For every hour you’ve spent rehearsing in the garage striving to become the king or queen of your genre, someone else has spent thinking about how they can make some easy money from an unsuspecting non-business savvy artist who desires so strongly to be cured of their malady (e.g. musical obscurity) that they will purchase snake oil by the crate.

To those who can’t compose, play or sing, musicians can literally seem magical, mysterious, and they get placed on a pedestal. To achieve that status is considered the ultimate success. The adoration of a large fan base is a sign you’ve made it. At that point, you’re no longer beholden to anyone. Your career is your own. The by-product of that kind of success is money. It may not be primarily what you seek, but you know it will come and it’s what gives you the means to live the rock star lifestyle, which is the crown on your head that unmistakably communicates to everyone that you have made it. You are music royalty.

In short, the music business is aspirational in nature and because the music is so personal and so connected to the ego of its creator (after all, you created it out of thin air and it often reflects your essence, your deepest thoughts and your rawest emotions) that rejection can be excruciatingly painful. Acceptance, even adoration can be incredibly rewarding and addicting. In fact, the pain of rejection and the elation of acceptance are more extreme than in almost any other profession.

That reality is what makes musicians so vulnerable to being scammed. Unscrupulous people know that if they dangle the rewards you seek in front of you and make you feel like they can provide a pathway to success, you will do whatever it takes to achieve it. For every hour you’ve spent rehearsing in the garage striving to become the king or queen of your genre, someone else has spent thinking about how they can make some easy money from an unsuspecting non-business savvy artist who desires so strongly to be cured of their malady (e.g. musical obscurity) that they will purchase snake oil by the create and trade their destiny of becoming music royalty to instead become the palace fool.

Aspiring musicians attract scammers and shysters like war zones attract arms dealers. It’s where the money is.

This is such a frequent occurrence that many jaded musicians have wizened up. Anyone selling goods and services to musicians, especially non-traditional goods and services (i.e. not guitar strings or vocal training) are met with wary suspicion. Often to the point that a musician’s cynicism won’t allow him to separate a real value proposition from a valueless one.

The level playing field:

That is why Music Xray goes out of its way to not appeal to your emotions. Notice that we’re a little non-sensationalistic. We don’t tell you how great you are. We don’t hype you up and tell you we can make you the next global sensation. In fact, we can be a little bit on the dry side.

We appeal to your common sense. We don’t say things that sound good but that leave you with a nagging internal voice alerting you that something isn’t quite right. We talk about the business aspect of the music business. We work hard every day to weed out the shysters and scammers who might be out there to prey upon you. Then, we help you get your music in front of legitimate industry professionals and real music fans and frankly, we then let the chips fall where they may.

If they like you, you get a deal or a new fan. If they don’t like you or your music, you find out right away and potentially you get some good feedback in the process that helps you improve. The results you get on Music Xray tell you unequivocally whether you are good enough to make it happen and if you discover you aren’t, we give you access to real professionals who can help make adjustments so you can make improvements quickly. Via Music Xray, you can get the kind of feedback and training in far less time than it ever used to take in this business.

Music Xray gets paid for saving you weeks or months finding opportunities or potential fans who will give you a shot. We get paid so you don’t have to jump through hoops to get to a decision-maker.

But remember, rejection is part of the process. Even the best of the best get rejected multiple times before they make it, and that’s likely to happen to you too, even via Music Xray. But by being persistent, by eventually finding the right professional with the right opportunity and by using the feedback you receive to make adjustments to your music and your submission strategy, you will eventually find your way and the lessons you must learn will be far less expensive, far less treacherous, and happen in far less time than has ever before been possible. Scammers are still out there. You will still need to approach your relationships with industry professionals with caution and a healthy dose of business savvy. But our job is to reduce the time and money you spend developing your business and to reduce the likelihood you’ll be taken for a ride.

– Follow Mike McCready on Twitter

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