Mike McCready

Music Xray Automatically Matches Songs to Opportunities for Free

Announces the world’s first & only enhanced A&R platform

Music Xray is a platform used by over 600 music industry professionals to receive song submissions from artists, acts, & rights holders. The company is announcing the launch of a new song to opportunity matching service called S₂O that automatically pairs songs to opportunities.

Artists simply upload their songs at MusicXray.com and wait to be alerted when appropriate opportunities for their songs are identified. The new service is completely free and marks the first time music analysis technology has been combined with other talent-identifying tools to form the world’s first and only enhanced A&R platform.

In late 2009 Music Xray began enlisting top industry professionals to conduct their A&R activities via the site. Today, the platform is used by several major labels, dozens of independent labels, license agencies, radio stations, advertising agencies, music supervisors, managers, promoters and even influential music bloggers who take submissions from artists vying to have their music featured.

“It’s a great way to conduct A&R.” said Alex Torrez head of Torrez Music Group in Nashville who previously held a position in the A&R department of Columbia Records and who now sources music for many of the top labels and artists. “It’s easier, more organized and the quality of submissions is higher on Music Xray, making it more rewarding to evaluate acts and their music”.

Music Xray does not track the deals that occur between artists and industry professionals but a “Success “Stories” section of the company’s website lists some of the deals of which the company has learned. Todd Gross, manager and father of emerging musician/performer Mary Sarah added, “Music Xray has enabled us to access some of the top people in the music industry more quickly and easily than would have been possible before. As a result, Mary Sarah is being looked at by several top companies and we’re discussing several potential deals.”

Artists sign up on the site to receive weekly emails alerting them of the new submission opportunities that have been added to the listings over the previous week. Currently that email reaches nearly 100,000 artists and the number grows by several thousand each week. Additionally, Music Xray offers artists sleek song presentation packs (called Music Xrays) that enable artists to showcase their songs for free together with the song’s lyrics, artist bio, a video, and even graphs that show how an artist is performing across all the social networks and Internet radio.

“Millions of songs are created and posted to the web each year. The music industry needs the ability to evaluate them for commercial purposes and to efficiently separate the wheat from the chaff.” said Mike McCready, co-founder and CEO of the company. “Music Xray harnesses all the capabilities of the social web, music intelligence technologies, and collective expert knowledge to help the industry spot the hottest new talent and the best songs first.

“In addition to doing deals with industry professionals, artists use Music Xray to get professional feedback on their music, advice and career coaching.”

About Music Xray

Music Xray (http://musicxray.com) is the world’s first and only enhanced A&R platform. Its an angel and venture-backed company co-founded by Mike McCready & Tracie Reed who pioneered Hit Song Science, the first commercial application of music analysis technology to predict the success of hit songs. The New York based company brings together into one platform best-of-breed technologies to help the industry efficiently receive, manage and provide feedback on song submissions, interact with artists and discover brand new music.

This week I feature Brave Chandeliers, dZ & Brad Cash. I discuss going “all in” with your music career.

Great new music and discussion about the music industry.

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I read about this in one of Bob Lefsetz’ emails and when I watched the video I knew I had to pass it along. This is so interesting and for anyone who doesn’t know what goes into taking a song from a guy and a guitar to a full blown record it’s a thrilling peek behind the curtain – even 35 years later it’s the same kind of process. The tools have gotten a lot better though. Computers make everything easier.

While on a walk this morning I was down at Ground Zero and saw the progress. I’ve heard the new Freedom Tower is adding one story per week. It’s great to see this finally getting done after so much time. See the photo below:

Freedom Tower July 4 2010

This week I feature Jonathan Clay, Mark Johns & Esteven Johnson & Mary Sarah. I discuss how to network with industry professionals in the music business.

Great new music and discussion about the music industry.

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No explanation necessary. Just press play.

Last Wednesday, Pandora’s founder Tim Westergren appeared on The Colbert Report as the episode’s interviewee. I’ve written about Tm before on this blog and remember back to late 2001 when I co-founded Polyphonic HMI (now uplaya) and Tim’s company and mine were really the only two competitors in the market for the sale/license of music recommendation platforms we were trying to sell to music retailers. I admire and respect Tim for all he’s accomplished and I know first hand the struggles he’s been through to get Pandora to it’s first profitable year.

See the clip below:

Re-posted from The Huffington Post on June 25, 2010

Look back on the past few years of your life and take stock of how much music radio listening you do. Is it as much as it used to be? Chances are you’ve phased music radio out of your life and you haven’t missed it too much. I know that’s the case for a lot of people. Listening statistics show it but exactly 100% of the people I asked before I started writing this piece told me it was the case for them. OK, it wasn’t a scientific poll but it was enough for me to feel like I’m on solid ground when I point it out here on The Huffington Post.

What you probably have missed however is the discovery of some great new music. There’s a lot of it out there. In fact, there’s more out there than ever before. A recent article in the Los Angeles Times noted that there are over 13 million musician profiles on the social networking site Myspace alone. If you calculate that each of those artists may have 4 to 5 songs posted for your listening pleasure, there’s more music available for free online than you could listen to in a lifetime. Add to that the fact that there are likely more than a million new songs created and posted each year and you’ve got yourself a real content management problem. But, only a small fraction of it will be quality music in the genres you personally will enjoy — emphasis on the word “quality.”

More and more, music lovers turn to taste-makers, podcasts and bloggers to learn of music that is available. Sure, you have to do a little work to find the taste-makers that actually target your taste but if they’re good and consistent they develop very loyal followings. As part of my business, I spend a lot of time listening to new music and helping emerging artists get the good stuff into the hands of decision-makers in the music industry — the people who decide which music makes it into movies, advertisements, video games and yes, onto the radio and other mass exposure vehicles. A by-product of that is that I come across some real gems and I’ve been storing them up in anticipation of the new Arts section here on HuffPo so get ready for a series of introductions to some really great emerging musicians you should know about.

I’m kicking this off with Marina V:

Born in Soviet Russia to a Communist nuclear physicist father and a child psychologist mother, Marina grew up in Moscow singing and making up her own melodies before she could talk. When Marina turned 15, she entered a national competition for a scholarship to study in the U.S.A. for a year and won, beating thousands of Russian peers. “I can’t quite explain it, but I feel like I bloomed during that year in America. American culture has this relaxed yet ‘go for it’ attitude, which I think allowed me to just be myself.” That was when Marina decided to move to America, by herself, no matter the difficulties.

Years later, Marina is now releasing her newest album which she recorded after raising $30,000 through her website from her fans to fund the project. The first track, “You Make Me Beautiful,” starts off the album with its catchy pop sound. Marina V has a smooth and somewhat flirtatious voice. Click on the button below to launch the song and video player. I really like this track and hope you do too. Enjoy!

“You Make Me Beautiful” by Marina V

This week I feature Billy Philips, Marina V, Evan Taubenfeld & The Song Diner. I discuss song to opportunity matching in the music business.

Great new music and discussion about the music industry.

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I’m very fortunate to be able to live in two great cities. One drawback however is how long it takes to get from one place to the other. Often I fly direct but sometimes for one thing or another I have a layover. Today I had a layover in Madrid and my flight to Barcelona left two hours late.

Anyway, no matter how tired I am, I have a ritual I follow and it usually leaves me feeling like new. Regardless of whether I arrive home in New York or in Barcelona my ritual is about the same. I check email, I handle anything work-related that has come up while I’ve been out-of-pocket. Then, I put on shorts, a T-shirt and shoes and I go for a run. I can do that any time of year in Barcelona. I admit my ritual has failed or been substituted for the gym in New York a time or two due to weather conditions.

I just got back from my Barcelona run and it was great! This is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and June is one of its better months. I run uphill to Montjüic Park and around the back of the Olympic Stadium and the Palau Sant Jordi Arena (where I used to work), and then back down and home. That route is only about 4 miles but half of it is uphill so it’s still a pretty good workout.

I’ve always loved to run and have been doing it pretty regularly since my early teenage years. With age my knees hurt if I do it too many days in a row and the last few years I’ve been gaining weight so it’s not as easy as it used to be. But, like in the song “Heavy Fuel” by Dire Straights; when my ugly big car won’t climb this hill I’ll write a suicide note on a hundred dollar bill.

Anyway, one of the best parts of living in two cities is no matter which direction I’m heading I always get to arrive to the comforts of home. That’s a really great feeling.