A refresher on how Music Xray merged a few features to create the world’s best song and talent filter

Posted by Mike McCready | February 8th, 2012 | No responses

Step 1: Open a free account as an artist and upload your music (or select the option for us to import it for you from Soundcloud or other sites).

·As soon as your music is in the system, you will receive an email for each song letting you know if there are currently any industry professionals on Music Xray actively seeking songs like yours. We use acoustic similarity software to do this. You can read more about it here.

·We then send you one email per week if there have been any changes (if any industry professional has started or stopped seeking songs like yours).

·We also alert you when your songs have been displayed in search results (we have an awesome search engine used by many of the 1300 industry professionals with active accounts).

· If your songs are being passed over, we help you understand why.

· We also send you an email each week listing all the new opportunities that have opened on the site in the previous 7 days.

Yeah. That’s all free.

Step 2: Submit your best track to a few industry professionals. We give you a $4 credit so you don’t pay the first time.

· Submit your music to be considered for any of the opportunities you see by browsing the site or by referencing the emails you’ve received that have matched your songs to specific opportunities.

·Although some industry professionals have a higher submission fee than others, we give you a $4 credit. In many cases, that will make your first submission at no cost.

Step 3: Your music is heard and responded to (GUARANTEED)- and you may land one of the deals with no further action.

Landing a deal at this stage is very common. You can read some success stories here.

You can ask users hanging out on our Facebook page.

Or read our blog for tips and information.

Then what happens?

Regardless of whether or not your song is chosen, the industry professional will rate your song.

After your song has five ratings (from 5 separate submissions to five professionals of your choice), we show the average ratings to you.

The ratings are like a fortune predictor.

High ratings mean you’re likely on your way to a deal and that even if your song has not yet been selected, keep submitting. It’s probably only a matter of time.

We also show well-rated songs to the entire community of industry professionals.

Hundreds of industry professionals log in every day and listen to the songs that have maintained high ratings after being heard by a few of their peers to whom you’ve submitted your songs.

That means that songs that get positive ratings get heard by more and more professionals and get multiple, ongoing shots at being offered a deal – at no further cost!

Ratings not going so well? Don’t worry. We know some people who can help.

If the ratings you’re getting from professionals aren’t as positive as you’d hoped, don’t worry. We give you access to Grammy-winning producers, hit songwriters and a few celebrity artists who will give you honest feedback, advice and tips regarding your music and your submission strategy.

Even musicians at the peak of their career continue to seek coaching. We make it easily accessible.

Did we mention the focus group? Yeah. That’s free too.

We enable you to conduct a free focus group with 25 random music fans giving their feedback on any one of your tracks.

Lastly, keep all your rights. Keep all your revenue on deals you get. No strings! No catches!

Sign up is completely free

See what all the buzz is about with no cost to you. Simply click the button to get up and running in less than 5 minutes

And/Or…

Get our free weekly opportunity email

Harness the collective filtering power of the music industry

Posted by Mike McCready | January 25th, 2012 | No responses

Know how Music Xray works

Check out our new video to see how we harness the collective filtering power of the music industry.

Click the video to play

Feedback about Music Xray from industry professionals is “off the hook”!

Posted by Mike McCready | January 17th, 2012 | 2 Responses

As you, no doubt, know by now, we launched our new search engine last week.

Feedback from industry professionals about their experience discovering new songs and talent on Music Xray has been very positive – but last week we took it to a whole new level. We are never satisfied and continue to make improvements but we’re proud of what we’ve built and to share some of the feedback with you.

Mia Bajin said, “New features on the website are off the hook! Thumbs up!”

John Kuhns, Program Director of Suckfree Radio has been using the Song to Opportunity Match (S2O) to help him find artists on Music Xray and he is truly happy with this service. Here is what he has to say:

“Oh my God! I just had the most incredible afternoon listening to some amazing new music!”

“I have been using Music X-ray for about a year and a half and have heard some talented artists, but I finally decided to take the time to fully explore the S2O technology. I would recommend it to any A&R and Music Placement Professionals that are feeling burned out listening to that stack of unsolicited CDs taking up space on their desks.”

Recent standouts added to the Suckfree Radio playlist include:

Alex Hirsch – Brown, Byrd & Champagne – Disastroid – Lc Johnson – Stevie Hawkins – Seven Weapons

“I listened to several of these submissions 2 or 3 times simply because they definitely don’t suck!”

Read success stories here.

Our new music search engine is powered by the collective filtering power of over 1300 industry professionals currently employed by top music companies. Find music (from among hundreds of thousands of tracks) for all your projects.

Posted by Mike McCready | January 12th, 2012 | 1 Response

No charge. No strings. No catches.

Click the video to play

No one has EVER harnessed the collective filtering power of over 1000 music industry professionals – until now.

We’re talking about professionals from places likeMTV, Columbia, RCA, Sire, Capitol, Universal Pictures & more.

Find music and talent for your projects.

We do not take a cut of any deal you do with the rights holders. Contact them directly when you find a track you want to use.

Open an account at Music Xray and start using the most powerful music search engine ever built.

Make your own catalog of music searchable.

Click the video to see how to get your music in the search engine.

Musicians land deals they don’t even pursue… A new kind of Music Xray success story.

Posted by Mike McCready | January 3rd, 2012 | No responses

As Music Xray’s new search engine and collective A&R system kick in (where we show your highly rated songs to even more industry professionals), we’re starting to hear from more musicians who are being selected for deals they did not even pursue. Check out this example from Zaccheri Gray who writes…

My song “Lullabyes Baby” was recently selected for the upcoming Errand Boys Movie.

I have also been nominated for “Best Singer/Songwriter and Best Solo Artist” by the All Indie Music Awards.

Again my song “Lullabyes Baby” was selected for the Hurricane Relief Project.

Also I got this incredible feedback from Wayne Thompson: who wrote…
“…an amazing talent. One of the brightest I have heard in a long time.”
–Wayne Thompson (former manager of Harry Belafonte, Tanya Tucker and The Nylons)

So far I am very happy with my progress on Music Xray and thought I would share!

Thanks.

Music Xray gets closer to a new search engine for music industry professionals to find your music. Make sure all your music is uploaded to the site.

Posted by Mike McCready | December 28th, 2011 | 1 Response

Music Xray has released a next generation music search engine for industry professionals.

Please log in to your account, edit your songs and click the button that says “edit search related info”. Fill in as much of the requested information as you can.

It is also very helpful if you also add your lyrics since many professional seek music based on key phrases or song topics. All in all, the more complete your tracks’ profiles the better impression you make.

See the video for an overview of how Music Xray works.

Why Aren’t People Listening To My Music?

Posted by Mike McCready | December 27th, 2011 | No responses

If you’re an indie artist wondering why your career is not moving in the direction you had envisioned then it is time to take on a personal inventory of yourself and your approach to the industry.

I started out in the music business in 1998 and decided to embrace the internet as my partner in leading me down the path of success. In many ways it has done just that. The Worldwide Web was a doorway to the unknown, and it still is, however it does allow you complete freedom to pick and choose what road you would like to travel. It takes years of hard work and a lot of trial and error to find what works sometimes but there is no excuse for ignorance nor is there a lack of information in these times to help you find your way.

I want to share some of my experiences working with artists and hopefully shed some light on the keys to being successful or a failure in marketing your music. I understand how much time and effort goes into making music and most folks that are in the indie music industry have day jobs just like me and the music is a sideline that you hope someday will become more than that.

The one aspect that is most important is how you use the time available to you. This is where many artists are spinning their wheels and getting absolutely nowhere. I cannot tell you how baffled I am at the blatant ignorance and arrogance people have. Artists seem to be allergic to reading what is right in front of them and following specific directions that are given to actually help them. That is not to say there is a minority out there that have their act together, have a plan, and then know how to use the tools available to get that plan into action. There should be a lot more people out there that operate this way. The excuse of not having the resources available or in some cases the capital, just does not cut it anymore. There is tons of free information out there and sites that let you create profiles and give you the ability to upload tracks including the most useful and popular ones such as Facebook and Twitter. Regardless of this plethora of choices some artists are stuck in a rut and cannot seem to get out, and this mind you is because they have not paid attention, taken good advice, made the wrong choices, were told they did and pushed ahead anyway without any direction thus ending up right back where they started every time.

The one thing people forget about is targeting the right audience and people in the media. I run different events online and I recently started a free event for artists to submit their tracks for consideration to be my Prog Rock Featured Artist on my blog dedicated to that genre. Within a matter of weeks I have close to 600 submittals and around 10 of them are actually progressive rock! I clearly stated PROGRESSIVE ROCK ONLY but yet the majority has decided to submit their tracks anyway and to totally ignore that guideline. I have rap, hip hop, blues, all kinds of genres and I am not going to waste my time and listen to any of the submissions. Some folks have even labeled their music prog-rock in hopes that I would listen. The mindset is “Why not submit, it’s free and maybe they will listen”. That could not be further from the truth, it just annoys the hell out of me and forced me to change the end date of the event prematurely. Even on events that I put a price tag on, people insist on submitting outside the targeted genres. So where does this get you? Nowhere. So now not only are you wasting your time, other people’s time, and worst yet wasting your hard earned cash. How ill-advised is that? And to top it off some of the artists react like children when they are rejected, just like a two year old that does not get their toy they want and goes stomping and screaming out of the store.

Here is my point, if you want to be taken seriously by industry professionals then act like one, fake it until you make it if you have to. Even if everything is smoke and mirrors for a while that can change once you stake your claim to your own slice of the pie in cyberspace, create a following and build a solid reputation. None of this can be accomplished by going at it half-baked and merely hoping for the best results.

One of the biggest mistakes I see artists making is not having their own website; they are opting for a Myspace page or something similar, which is becoming less and less relevant every day. Using Facebook for your homepage is a big mistake. It’s a social network and people want attention so they post things on your wall, how does that help people focus on your music? Use Facebook and Twitter for announcements, reviews, and anything else related to your music that is linked at your Homepage. This way the people who are really interested in your music will be clicking on the links and going to your site. It is likely that many of your so called “friends” are people that want to post on your wall and talk about themselves or could care less about you or your music! It is a great way to create a buzz about something but remember they are tools to get people to go to your website!

Social Networking needs to be part of your strategy to reach an audience, however it should be an add-on to your main site. Use Twitter, Facebook, Reverb Nation etc. to bring attention to your music and your home base, your own website, where everything can be found in one place by potential fans or industry professionals. Another thing that blows me away is how hard it is to find a simple email address or how to purchase music on an artist site. How are people supposed to communicate with you and offer you opportunities if you are making it impossible for them to find any basic information about you? These are simple no-brainer things that are being discarded or forgotten. How does that happen? We are living in a world of instant gratification and you will lose fans and professionals alike if you do not get your ducks in a row and implement these simple procedures to afford your music exposure and the right opportunities. Remember if a web surfer does not see what they want on your homepage they are gone in a matter of seconds, so make it obvious what you want them to pay attention to!

The entire point of this article is to help artists focus on the basic steps first. It is ok to look at the big picture but you have to hook up the horse to the cart before it moves. If you are genuinely serious about your music and want to go somewhere with it then you need a plan, discipline, and most of all an understanding of how the internet really works and what your audience wants.

By: Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck

http://www.musicxray.com/profiles/860

Will they find your music? We’ll do our part. You do yours. It’s important.

Posted by Mike McCready | December 13th, 2011 | 6 Responses

Music Xray is preparing to launch a new music search engine to enable industry professionals to find your music via proactive searches – and everyone knows Music Xray is the only site where thousands of music industry professionals have active profiles and hundreds of them log in every day!

As we get closer to launch date, we’ll provide all the details regarding the new search engine.

In the meantime, it’s time to start sprucing up your profiles and your songs.

Enter your meta data for Music Xray’s new search engine

See the short video explaining how to enter your song data.

Please log in to your account, edit your songs and click the button that says “edit search related info“. Fill in as much of the requested information as you can.

Sharpening your music business skills – when to negotiate and when to sign on the dotted line

Posted by Mike McCready | December 7th, 2011 | No responses

Frequently, we receive inquiries from musicians who have had their song(s) selected for opportunities on Music Xray and who have questions about contract terms they’re being offered by the industry professionals.

One of the most frustrating occurrences is when an industry professional sends you a contract for license deal, you have some doubts and questions about the contract so you send your questions to the professional and then you never hear back. It’s like the deal just disappeared.

Why does this happen?

The hard reality is that while the license deal may be your first (or at least not the sort of thing you deal with every day), that’s not the case for many industry professionals. Many of them do license deals multiple times per week and many of them have successfully been using a similar contract template for years. It has been sufficient and deemed fair by many musicians who have gone before you so, for the professional, the contract is not a point of negotiation. Going back and forth on a standard contract is, in their minds, a waste of time. That’s why sometimes you may never hear back when you try to negotiate it. It’s just seen as too much hassle to discuss the finer points of a straightforward deal and it’s easier to move on and find alternative music.

Believe it or not, some industry professionals simply do not accept unsolicited material simply because they consider it to be too much effort to deal with artists who don’t demonstrate business competence. That is one of the primary reasons you should have a team that includes a manager. Seek one here (scroll to view all managers seeking to expand their rosters).

We’re not telling you to sign every deal put in front of you. Heavens no! You are right to have some healthy skepticism. We all know the reputation this business has earned. However, the web has made business a lot more transparent and it is getting a lot harder for anyone who is not ethical to hide their bad reputation. We urge you to check people out and do some reasonable research. We also urge you to negotiate the points of large complex agreements. You can also have a professional such as Desha Jackson review contracts for you at a very reasonable rate. But be careful not to become your own worst enemy when completing a deal.

The best next piece of good advice we can give you is to never stop learning how this evolving business works. As part of that endeavor, subscribe to our blog.

Dave’s Music Corner – Be Ready For Success

Posted by Mike McCready | December 6th, 2011 | No responses

Music Xray Blog #2

“Dave’s Music Corner”

“Be Ready For Success“

1) Have additional material ready and organized.

2) Record rough demos of songs even if you do not have perfect demos.

3) Know how to talk about your music and style, don’t sound confused.

Hello members.

This is David Snow, producer and owner of Little Hipster Music.

Today’s subject of discussion is called “Be Ready For Success”.

Many artists who have not had deals etc., have indeed had momentary contact with music industry professionals. They have had industry professionals interested and then LOST their chance.

This would be an example of an artist not being prepared for success and dropping the ball when their small moment of opportunity came by.

You get a “bite” from a producer or A&R man. And they ask for MORE material.

Are you ready for that? You’d be surprised how many are NOT.

1) Is your song catalog ORGANIZED?

You will be surprised of how many artists I get into discussions with, only to hear that they have to go find, round up, resurrect, etc. a 2nd, 3rd and 4th song they want me to hear.

They tell me they would like to have me produce a song. Of course, I then want to make sure I am producing an artists’ BEST song.

So I ask for other songs, even rough demos, to hear what an artist has been up to and to make sure I am being asked to produce the BEST song.

And the artist suddenly sounds confused, unsure of where songs are, which version to send to me, etc.

EXPECT TO BE ASKED FOR MORE MATERIAL.

Have it ready. Have it categorized.

So, if you have not done so, start rounding up ALL of your songs NOW. Don’t rely on the one or three songs you send to an A&R guy or a producer. Of course, you have led off with your best song, that’s great! Now, get the acoustic version together if you have it. Or… know where the 3 other songs are that came before the song you pitched and HAVE THEM READY.

When a producer or A&R guy contacts you, the ball is already rolling. It is a terrible waste of energy to slow it down by not being ready. I have seen weeks go by. I have seen artists disappear, never to be heard from again! This can be annoying to the producer or A&R guy and you don’t want that.

When asked, “do you have something else I can listen to” have a lightening quick answer, ” Yes, I have ———–, how would you like me to get it to you?”

Ok you say, “But what if I don’t have a 2nd song demoed and professionally recorded Mr. Smarty pants”? Lol…

Ok….

2) Round up your up and coming rough drafts of songs.

Put them on a tape recorder, record them into your lap top, or go to radio shack or a guitar center and buy a cheap recorder.

The producer or A&R guy wants to know where you are headed.

If your first demo got an A&R guy’s interest, many will be willing to listen to rougher up and coming material.

They already have an idea of your best potential from the first demo so, if you explain that the next songs are roughs to get an idea of other written material, that should be ok.

Having new, up and coming material has been the biggest slow down of all with past artists I have dealt with. I get interested, I want to know if we should re-produce the demo I got interested in or is there a “GEM” the guy has just finished that would be BETTER to produce.

And the artist says- “Let me get that together for you and call you back”.

Three weeks later, I am too busy to take the call, or there is no call. Energy wasted, opportunity lost.

3) Know how to talk about your music.

You’d be surprised how many artists stumble when asked “what is your music like?”

This might sound silly but, practice explaining your music with yourself. Tape yourself and listen back. Do you sound clear, does your explanation create interest? Or do you sound unsure and a bit confused or boring? Have a little script by the phone if needed.

Reference it when you CONFIDENTLY, (yet nicely), tell the producer or A&R guy about your style of music.

Remember, the producer or A&R guy is kind of watching the “YOU” show. He’s listening, wanting to know. Be smooth, confident and friendly. When you explain it, it needs to sound like something that will make a person want to hear more.

Think this is too obvious? Ok, I’ll make a deal with you. Tape yourself and listen back. Let me know how your first explanations sounded? Lol…

So be READY for success. Get organized. Expect questions about your current, past and future songs. Have that stuff ready ok?

Great!

Hope that helps, stay tuned for more blogs.

I look forward to hearing from you all.

Please feel free to submit your music to: http://www.musicxray.com/interactions/2682/submissions/new

Good luck to you all,

David Snow

http://www.musicxray.com/profiles/1966