genuinely gaining traction, will find it very rewarding, will get heard, will get a shot with the knowledge that the professionals are listening.

    Music Xray creates a similar environment for professionals, creating a competition among them for the top songs and talent while uncovering those ‘professionals’ who aren’t genuinely there to do real business and to truly find talent they want to work with. We remove those ‘professionals’ from the site if they happen to make it through our verification process in the first place, and we refund any artist who submitted to them.

    Transparency and site integrity are our core values.

    New Music Xray Policy Regarding The Hosting Of Industry Professional Profiles & Opportunities

    Posted by Mike McCready | November 2nd, 2015 | No responses

    Music Xray is a clean, transparent platform where our primary mission is to create the filtering mechanisms designed to identify commercially viable, high potential songs and talent for the industry.

    Our mission is not to maximize the amount of money generated from artists who pay to submit music. In fact, our system is designed to create as much of a competition among industry professionals for the top songs and talent as there is a competition among musicians to land the best deals. It’s en efficient system that operates transparently and reputably, backed by legitimate music tech investors. And we’ve been able to achieve the adoption of so much of the industry based on this dedication to running a clean site.

    Recently, there have been a slew of website cropping up with questionable reputations whose mission appears to be to maximize submission fee revenue from musicians without providing transparency for the artists, or any objective measures of an artist’s chances of getting a deal. Additionally, these sites pitch themselves to industry professionals as a way to make extra cash. And while Music Xray shares submission fees with the industry professionals who host the opportunities, our primary purpose is to help those professionals find the best music. If, as a professional, your goal on Music Xray is to make extra cash, you probably shouldn’t be on Music Xray.

    The poor reputation of these other sites effects Music Xray and it makes the name brand companies reticent to have their brands listed on our site.

    So effective immediately, we will be removing the profiles of industry professionals who also have profiles on certain other sites. It’s just too damaging to our reputation. We will of course offer a grace period to these professionals and we will contact them privately to notify them of this policy. But no further payouts will be made to those professionals for as long as their profile remains on the other sites – unless of course they provide evidence that their profile is on the offending sites against their will.

    Additionally, there are legacy sites in this space, that have been around for years, but again those primary mission does not align with the transparent, efficient filtering system Music Xray is building. One of our challenges in the market has been to show musicians that Music Xray is different, and that our interests are aligned with the professionals and the musicians alike. There truly has not been anything like Music Xray.

    We have invested much time, energy, money, and focus on insuring that Music Xray is not confused with these legacy sites and while we would not remove an industry professional from Music Xray for having their profiles on some of these other sites that we know to be legitimate, having those profiles there still creates confusion in the market, causing Music Xray to need to spend more resources to differentiate ourselves in the eyes of the musician community.

    So also effective immediately, we will reduce by 30% the compensation offered to industry professionals on Music Xray who choose to not remain exclusive.

    It’s important that I make the point that this is not an attempt by us to limit industry professionals in any way. It is simply the policy that makes most sense for our company to both preserve the top brands and most reputable players in the business who are genuinely interested in finding top songs and talent. Those are really the only type of professionals for whom Music Xray is meant.

    Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can clarify this policy for you or if you’d like to discuss any aspect I may not have covered here.

    As always, Music Xray is committed to being the very best at what we do and to maintaining the highest levels of trust and transparency in the ecosystem.