Posted by Mike McCready | November 11th, 2011 | No responses
Musicians should have at least one person on their team responsible for turning their efforts into a business.
It’s not just about securing deals and fans. It’s about making sure those actions create an ongoing revenue stream.
Being creative, writing music, recording, & playing gigs requires a lot of time and effort. To really boost your career, find a good manager (start here), a good coach (start here), or a good producer who can help you begin to see yourself as a business.
Posted by Mike McCready | October 25th, 2011 | No responses
The Commuters have been tearing it up all over town. Their completely awesome video has been added to MTV-U and they are getting increased radio play across the country.
Come see why frontman Zeeshan Zaidi put aside his Harvard MBA and his Harvard law degree to try his hand at the much less risky and more stable lifestyle of a rock star!
They go on at 9PM for a short set so don’t be late! Be sure to check out that video. Learn the chorus and we’ll sing along together on Thursday!!
Come join Music Xray CEO Mike McCready this Thursday in NYC to hear The Commuters. He'll buy you a beer!
This Thursday evening at Lilt Lounge (9 PM) 93 2nd Ave., East Village New York, NY 10003
Music Xray band, The Commuters might hail from New York, but their kinetic, personally revealing anthems capture an alt-rock essence that aspires toward worldwide appeal.
Their commercial debut (As I Make My Way – EP) was released at the end of August, and is comprised of 4 songs — “As I Make My Way,” “Bombs Away,” “Fallen From Grace,” and “You’ll Stay Right Here” — all from their upcoming album, Rescue, due out in early 2012.
Their video for “As I Make My Way” was added to mtvU’s rotation in early October and they have received extensive airplay at college radio stations throughout the US.
Posted by Mike McCready | October 25th, 2011 | No responses
It isn’t news that the past decade has brought tumultuous change to the music industry. Advances have primarily impacted the way music is accessed, distributed and paid for. But, few companies in our sector have harnessed technology to its full extent to optimize their business processes.
While most music companies have incorporated data mining and social trending statistics into their discovery processes, the fundamental way the industry sources new songs and talent has remained unchanged. Isn’t it time we re-think how we conduct A&R?
We think of A&R as the process by which we find and help create great musical products. In reality, A&R’s primary business function is to reduce risk by identifying or creating highly compelling product and managing promotion efforts to reduce the likelihood of failure in the marketplace. So, in terms of risk reduction, traditional A&R was only adequate when the business climate afforded companies the luxury of having occasional successes compensate for far more frequent flops. In today’s new music business, narrower margins, smaller budgets and fragmented audiences require a more efficient approach than primary reliance on golden ears and talented gut instincts. Additional and supplemental tools are needed to create success more often than failure, or at the very least, improve success rates to a more manageable level.
Click to see the video
Posted by Mike McCready | September 7th, 2011 | No responses
With over 3500 songs and acts selected for opportunities in the past 6 months, there are a lot of big ones to talk about including major label signings, major motion picture placements and even a few we’ve been told we can’t mention. But today we want to send a special congratulations to Justin Honaman.
Atlanta-based Honaman submitted his song “Saturday In The South” to Alex Torrez of Torrez Music Group in Nashville. Alex invited him to Music City to work on some rewrites and last year the song was used by CBS Sports as a lead in to SEC football games.
This year, the song has been re-recorded by mega-star Tracy Lawrence and picked up by FOX Sports. Here’s an excerpt from the official press release:
“Thirteen million football fans will soon hear a new theme from multi-platinum recording artist Tracy Lawrence as FOX Sports South and SportSouth launch their biggest college football kickoff campaign in the networks’ history, showcasing the song “Saturday In The South.”
Lawrence’s “Saturday In The South” debuts Thursday, September 1, and will be the music centerpiece for the FOX Sports and SportSouth college football campaigns. The networks will broadcast over 70 games from the SEC, ACC, Conference USA, Big 12 and Pac-12 and the weekly college football shows SEC Gridiron LIVE and The NEW College Football Show during the season.”
See the FOX Sports promo video by clicking here.
Be sure to check out some of the other success stories here.
Are you new to Music Xray? Click here to get the musician’s guide to Music Xray or click here to see a video explanation.
Posted by Mike McCready | September 2nd, 2011 | No responses
When professionals don’t respond to their submissions (rare but it happens), Music Xray issues a refund and suspends the account of the industry professional.
We don’t like to do it and first, we do what we can to insure your music is heard. But, inactive professional accounts are not permitted on Music Xray.
And do we ever give the music professionals a second chance? Yes, but we are even more strict with them the second time around to ensure that your music is heard since that is our guarantee to you.
Posted by Mike McCready | September 2nd, 2011 | No responses
Did you read that headline? Do a double-take. It’s for real!
Accounts are free.
Actually, we give you $4 just for opening one.
Plus, we enable you to conduct a free focus group on one of your songs with up to 25 participants.
Plus, all the other great stuff on Music Xray, like getting directly in touch with the music industry decision-makers, getting deals and YOU KEEP ALL YOUR RIGHTS.
Yeah, it’s pretty awesome!
Get an email each week with new opportunities by signing up for free here.
Be sure to check out some of the success stories here, like the one from Solardaze, who has signed his third contract via Music Xray.
Are you new to Music Xray? Click here to get the musician’s guide to Music Xray or click here to see a video explanation.
Posted by Mike McCready | August 10th, 2011 | No responses
Music Xray has been getting more widely known as we’ve just been on the cover of The Nashville Music Guide.
Given that I’m the co-founder & CEO as well as the public face, I get identified with the company. That’s my job but the differentiating value in Music Xray is an incredible team who are both good at their jobs and passionate about the work we do.
Music Xray is far from a one man show and is not just “my” company. The company is privately held by a cadre of the senior team, co-founder shareholders, professional investors and friends & family. Without their early faith in what we’re trying to achieve, Music Xray would not be possible.
Every day, CTO Jeff Durand and his team work to keep the site purring along while building out new features and keeping it all scalable. Bert Hartmann, our COO manages a very professional team of software testers and customer service & support staff. They are real assets at Music Xray.
-Mike
Posted by Mike McCready | July 19th, 2011 | No responses
1. Receive ongoing affiliate fees for every musician you invite who opens a free account on Music Xray. Invite 100 or more musicians who open free accounts and receive an additional $1000. Click here to find out how to do it.
2. Are you new to Music Xray? Click here to get the musician’s guide to Music Xray.
3. Over 3500 songs and acts selected for opportunities since February! Understand one of the reasons Music Xray works by clicking here.
Posted by Mike McCready | July 19th, 2011 | 3 Responses
Since February alone, more than 3500 songs and acts have been selected for opportunities on Music Xray. From my understanding, the ratio of submissions to deals is more than 10 times better than at online submission sites. Music Xray distinguishes itself by being an A&R platform – a site dedicated to finding the most appropriate songs & acts for each opportunity and to helping the industry bring its A&R efforts into the 21st century.
Sure, the great deal ratio is due in large part to the great A&R tools Music Xray provides to industry professionals to help them quickly and easily identify the music they are seeking but it’s also partially due to Music Xray’s modest submission fees.
Yes, it’s true. Submission fees, as small as they are, require musicians to filter their own music and submit only the songs they believe are the best for each opportunity. When musicians don’t over-submit, the industry professionals are less overwhelmed and the quality of what they hear on Music Xray is significantly higher than almost anywhere else. That keeps the industry professionals more engaged on Music Xray.
Then, there are the musicians who have not yet understood how the changes in the music industry of the past decade have changed the A&R process. Many do not believe – based purely on principle – that they should have to pay anything at all to have their music considered by the industry. They do not realize that even the ways of the past that seemed free were not free and did not come with guarantees their music would be heard and considered.
Those later adopters, who remove themselves from the equation, create a smaller pool of competition for the early adopters – and therefore more deals.
If 3500 deals were done on Music Xray, it stands to reason that there were 3500 fewer deals available outside of Music Xray – meaning that it’s getting increasingly difficult to find deals elsewhere and that’s to say nothing of the increasing challenge of breaking through the noise and clutter to distinguish yourself and your music.
Remember, there are literally millions of emerging musicians and millions of new songs created and posted online every year. There is no way the industry can filter through all that music to find what they are seeking “out there in the wild”. That’s why Music Xray is changing the game and small submission fees are one of the reasons it works.
Posted by Mike McCready | June 22nd, 2011 | No responses
Announces release of API to enable music sites everywhere to offer song-to-opportunity matching feature to their users
SoundCloud to manage all Music Xray audio
June, 22 2011 – New York / Berlin
Over 1200 music industry professionals use Music Xray to discover high-potential songs and emerging talent, a task referred to as A&R (artist and repertoire). The site’s 21st Century A&R™ tools have helped the industry select over 2200 songs and acts for opportunities just since February. Among these placements are major and indie label signings, major motion picture song placements, network television inclusions, the licensing of songs for advertising campaigns, radio play-listing and publishing deals.
One of the key drivers of these selections is Music Xray’s Song-to-Opportunity Matching feature, called S2O:
Industry professionals upload songs that sound and feel like the type of music they’d like to have submitted to them. S2O analyzes the acoustic properties of those “seed” songs and matches them to available songs with similar characteristics that musicians have uploaded for free to Music Xray’s servers. Song owners are alerted any time a match is detected and given the opportunity to submit their music to be considered for the opportunity.
Today, Music Xray announces the release of two new apps in the SoundCloud App Gallery. Both apps will automatically match a SoundCloud user’s music to industry opportunities on Music Xray.
• The “Full” app enables SoundCloud users to use their existing SoundCloud account to login to Music Xray. Click here to use this function. For existing Music Xray and SoundCloud users they can link their SoundCloud account to Music Xray to receive opportunity alerts via email by clicking here.
• The “Lite” app will deliver the opportunity alerts to the comment section of the song that has been matched and does not require the SoundCloud user to create a Music Xray account until they decide to submit a song to an industry professional for consideration. It is best to use the full app but you can access the lite app here.
Additionally, Music Xray will also enable new users of the site to automatically link their pre-existing SoundCloud account to Music Xray and thereby avoid having to upload their music tracks yet again. This is the first phase of Music Xray’s shift to have SoundCloud manage all audio across its A&R platform.
Alexander Ljung, founder and CEO of SoundCloud said, “Music Xray is an innovative company that is changing the game of how industry professionals identify new songs and talent. We’re excited to add another compelling app to our gallery and to make this service available to our five million sound creators.”
“SoundCloud has emerged as the de facto platform for anyone to create and share sound and is one of the most exciting companies in the world right now.” Added Mike McCready, co-founder and CEO of Music Xray, “This is a natural and very synergistic partnership that enables us to concentrate on what we do better than anyone else – connecting musicians with opportunities and professionals – while benefiting from what SoundCloud does better than anyone else – everything audio-related.”
Music Xray is also announcing the release of its S2O API, which will enable any company to automatically match their users’ music to opportunities on Music Xray. Integrations with several partners are already underway and will be announced separately.
*****
About Music Xray
Music Xray is the world’s only dedicated online A&R platform. It emerged from beta in January of 2010 and is designed for music industry professionals to make the process of sourcing emerging musical talent and high-potential songs more efficient and less risky. At the same time, it enables the industry to open the doors of opportunity to independent musicians and songwriters everywhere. For more information, visit http://musicxray.com
About SoundCloud
SoundCloud, launched in 2008 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, is an audio platform that enables anyone to create, record, promote and share their sounds on the web, in a simple, accessible and feature-rich way. SoundCloud allows sound creators to instantly record audio; upload large files; share them publicly and privately; embed sound across websites and blogs; receive detailed analytics, plus feedback from the community directly onto their waveform player. For more information go to: http://soundcloud.com