Music Xray's Blog - Connect Directly With Top Industry Professionals

Communication to Music Xray’s Awareness Team 01

Posted by Mike McCready | March 12th, 2013 | No responses

Hello from New York,

I’m Mike McCready, the co-founder & CEO of Music Xray and I’m so happy you signed up to be part of Music Xray’s awareness team. Pardon the mass email. Believe me, if it were possible, I’d be having coffee or sitting down for a meal with each one of you. You’re getting this email because you signed up to be part of Music Xray’s awareness team. I’m certain many of you signed up because we promised a Music Xray experience unlike any other, and that’s what we plan to do.

But more generally, you and I will be the foundation of what we will build into a larger awareness team. There are currently about 200 of us. The first thing we’re going to do is build this to a group of about 600. But I’ll come back to that in tomorrow’s message. Don’t worry, generally, you’ll hear from me no more than once per week and probably less, but here at the beginning, we’re going to work hard to make sure we have a real team and that together we can make some noise and shake some things up. Are you ready to help me do that?

By participating in this special group of users you will receive early access to opportunities and even special access to exclusive opportunities that will only be available to you. You will have a direct line of sorts right to me and you will be identified by our customer service team as a member of our awareness team. Think of it as sort of Music Xray VIP treatment.

You will be able to have input to shaping products, testing new features and helping us continue to make Music Xray the best in the business, the most useful to you and an important pillar of the new music industry. And in the meantime, we’ll do our part to help you get what you want out of this. Are you with me?

Before I sign off, let me tell you a little bit about me and what inspired Music Xray…

I grew up in a very small town in the middle of Nebraska, a state right in the middle of the country (for those non-Yankees on this team). To get to a larger town, you had to drive several hours. I’m talking remote. My family didn’t know anyone who knew anyone on either coast of the US. I played bass in a couple bands and we thought we were pretty good, but we had no way of accessing anyone who could help us. Music Xray would have been the answer to our wildest dreams. We would have certainly been rejected at first, but we would have learned from that experience and we would have come back better and better until we got a deal. Of that I am certain. We only needed access to an eco-system that would have helped us get deals, get fans, and get better.

Now, Music Xray is useful to musicians from all walks of life and circumstances, even established acts with a track record of success are using Music Xray as the best way to get their music to the right people without all the follow up hassle that usually goes with that. There are so many other reasons Music Xray makes sense. Stick with me over the next few days this week and we’ll get started.

Catch you tomorrow,

Mike

Managing & monetizing your fan base

Posted by Mike McCready | February 23rd, 2013 | 75 Responses

Once you begin accumulating fans you can contact, you need to start thinking about how to best manage those fans, keep them engaged, and monetize them (earn money). In the end, it’s your fan base that sustains you, enables you to earn a living from you music, and who propel you to the next level.

The best way to monetize and manage your fan base can differ a lot depending what kind of artist you are and the relationship you want to have with those who love your music. There is no “one size fits all” method, so for the time being, we’re simply going to link to some good resources we’ve found:

Proper email etiquette for communicating with your fans.

Don’t think of your fans as simply a list of email addresses.

Get your 1000 true fans.

A little more about fees on Music Xray

Posted by Mike McCready | February 11th, 2013 | No responses

Want to get a quick overview of the fees artists pay on Music Xray? Here’s the scoop:

A 45 second introduction to Music Xray Diagnostics

Posted by Mike McCready | February 11th, 2013 | 2 Responses

Want to get a preliminary glimpse of Diagnostics? Here’s the scoop:

How is Music Xray different?

Posted by Mike McCready | February 7th, 2013 | 3 Responses

Sometimes people want to how Music Xray is different from other companies. Here’s the scoop:

Why songwriters & musicians pay Music Xray

Posted by Mike McCready | February 7th, 2013 | 4 Responses

Sometimes people want to understand why Music Xray’s business model works the way it does. We wanted to give you a thoughtful reply:

How music lovers can manually enter their music taste information in their Fan Match profile

Posted by Mike McCready | January 25th, 2013 | 37 Responses

Sometimes Facebook does not have enough information about your music tastes for us to be able to know which music we should send you. When that happens, fans can enter their taste information manually (and change it as often as they please).

To do so, please follow the information in this short instructional video:

Get Ready for Music Xray Diagnostics. It’s Like Having a GPS for Your Songs

Posted by Mike McCready | January 15th, 2013 | 42 Responses

We’re going to be rolling out some new features and we’d like to tell you about them.

Our new Music Xray Diagnostics will help you track your progress toward success and if a song is likely to have a tough time getting a deal we’ll let you know right up front because no one wants to just spin their wheels and not get anywhere.

In short, we want to insure no one spends more time, effort, and money pursuing deals than is absolutely necessary. At the same time, we wouldn’t want anyone to give up right before they’re likely to see success. Diagnostics is like a GPS for your music because it tells you where the song stands, how many submissions it’s likely to take before a deal is secured, and how powerful a song is in helping you attract fans.

Which is your best song? Now you can know. Which one is most compelling to potential fans upon their first listen? Now you can know. How does your song stack up against others? Now you can know.

Starting in a few weeks, this is what you’ll see. Read below for an explanation…

You will see where the song stands.

We’ll show you how your song is perceived by the industry and how its rating compare to all the other songs on the site.

Next, we’ll show you the average number of times songs that were rated similar submitted before being selected for an opportunity. From now on, you’ll know what the path to getting a deal for your song looks like.

We also show you the song’s fan appeal and whether it’s good, fair, or not so good. You’ll know exactly what new fans are costing you to acquire using this song – and of course you’ll always know how many potential fans we’ve pre-identified for you.

Then, we show you an activity chart which is updated daily. Each day you will know if your song is dormant, pacing or if it is advancing your career, based around the attention and activity it is receiving on the site, and you’ll always know what you can do to improve the results for this song.

We’ll be back soon with all the details about how this will work and how to access this information in your account.

In the meantime, if you like what we’re doing here at Music Xray, please like this post on Facebook, tweet about it and leave us any feedback (positive or otherwise) below. Here are some current opportunities on the site.

Activate the Music Xray App in the SoundCloud App Gallery between today and December 21st at midnight EST and be considered for an audition for NBC’s The Voice

Posted by Mike McCready | December 11th, 2012 | No responses

Whew… that’s a long headline but it does say what this is.

We’re working with SoundCloud this week to draw attention to the Music Xray App in the SoundCloud App gallery.

Activating the app places you in a pool from which 10 musicians will be chosen for private audition slots for NBC’s The Voice. Upon activation, your SoundCloud track library is analyzed with acoustic analysis software and automatically matched to real industry opportunities. Then, we put you in touch with the decision makers behind each opportunity and we guarantee they listen and respond. Seriously!

Finally, a level playing field where it doesn’t matter who you know. All that matter are your talent, skill, and your artistic appeal.

Starting today and until the 21st of December, everyone who activates the app will be from among those chosen for several slots for private auditions for The Voice in January and February in various cities across the United States.

All you have to do is activate the app to be eligible.

And if by chance you’re a current Music Xray user without a SoundCloud account, what are you waiting for? Music Xray works best with SoundCloud.

Activate the Music Xray App in the SoundCloud App gallery right now.

How to enter your similar artists on Music Xray

Posted by Mike McCready | December 3rd, 2012 | 2 Responses

Every musician / content owner should enter similar artist data for each of their tracks on Music Xray. Doing so helps insure your tracks can be found by industry professionals via Music Xray’s search engine (available only to the industry professionals with accounts on the site). It also insures you can target the fans of the artists you enter as similar to you.

In other words, when you run a Fan Match campaign, you target the fan base of the artists you enter as being similar to you. Plus, as soon as you enter the data, we tell you how many potential fans we have already identified for you.

Recently, we’ve had a few customer service inquiries asking about how to enter this information. Many times, the site simply prompts you, but another way to do it is to edit your tracks and scroll down to the part where it asks you to enter search related data. From there, follow the instructions in the video below.

It’s important that you follow these instructions EXACTLY in order to avoid a database error.