Whether you’re a Grammy-winning producer, a music blogger, a label or just a guy with a website, you can begin using Music Xray to accept song submissions. With your free dropbox you have the following options:

-          Accept submissions completely free (100% free for you and your submitters).

-          Charge a submission fee.

-          Donate any percentage of your fee to charity.

-          Promote your opportunities/your dropbox on your own websites and through social networks.

-          We promote many of the new opportunities to thousands of artists (we make sure they're real).

If you are posting songs you’ve received we have a couple different options. Like this or like this.

If you want to open a drop box click here and log in under Music Industry Professionals.

There are few better indicators as to the future success of a song or artist than how industry insiders react to your music. These are the people who are trained to (and make a living by) knowing whether money can be made with a song or an artist. They aren't always right. But it's their job and they do it more consistently than anybody else.

We're building this company because we saw a need for artists to be able to get quick and inexpensive feedback on their songs from people who make music their business. It's hard to access these people. Let's face it. Most people will spend a lot of time and money trying to get their song into the hands of people who can truly help them get to the next level. 

So, if I had a couple new songs this is how I'd use Music Xray to find out if I have a hit.

I would submit them to 5 or 6 top music industry people to get some real, pure, objective feedback. If most of the feedback is positive you know you’ve got something hot on your hands. If the general consensus is that your song needs some work, then you’ll get some valuable feedback from people who aren’t easily accessible and who really know their stuff. You can use the feedback to make adjustments to your work and get more feedback. 

For example, let's say I have a pop act with a couple really good tracks.  I would submit the first song (the best one) for a critique and coaching to a few guys that know the space (for example):

Alex Greggs

Jeff Blue

Jeff Bova

Alex Forbes

Brian Hardgroove

and Peter Rafelson

Keep in mind that each submission enables you to send a note to the industry professional so write a short introduction (not your whole bio and everything. That goes somewhere else.) and then ask the questions you most want answered.

What do you think of the song itself?

What do you think of the production and the arrangement?

Where would you make improvements?

What do you think about this song’s and this artist’s viability?

Then, wait a few days for the answers.

Once each of them has answered, you submit your next song. In the message section you remind the industry professional who you are and that they just critiqued your previous song. Then, you ask your follow-on questions.

Can you give me feedback on this song similar to the way you gave me feedback on the previous one?

Do you like this artist enough to see a place for her in any projects you know of?

Where do you think I should take this song next?

Now, that’s a pretty inexpensive and fast way to really and truly know how my song is likely to do in the market. And who knows? I might get signed in the process. Each of the people I will have just accessed are people who aren't likely to pass up a sure deal.

Oh, if others say my song is pretty good but I still don’t get a deal, I'd consider submitting it to The Music Umbrella. They license and place a lot of songs and they don’t seem to let too many good ones go by.

Lastly, whether you're submitting already created Music Xray Song Presentation Packs or you are just uploading MP3's be sure to go back and fill in as much information on your presentation pack as possible.  Industry professionals like to be able to see everything in one place. If you upload MP3's for your submissions you will receive an email explaining how to fill out your presentation packs. You can also check our FAQ section.

Good luck. I look forward to hearing your success stories.

New York / Seattle November 3, 2009

Audiosocket, a leading provider of pre-cleared independent music for licensing has partnered with Music Xray to increase the visibility of artists in its catalog as well as to enrich the data associated to each song, making it easier for Audiosocket clients to find the most appropriate music for their projects.

Audiosocket represents over 20,000 pre-cleared songs by over 1,100 artists. Music Xray provides rich song presentation packs that aggregate more data around each song than any other song hosting solution on the web. Audiosocket will export much of its catalog to Music Xray, creating a unique song presentation pack for each title. Audiosocket artists will then be able to fill in additional data fields (lyrics, bio, notes and metadata) as well as to track metrics and stats (Twitter mentions, blog mentions, P2P traders, Myspace views and comments).

Audiosocket plans to integrate the enhanced song data as well as the artist information into it's own proprietary search engine and will at the same time expose its catalog to a wider audience due to the music being incorporated into Music Xray's own search engine. Regardless of whether the music is found by interested licensees on Music Xray's or Audiosocket's search engines, commercial inquiries will be directed back to Audiosocket.

Additionally, Audiosocket artists will be able to use the resulting song presentation packs as media widgets to expand their marketing efforts across the web as well as to submit their songs to hundreds of mass exposure opportunities offered through Music Xray and to interact directly with top industry professionals who offer career coaching, mentoring and song critiques.

Jenn Miller, President of Audiosocket said, "This partnership makes our discovery process even smarter by enabling us to combine the extensive human tagging we do for each song to additional artist-added fields and the music intelligence technologies that Music Xray brings to the table."

Mike McCready, CEO of Music Xray added, "We are excited to announce the first partnership of this kind with Audiosocket because they provide such a quality catalog which will be interesting to the hundreds of music industry professionals that use our site every day to interract directly with artists and to find songs for their projects. Music Xray is dedicated to making interactions between artists and industry professionals rewarding and that's easy when you can start with great songs like those in the Audiosocket roster."

***

About Audiosocket:

Audiosocket licenses the best independent music for placement in all types of media. Representing over 1500 artists and a 20,000 song catalog, Audiosocket constantly scouts cutting-edge artists in all genres. Audiosocket offers pre-cleared music and makes it discoverable through a fantastic interface. Some of Audiosocket's recent placements include: Nickelodeon, McDonald's, Warner Brothers, Universal, The Gap, ABC's Lincoln Heights, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, NBC's Conan O'Brien, Lifetime, Urban Outfitters, Lucky Magazine, Solomon, Converse, Plum TV, and more. Audiosocket recently became a preferred music provider for MTV Networks (MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, etc), ABC and The Travel Channel, and are launching an iPhone app loaded with Audiosocket artists. While the Audiosocket home-base is in Seattle, there are also offices in LA, NY and New Orleans.

About Music Xray:

New York, NY based Music Xray (Platinum Blue Music Intelligence, Inc) connects artists directly with top music industry professionals and enables them to submit songs to hundreds of exposure opportunities. Songs are submitted to the industry as sleek song presentation packs that artists can also use to promote songs across the web. Additionally, the company is developing a music search engine that already helps song owners increase the searchability of their music.

Once you’ve decided that getting some expert feedback on your song is a good idea you then need to decide who is the right person to ask and how to access them.

As a rule of thumb, you should try to seek out the services of someone who has been successful in the market with similar music to your own. I would suggest going with a songwriter or a producer. My next choice would be an accomplished A&R person. These are the three kinds of people who have been successful because they write, record or find the best songs. So, they certainly know one when they hear one or are in the business of polishing good songs to make them great.

I find that crowd sourcing (playing the music for a focus group of music fans) and asking your non-songwriting friends and family is not the best idea. Fans tend to hear good production and can imagine hearing your song on the radio but they aren’t objective when it comes to whether or not the song is compelling. Friends and family are invested (at least emotionally) in you and they cannot be objective.

Furthermore, keep in mind that songs catch fire in the market by a lot of people hearing the song in situations when they aren’t actively listening (while shopping, driving, during ads, in the background at restaurants etc). You can’t easily re-create those situations but professionals who have been successful time and time again really know what a hit song is all about. Of course, my company is in the business of enabling artists to interact directly with music industry professionals so I’d be remiss not to point you here for some of the best in the business.

When seeking commercial success, the best, most experienced songwriters have their songs critiqued by their peers and others in their networks they respect and trust. They know they are too close to their work to be objective about it. What’s more, when you pour long hours and hard work into anything you are less willing to admit to its flaws than you should be. You become emotionally invested in the song and have certainly lost the ability to judge the impression it will make on a listener the first time they hear it. Melodies start sounding too familiar and love for your own creation begins to become unconditional.

It takes a certain level of wisdom and sophistication on the part of the artist to seek out critiques. It’s hard to hear you need to go back to the drawing board, or that your song isn’t all you thought it was. It’s even harder if you’ve already poured a lot of money and other resources into getting a good production done only to be told you’ll likely have to do it again. This is all part of paying your dues. It also leads to learning that you might want to start getting feedback earlier in the process, i.e. before you have a song produced and mastered. Are your lyrics compelling? Is the hook catchy? Is it too repetitive? Should the cowbell start in the second verse or should you just bring it in for the bridge? Is the structure right? How could it be improved? These are the things you’ll learn.

You should get multiple opinions.

Another compelling reason to have your song professionally critiqued is that by doing so, you are likely engaging someone who has been successful in the music industry. Perhaps even someone who could know where your song should be placed or someone who has an opportunity for your song. Often times, engaging someone’s professional song critiquing services can lead to developing a broader relationship, songwriting partnerships and professional opportunities.