In the last few years, the internet has been drenched in new music from up-and-coming artists. Whilst access to the market is easier than it has ever been for musicians, we think it’s also fair to say that perhaps the saturation has gotten to the point where a lot of artists are struggling to get their music heard both by fans and by key people within the creative industries. However, Music Xray can help and we will explain why in this Music Xray review!
A number of platforms have stepped in to help filter music being delivered to people within the music and other creative industries to help connect musicians with opportunities. In this Music Xray review, we’ll look in detail at Music Xray’s offerings and see if it’s any good for creatives. Stay tuned for everything you need to know!
What Is Music Xray?
Music Xray is an online platform that connects musical talent with music industry professionals. For musicians, this means presenting industry opportunities where you can pitch your music.
Or, it could be writing songs for other artists or submitting your music to music supervisors for movies and TV shows. It could be any opportunity where a musician can generate income or advance their career.
Music Xray separates high-quality music from low-quality. Which allows them to find the exact kind of music or artist they are looking for. According to Music Business Worldwide, over 60,000 songs are uploaded to Spotify every day. So, it’s easy to see why a service like Music Xray might be useful for industry professionals.
What Does Music Xray Do?
So, how does Music Xray work?
Once you’ve signed up for your Music Xray login and started navigating the site, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s dormant. The site feels very out of date in terms of how it’s put together. For example, all of their instructional videos and success stories are from the mid-2010s. But, it is active and the opportunities are refreshed pretty regularly.
In a nutshell, the process is that an industry professional creates an advert for an opportunity. This could be a music supervisor for a film looking for a specific kind of song to play over the credits. It could be a record label looking to sign a specific kind of artist, or it could be a publishing house looking to build their catalogue in a certain genre.
Musicians can then browse the opportunities and when they see one they think their music would be suitable for, they can pitch their songs.
S20 Sonic Matching Opportunity
Music Xray’s main feature is its S2O Sonic Matching Opportunity. This is where Music Xray’s algorithm listens to artists’ music and analyses it. It then automatically matches it to opportunities that their music will suit. Which saves artists from trawling through opportunities hoping to find something relevant to their music.
The same analysis also allows Music Xray to provide artists with some analytics on their music and give feedback on the potential of songs. There is also an integration model directly with Soundcloud. So users can use their Soundcloud tracks to submit directly to Music Xray from anywhere, even from a phone.
In the past, there was a Music Xray App which gave access to opportunities and also included a feature for listeners. Where they could get paid to listen to music and provide feedback. However, Music Xray has since ceased their Get Paid To Listen offering and the Music Xray App Download is no longer active. They plan to re-launch this service though, so watch this space.
Music Xray Pricing
Music X-ray is free to join. Creating a membership and browsing opportunities can be done at zero cost. There are also no monthly fees to maintain membership.
Moreover, they don’t take any commission from any deals done via the platform. So, you can submit to opportunities with confidence that the amount stated will be what you end up with if you are successful.
While some opportunities are free to pitch to, most have a submission cost. This is part and parcel of Music Xray’s filtering process and it ensures that musicians are more selective about the opportunities that they submit songs to.
How To Earn Money Using Music Xray
You are probably wondering ‘How much does Music Xray pay?’
Well, for artists, Music Xray becomes commercially viable when they are successful in pitching for opportunities.
This can be in the form of a specific sync fee or it can be in the form of royalties following a successful sync, etc. It may also be in the form of a successful signing of a recording or publishing contract with a record label or publisher.
For industry professionals, it allows them to find talent to work with and therefore grow their own businesses.
Is There A Music X-ray Alternative?
Yes! In fact, there are quite a few.
Here are the three main alternatives open to you:
Music Xray vs Taxi
Taxi is one of the most well-known online A&R and sync opportunity companies.
Based out of Los Angeles, the company was one of the first on the market, starting way back in 1992. As you’d expect, they’ve built a really good reputation over the years for helping independent songwriters, artists and composers get their music in front of professionals.
You do, however, have to pay in order to submit to opportunities.
Price-wise, Taxi is a little more costly at $299.95 per year and $5 per submission. With that being said, we don’t recommend using them because you have to pay a fee per submission.
Мusic Gateway vs Music Xray
Of course, Мusic Gateway is also operating in the same space as Music Xray. Мusic Gateway is the best-designed interface on the market and is very intuitive and easy to use.
Мusic Gateway has a number of services around artist development, consultation, feedback, sync representation, and more. So, they can help artists and songwriters across a broad spectrum.
Price-wise, Мusic Gateway has three different kinds of membership at £5, £15, and £25 per month. As well as no submission cost for pitching on opportunities. Which makes them stand out from other alternatives on the market.
SongLink vs Music Xray
SongLink and its sister publication CueSheet are another of the old guard of music tipsheets. The website is incredibly old-fashioned, as are the success stories.
Rather than presenting opportunities to songwriters via a web portal, SongLink still operates via a mailing list where opportunities are emailed out.
Price-wise, SongLink has an annual subscription (10 emails as July/August and December/January are combined) at £195 and you tend to get 50-60 opportunities per email. They don’t accept just anyone as a songwriter, so you first have to submit some evidence of your work before you can subscribe.
Cuesheet comes in at £395 per year and you receive 2 emails per month with industry opportunities. Overall, SongLink and CueSheet have pretty much had their day. Their offers are not particularly competitive anymore either.
Our Final Thoughts
So, is Music Xray worth it?
We think there are certain areas where Music Xray could improve. Their interface is a little old-fashioned and not the easiest to navigate. Additionally, the Music Xray Artist List feels pretty thin. The most recent success story they talk about is from 2014 and it’s not a huge one either.
Taxi and Мusic Gateway are more advanced in their offerings. They have much more up-to-date success stories of placements for their members. So we would be more inclined to recommend one of those services above Music Xray.
However, Music Xray does have arguably the largest range of opportunities regularly available to its members. Also, the S2O matching does make it much easier for users to discover relevant prospects for their music. So we’d say on balance it is probably worth a try.
Also, as it’s free to join and you only pay per submission, there is no major financial exposure with a lot of potential gains. So, we would encourage artists to at least explore Music Xray’s opportunities and see if there is anything of interest.
We hope that you enjoyed our Music Xray review! Have you ever used Music Xray? Let us know about your experiences in the comment section below!
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