What’s more, it’s free. The only thing we require from our industry professional users is that you attend to every submission you receive within 30 days of receiving it. If you fall behind and submissions languish unattended in your drop box for 45 days or more, we’ll likely be suspending (shutting down) your account and locking you out.

It doesn’t have to happen. We give you the tools to regulate the pace of submissions. If you’re getting so many that you can’t keep up, you can raise your submission fee. If you’re getting too few, you can decrease it.

We will make exceptions. For example, if you’re going on an extended vacation or if you’re on maternity leave, we’ll work with you. You can also deactivate your drop box without having your account suspended. To do that, just attend to all the pending submissions and then set your drop box to expire on today’s date or any date you desire. That will mean that you will not receive any more submissions until you re-open the drop box (or create a new one) and your account will remain open.

Music Xray’s musician and songwriter users depend on the fact that every submission they make will be heard and attended to by the people to whom they submit their music. If you aren’t keeping up, we must remove you and cut off your access to our A&R tools.

Unattended open drop boxes on Music Xray are not allowed.

So, I want to be clear about this. You should not spend a penny more than the value Music Xray provides to your career.

As you know, each time one of your tracks has been rated by five industry professionals (which requires that you submit the track at least five times) we show you the average of the ratings. We don’t delay showing you the ratings as part of some strategy to get you to submit each song five times. It’s just that the average of any number of ratings below five is not statistically significant and doesn’t provide reliable information.

We can’t show you each individual rating. If we did, the ratings would be less sincere because the professionals who rate the songs would know that their individual ratings are public. As much as we’d like that fact to not influence the scores, it does.

So, here’s the thing: we’ve been collecting song ratings from industry professionals for years and we reflect those results back to the community of professionals. More on how that works here. We simply decided that it might be useful to you if we showed those ratings to you. So, we worked out a way that we could do that without singling out any individual professional who rated a song. We don’t charge you anything additional to see the ratings. Consider it a bit of a bonus.

But then we realized that the ratings themselves are predictive in nature. That is, we can observe that most songs that receive high ratings do end up landing the type of deal they’re pursuing sooner or later. Often, it’s just a matter of persistence and having a good submissions strategy – which most often just means not submitting to opportunities that aren’t a good fit for your music. I don’t think anyone should submit solely for the purpose of acquiring a rating (unless you’re submitting specifically to get some career coaching or a song critique – in which case, getting the feedback is the whole purpose of the submission).

Given that the scores are predictive, we realized that one of the best ways to use Music Xray is to actually submit all the music you have to as many opportunities as it takes to accumulate five ratings for each song. In the process, you may get a deal for a few of those songs right away. It happens all the time. But if not, you can use the ratings you get back to decide which songs you want to continue submitting and which songs are probably not worthy of your continued investment.

Either way, you and your team have to decide how much you should invest in getting your career to the next level. At what point is it not worth it? You also music consider the fact that every deal you don’t land, someone else does. Competition is tough and in order to not be out-competed in the new music business, you have to use tools, like those provided by Music Xray, in a way that increases your chances and gives you an edge.

It’s like a GPS system to tell you if you’re getting closer or further away from getting a deal for your music or your band.

It also changes the most effective way to use Music Xray to advance your music career.

When musicians submit tracks to industry professionals for their consideration, the professionals are asked to rate them. Many of them do. They give the songs one to five stars on each of the following criteria: composition, production, performance, arrangement, and hit potential.

As of today, Music Xray shows you your track’s average ratings once your track has been rated at least five times. Why is that important?

Simply put: high ratings indicate a high probability your song or act will eventually be successful securing the type of deals you’re pursuing. Low scores mean it’s not likely to happen.

By showing you the average of several ratings, we’re not singling out any one of the professionals who rated. Their individual ratings are private. Therefore, they’re sincere. The knowledge you gain from seeing these average ratings, previously, took months or even years to acquire.

You should learn the ratings of all your songs so that you know which ones gain traction for you and which ones may be holding you back.

Additionally, your songs that are receiving high ratings will continue to get pushed to the top of the statistics section, which is seen by dozens of industry professionals each day and it’s where they can hear top rated songs that have not been submitted directly to them but that are getting positive ratings from other industry professionals.

This eco-system that provides you feedback while you execute your submission strategy means the best way to use Music Xray is as follows:

1. Submit all your songs to at least 5 industry professionals (here’s a list of a few who ALWAYS rate the songs they receive.

2. Step one may result in your song getting a deal; in which case, misson accomplished. If not, once you have your 5 ratings for each song, you may regard it as a prediction of your eventual success.

3. Continue submitting the tracks that are receiving high ratings. Cease investing in your weaker songs and/or get professional song critiques and/or career coaching. After tweaking your music and/or your submissions strategy, go back to step one.

Good luck. I look forward to hearing how our new feedback loop works for you.

You can watch the video transcript of it by clicking the video below. I look forward to your comments and feedback at the bottom of the page.

Collective A&R Statistics

You probably didn’t know that every time an industry professional receives one of your songs, they rate it. They give it a score for its composition, arrangement, production, performance and hit potential.

Songs that are submitted a number of times to various professionals on the site begin accumulating multiple ratings, all from professionals who make their living with their ears.

Each day, professionals can log into their account and view the collective ratings. They can view songs that have received high ratings across the board from multiple professionals. They can also choose to view songs that have been rated highly on composition but that maybe did not score well on production or performance. The songwriting might be excellent and while the rough demo recording might not turn any heads at radio it could easily get the attention of the manager of a celebrity act. Alternatively, “hit potential” may not be important to a music supervisor seeking a quality Jazz song. So, that supervisor can adjust his or her search to highlight songs that are consistently getting good ratings on other criteria but that may have scored low as a potential hit song.

This tool enables Music Xray to display your music to professionals to whom you never even submitted a song. Some Music Xray artists have been contacted by industry professionals they never would have thought would have an interest in their music. The key to making this tool work for you is to submit your best songs to more professionals so that it can accumulate ratings.

We currently do not reflect the ratings back to you, the musicians however, we are working on a way to do this in the near future.

At Music Xray, we are committed to creating the best environment for musicians and industry professionals to interact in ways that are rewarding for both parties and to generating the greatest number of potential paths to success for each song.

As a bit of an anecdote, these are today’s highest trending songs at industry A&R (with consistently high ratings across all measured criteria). In other words, these are a few of the songs getting the most attention on the platform right at this red hot moment:

Currently trending at Industry A&R

See You Tonight by Kotadama

 

First Move by The Branded

 

Impossible by Diamante

 

Oh No by Derrty Zo

 

Call Me Crazy by Gliffics

 

When You Come Home by Lynx ft Mystery Lady

What if you could be a fly on the wall in hundreds of A&R offices and hear which songs repeatedly get passed over after a few bars or see which songs tend to grab the attention of music professionals? That’d be pretty cool.

As long as there are commercial and professional opportunities for songs, there will be decision-makers and gatekeepers making the decisions about which songs and acts get chosen. If they themselves could get a quick bead on which songs and acts are grabbing the attention of their peers and counterparts, they collectively would be able to churn through a lot more music, pull the needles from they haystack and offer a lot more deals to independent musicians and songwriters everywhere.

Well, that’s EXACTLY the insight that Music Xray already gives to 1300 of the industry’s top song and talent seekers. The results speak for themselves: over 3500 songs and acts selected for opportunities just in the past 6 months and professional users ranging from Columbia Records to MTV.

In fact…

Here are some of this afternoon’s top trending songs:

See You Tonight by Kotadama

Carry The Weight by Krystale

Impossible by Diamante

Magical Night by Linda Basso

Nowhere Land by James Hampton

Blue has launched the careers of artists from Linkin Park to Macy Gray, worked with Limp Bizkit, Korn, Hoobastank, Better Than Ezra, Alliyah (Queen of the Damned ST), Daniel Powter, and The Last Goodnight.

As you can see, his accomplishments speak for themselves and those aren’t even all of them. Jeff Blue is also a hit songwriter. He’s currently signed as a songwriter to Universal Music Publishing where he co-wrote the 2009 hit single “So Close, So Far” for Hoobastank. He additionally co-wrote, produced, and performed on the platinum 2009 BMI pop award winner and 2008 Australian #1 song of the year, “Pictures of You”, and “Stay Beautiful” for The Last Goodnight.

As an A&R man these are the positions he’s held:

Atlantic Records 2009-Present
Senior A&R Consultant

Rock Shop Music Group 2009-Present
President

Universal Music Publishing 2003-Present
Writer/ Producer
-BMI Songwriter Award Winner 2009
-APRA Songwriter Award Winner 2009

Jive Records/ Sony BMG 2008-2009
Senior A&R Consultant/ Producer

Virgin Records 2006-2008
Senior A&R Consultant/ Producer

J Records/ RCA Records 2004-2006
Senior Vice President, A&R Staff Producer

Interscope Records 2003-2004
Senior Vice President, A&R Staff Producer

Warner Bros. Records 1999-2003
Vice President, A&R

Warner/Chappell Music Publishing 2001-2003
Writing/ Publishing

Zomba Music Publishing/ Jive Records 1995-1999
Vice President, Creative Development/ A&R

Journalist/Editor 1992-1995
Billboard, HITS, Entertainment Weekly, BAM,
& Crossroads

Did I mention he’s also an attorney?

So yeah, I’m sure he has an ego but he comes across as a genuinely nice guy. He also comes across as a guy who doesn’t have time to waste so if you have the raw materials of talent and skill, Jeff can and probably will develop you into a finished product but if you lack the raw materials, Jeff will give it to you straight. Think of him as a Simon Cowell who isn’t in it to make good TV, rather he’s still in it to make good music.

He’s a catalyst in that he can make things happen a lot more quickly than you can make them happen on your own. He can also make things happen that weren’t necessarily going to happen without him.

I’ve met a lot of coaches who will prepare you for the moment you get a deal – but getting a deal is still on you. Jeff, on the other hand, has the ability to walk you right into an A&R’s or label president’s office, cut a deal, negotiate it, and execute it. His track record is phenomenal. The list of clients who have not gotten deals is far, far shorter than the list of those who have.

If he believes in you and if you pay him his fees (which are very reasonable for what he can deliver) he will have you and your bandmates out to LA. You’ll hang out at his house and write and play and really take giant leaps forward. He’ll even go into the studio with you and record what you’ve done together and you can end up with radio ready tracks – with a good chance of them being hits.

As an inside track for Music Xray musicians, Jeff agreed to offer a couple deals. They aren’t the least expensive submission opportunities on the site but they are ones I think will deliver real value. If you think his services are what your band needs, I can’t guarantee you success but I can tell you that Jeff is the real deal.

Check them out here and please let me know if you submit music to him. I’d love to follow your progress as you work with him.

But the differentiating factor about Music Xray is an incredible team who are both good at their jobs and passionate about the work we do. Music Xray is the farthest thing from a one man show and is far from being “my” company. The company is privately held by a cadre of the senior team, co-founder shareholders, investors and early friends and family.

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 18 software testers and customer service and support staff. Those are the real assets at Music Xray. I’m just the guy doing some of the business deals and generating awareness.

1. Get deals
2. Get fans
3. Get better

Music Xray is focussed on helping you get deals and providing you access to people who can help you get better.

But getting fans? We think a lot about the challenge but Music Xray does not offer a solution beyond giving you an attractive way to present your music. So, we want to know, how do you identify likely fans and then engage them?

Do you use Headliner.fm? Do you use Jango radio? I like them and Music Xray has a relationship with both companies and we encourage you to use them. How about Fanbridge? Please share some of your experiences in the comments section of this post.

There’s another one we like and that we’ve been experimenting with and I encourage you to give it a shot and report back to the community. It’s called Music Connected Advertising (MCA).

The MCA service enables artists (as advertisers) to target (with an interactive ad) audiences of other artists that have fans that could also become their fans.

You following? Let’s say you think Coldplay’s fans would really be in to your music. MCA let’s you create an online ad (really attractive ones) and then when people all over the Internet who are searching for Coldplay, already reading about Coldplay or have previously purchased or listened to Coldplay tracks will see your ad, hopefully click on it, hear some of your music and join your mail list or “like” you on Facebook etc.

In the past, digital advertising was reserved only for major label artists with massive promotional budgets. But, now everyone can access this powerful promotional tool for a pretty fair price.

As I said, for the next few weeks, we are trying out MCA and wonder if you want to, also.

Here’s the deal: You get 50% off the standard pricing and a free interactive ad (which they will create for you). The ad alone would cost you $1500 or more to build with a professional designer.

Here is what you get:

- 1 free interactive ad including a built in music player
- 100,000 targeted ad impression (shown exclusively to people they know like or are likely to like your music)
- Complete analytics package (location of your fans, numbers of interactions, types of interactions, etc.)

- The cost is a very reasonable $600!

For everyone else, this package is priced at $1000. But, we’d like to get a few of our artists using it and sharing their experiences.

All you need to provide is:

It’s that simple. If you would like more information, please email: sales@injectmusic.com and mention the “Music XRay deal.” One of their campaign managers will be happy to explain the details.

We think this is a great opportunity and hope you are able to take advantage of this.

The idea behind BandMix is pretty simple – like all good ideas. It’s classified ads for musicians – but on steroids. Need a new drummer? Put up an ad and all the drummers in your area will see it. Maybe you are a drummer and you want to find a band. BandMix will help you make that happen.

But the steroids part comes from the email alerts you get periodically when new musicians in your local area join BandMix. I mean, even if you’re not looking for new band members or a new band to play in, don’t you want to know all the new musicians in your area – even if only for the networking advantages? Of course you do – especially if you’re serious about advancing your career.

It’s free to join BandMix and in my opinion, it’s just one of the things you need to do to really be in the game. It’s just one of those sites musicians need to be on – kind of like Facebook.

Lastly, but not least – BandMix is run by cool guys. I met with them a few weeks ago after having gotten in touch to learn more about the company. I was especially intrigued because the site grew organically over time and never really just “burst” onto the scene. Bust they have hundreds of thousands of members. It turns out the founders, David and Robert were just smart diligent entrepreneurs with a real love of music and musicians.

Anyway, Music Xray is entering into a partnership with BandMix because the partnership makes sense and because the value they provide musicians is real, efficient and necessary. BandMix is an example of how the music industry is harnessing new technology and the fact we are all now interconnected to benefit musicians and the entire ecosystem.

Open an account at BandMix and you’ll see what I mean.