Some users have asked why we created Diagnostics and especially why we require the purchase of Diagnostics with the first submission of any song to an opportunity on Music Xray. These questions deserve a thoughtful and transparent answer so here it is…

Why Music Xray was incomplete before we introduced Diagnostics.

Let’s be honest with each other. We all know that the world is full of companies that promise to get your music to the ears of industry professionals. Many of them are a little sketchy. Not all of those companies start out taking advantage of the aspirations of musicians (some do) but it turns out this is a hard business and by not fulfilling their promises those companies have left plenty of jaded artists in their wake.

We got into this business to be a solution to that problem. We’re a venture-capital-backed company with reputable investors and some clever (and quite expensive) technology behind us. We’ve made significant investments in order to bring this service to market. Obviously, we’re here to build a real business that provides a valuable service. But not everyone knows that or realizes that upon first impression.

Frequently, artists approach Music Xray with a healthy dose of skepticism. After their first rejection or two, that skepticism is often cemented and artists go away frustrated, disappointed, and feeling like someone just pulled the wool over their eyes… again! Some even wonder if their song was actually heard by the professional they submitted to or if was all just one big sham.

Statistically speaking, artists are more likely to get a rejection the first few times they submit (that’s just the way the world works, both online and offline) so frequently, our service was more likely to create dissatisfaction than it was to create a happy user. No company should sell a service that is likely to leave its customers unhappy and skeptical and that’s what we were doing quite often. Additionally, many artists with excellent music and high potential would stop submitting after a couple rejections, just before they were statistically likely to get a deal!

That served no one.

Why was Diagnostics a solution?

We created Diagnostics as a way to add more transparency to the process. Upon your purchase of Diagnostics, the first thing that happens is your song is sent to 5 industry professionals who work in your song’s genre. Within the first few days after you buy Diagnostics, those 5 professionals hear and rate your track across several different criteria. Your song is also sent to a pool of potential fans, targeted for their taste in music.

If any of those professionals like your song enough to contact you and offer you a deal, they can. The fans can “fan you” and when they do, you get their contact info. And it’s important to keep in mind that if we were charging our lowest normal prices to get your song to 5 professionals and 20 potential fans, it would cost around $60, so at $10 Diagnostics is actually quite a bargain.

The initial feedback we get (and you get) from those professionals and fans enables us to benchmark your song and tell you how well your song is doing vs all the other songs on the site. It also enables us to tell you how many submissions were made by similar songs before they were selected for a deal on the site.

If your song isn’t getting good feedback and ratings, we basically tell you, “hey, you should think twice before spending more money on submissions. Maybe you should get some help improving your music or perhaps you should try another song.” If your ratings are high we tell you, “hey, even thought you may have been rejected a time or two, your song is good, it’s getting good ratings and it’s acquiring fans pretty readily. You should keep submitting.”

Additionally, if your ratings are good, your song is very likely to be spotted by other industry professionals when they go in to the collective ratings section of the site and start browsing songs that were not submitted directly to them but that are receiving positive ratings.

Be sure you understand this about Diagnostics. If your song doesn’t have a lot of potential, Diagnostics tells you after you’ve spent only $10 and a few days waiting for the results. If it’s great, we’re showing it to 5 industry professionals and then to many more via collective ratings… for $10!

Our conclusion:

We understand that there are musicians out there who do not need this kind of service and guidance and maybe they don’t want it. But, we’ve been able to price it at $10 and even with that extra charge, paid once per song, Music Xray is still BY FAR the cheapest and least time consuming way to get your music a guaranteed listen and response from the professionals you submit to.

We don’t philosophically believe in charging more than we have to in order to provide a good service and we would NEVER just look for an excuse to charge more money. Companies should provide products and services at the lowest price possible that enables the business to operate. That’s what we do. In fact, you would probably be surprised if you knew how lean we operate. But we decided to simply refuse to sell a service that doesn’t provide and show the full value of Music Xray. We hope that after reading our explanation you understand why we did this and how it is meant to help.