Hi ya'll. My song "TRY" was just chosen on MusicXray by Sosa Music Group. I haven't gotten the contract yet, this just happened yesterday. But the deal says "distribution deal". WTH is this??

Hi Donna

Music X RAY doesn't have a very good reputation in the music industry......Most songwriters know it as a scam/rip off.....Sorry to give you bad news but those folks arent known for integrity to say the least....Keep at it just the same.....

I think of MusicXray in the same terms as Tom. I looked up Sosa Music Group and it appears to be a service that you hire to promote your song. Wait until you see the contract they are offering but I would bet you a cup of coffee that they will want you to pay them to promote your song.

Hey Colin-Good to see you again

Hope you have gotten some more contracts for yourself

Good Luck

Would you put the other sites on same page as Music Xray: Hitlicense, Broadjam: scammers?

Opportunity-wise - probably. The good thing about Broadjam is they allow you to showcase your music, videos, and bio - for free.

Best, Johyn

Music libraries that try to place your music in things like TV shows and films for the most part are legitimate. Audiosparx, Crucial Music and a few others.

Sites that want you to pay fees to get them to pitch your song to a top artist with the idea in mind that the artist will record it on his next album are generally praying on your dreams because it ain't gonna happen. Not sure if that makes it a scam exactly. I would include schlock demo studios in this category.

The music industry is a very RELATIONSHIP ORIENTED, PERSONAL business. The people you deal with, represent YOU in business interests. That is not taken lightly or just thrown together by someone you have never met or know anything about.

Do some research on any people in the industry. Major artists, producers, publishers, record labels. Pick an era, pick a genre, and research who is INVOLVED with those artists, songs, careers.

What you are NOT going to find are random findings by faceless, nameless entities on the Internet throwing things around and just hoping they fall into the right hands or into the right ears. The further you get away from ONE ON ONE interaction, the further you get into the musical equivilent of the "Nigerian General" scam on the Internet.

Is there a chance you might get "distributed?" Sure. They will "distribute you" on the Internet, into the endless realm of "SPAM EMAILS." You can do that yourself. It should also be observied that songs like "WRECKING BALL" a HUGE hit for Miley Cyrus, getting over 260 MILLION streams and BILLIONS of views, netting the writers around $3000 on things like Pandora, Spotify and YOU TUBE.

http://www.dailynewsbin.com/opinion...n-streaming-music-royalties-wrong/25671/

So with songs like that earning nothing and getting little in the way of "distribution" should tell you much of what to expect with Music X Ray or the endless services, libraries, Internet based vehicles.

Could you be successful? Sure. You could be the one who breaks all the rules and conventions. You could make EVERYBODY completely change their way of thinking, and make the Internet work for creators, where everyone else, the thousands of brilliant people working on this for decades, have failed.
Is it likely to happen?

Not even close.

MAB

(Sorry about that double post. Didn't see where it did that)

Donna,

A "DISTRIBUTION DEAL" is to "DISTRIBUTE" your music to various sources, be they radio, pod casting, record stores, or other places, with YOU as the artist. If the song you are using is NOT you as the artist, you have to get permission from the singer to promote them as part of this song. Most demo singers will not do that, so you may not be able to do anything.

Basically, if you have put songs on web sites, contests, film and television libraries, etc. your information is stored in the cloud somewhere and your algorhythms pop up and are available to companies that do this sort of thing. The general theory is that if they come across thousands upon thousands of songs, artists, writers, web sites, etc. and send out tens and hundreds of thousands of emails, posts, whatever, a percentage of those people will respond by joining groups, posting music, etc. most all SPENDING MONEY.

So if you are trying to put music OUT there as an artist, this is one of many avenues available to you. Most all cost money so you have to be aware of that. If you are NOT an artist and primarily a writer, you might not be able to participate in what they are offering.

Good luck but be aware and cautious. If you have not personally entered into a relationship with a person you ACTUALLY KNOW, there is probably not much to it.

MAB

I am certainly not the be all-end all oracle of wisdom about the music business-but personally I think Broadjam is a very lucrative scam for songwriters that made its founder alot richer......Its money for this and money for that etc etc...

Tom

Hey Tom! TAXI once used Broadjam as a delivery system for their opportunities. Until Broadjam decided to go in the opportunity business themselves, thus, separation from TAXI. As I said before, the best thing about Broadjam is their free membership that allows you to store unlimited mp3's, bio info, and more.

Best, John

ReverbNation is free as well John

Yes they do offer various PAID services

Anything thats free is me-lol

Its all I can do to afford my costs of Demos-much less make Taxi or Broadjam or whoever richer than they deserve to be-lol

Thats my opinion anyway-though you have of course had 100 times the number of songs picked up for contracts that I have...

Years ago-I read something about the owner of Broadjam being in some kinda serious trouble-about what I forget......May have to Google that and get back to you on that subject my friend


Tom

Here is a recent post from Taxi I found in the net John

http://forums.taxi.com/topic6846-30.html

Tom

Music X Ray also sells a book to "teach" you how to use their pay to play site. Shameless

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR7UuZT6McI

Hey Donna,

Sorry to say, but you haven't been "chosen". If you'd be "Chosen", nobody would be asking you for money.

Run !

cheers, niteshift

Ditto

Music Xray is a mixed bag. I've signed several contracts, so far, and not one placement in a film or TV project.

The very BAD thing about this company is that they feed the music industry people with money, your money. so, first they charge four bucks for the service, then another fee on top of it, which goes to the record company, music director, publisher, or whoever is putting in a request for music.

this, to me, invites corruption, and when you see something like "need songs for Biancé, how do you know it's not some guy with a desk and phone and no real connection to her? Maybe he takes your money, sends your demo to her manager ( which you could do, with a little sleuthing ). But, I assure you, they won't listen to it. MXR says they check them out, but I personally have found two flakes operating there and brought it to their attention. For example, one gal ( who was charging to listen to songs, claiming she was a publisher ) was touting "VH1 Song Of The Year Winner", well, I fell for that contest in the past, and EVERYONE wins! ( VH1 has no contest like that ) There are no prizes given, the people who win top prize do not exist, and the judges are all fake! Yet she has put that 'win' on her bio for years. Take away that win, and there is nothing else in her bio, not one accomplishment of any kind, and she is taking songs and $15 for submissions.

On Broadjam, they don't feed the music industry people, so
you know they are not scamming people. On Music Xray, there is the $4 charge, plus another $15 or so they give to the MIP just to listen to your song. That's a scam, if you ask me.

Hey Pat,

It's real simple.

As a music provider, YOU pay ME. Not the other way around.

And that is quite distinct from paying a publicist, when your music is up to scratch, to publicise and make more money from your work.

cheers, niteshift

PS - I wish I could drown the bottom feeders, but they have an uncanny knack of being able to breathe under water.

cheers, niteshift

That's because there will always be plenty of deluded or ignorant people to feed off of...I felt bad for them until I spent decades begging people not to waste their money on a myriad of bad offerings only to first be ignored and then later once they are scammed, some even came back trying to get me to get involved to get their money back, which I did a few times until I learned the hard way some people just can't be warned or saved so I just focus on those ready to hear the truth and help them... the others either learn the hard way or simply keep feeding the trolls until they're broke and beyond. (I have heard all the horror stories including JPF members who mortgaged their homes (and in a few cases lost those homes)... one of the worst was when someone completely devoid of any talent got their Mom to take a 150K dollar loan out on her house to fund this scam artist producer. I begged him and her both not to do it.. instead of listening, they attacked me hard all over the place. The guy took their money of course and didn't give them the amazing album promised, but kept bleeding them to spend a little more and a little more on a single demo song that was terrible, because he claimed it was getting all this airplay in Europe in Romania and Poland and Latvia etc. he would print up these bogus charts with famous names and right in the middle on the charts was this awful song. The more money they gave him, the more "success" they thought they were financing, though strangely never a dime came back to them. Finally and predictably They ran out of savings and money and lost the home, the Mom and son were homeless and only then did they come back to me for help, not to out the scam artist, but to find investors to keep it going. I just stopped responding to them. The Mom later died broke and homeless, the son disappeared and I haven't heard from him in about 10 years. Those charts were a very common scam and I outed the guy who at the time used to call himself a Colonel.. of course he threatened me in all sorts of ways all over the Internet... I think he finally died as well.

So, help those you can help, the others can only help themselves and often don't, though I have had many come back to me after learning the hard lesson and at least thank me for trying to help them. But when scam artists tell you what you so desperately want to hear, it can be hard to resist. Lots of abusers do the same thing.

I remember that "Colonel" clown. Somehow found my information, contacted and threatened me.

Yeah, we outed him hard and he was getting destroyed by search engines finding this message board before his own site. (Back in the days when we'd have over 1000 people on the site at any given time, I miss those days). Once he realized it was just making things worse attacking me (I would run his threats on our home page back then just to prove what a tool he was) he started hunting down regulars here and threatening them as well. I remember Dawg and Bobbie were among those threatened, doesn't surprise me that he got to you too Jody. We used to hammer the major scams hard, and thankfully most are gone and many others confirmed what we were saying on other sites which shut them down.

There's some companies mentioned in this post above which also are scamming people, but I am too busy to deal with a new rash of threats. Taxi is the only legit service I have ever come across and I can say that without bias as they are no longer sponsors (though I realize they are still mentioned on this message board). That's more a thank you to them for all their support over many decades in the past. And Laskow, who runs it is as honest and straight shooting as they come. It isn't right for everyone, but it has helped a lot of people I know make money and get placements they wouldn't otherwise have gotten while improving their professionalism.

Well, isn't that the very same thing that Uber has done, making its founder so much richer?

But supposedly free websites, whether in the music arena or in other areas such as dating services, nevertheless will play the "upgrade" game to try and get you to pay for so-called additional benefits.

The story you presented here would be perfect for a 60 Minutes expose, they type of thing that show is known for. Would be nice if you could separate here the good guys from the bad, so to speak.

How about Nashville Songwriters? They have branches in different cities and I went to a seminar in their Chicago branch some time ago. Do you believe all the other outside of TAXI are scam players?

Beechnut,

For the most part, "Nashville songwriters" develop personal relationships. We don't use these "pitch services" because it is like getting a "friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend" to do something for you. Really inneffective .We know that if we want cuts, we are going to have to recruit and write with artists today that may be in the eye of the storm in a few years. If you study anyone on the charts, you find the people they record songs from are personal friends, people they have worked with, or known for years and sometimes decades. Or they are on the insides of the companies they WORK for. who SIGN THEIR PAYCHECKS.

If you know how many spam ads you get, viruses you can be exposed to, pop up commercials, due to someone selling your browser history or online information, and how many scams there are out there, you don't accept songs, emails, or ANYTHING from someone you don't know. And if you are in the "real business" (very tightly knit groups of people), you avoid those companies because they are known for TAKING ANYTHING. It is a waste of time trying to screen hundreds and thousands of songs. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU OWN YOUR OWN PUBLISHING COMPANIES, ARE PAYING YOUR OWN SONG PLUGGERS TO PITCH YOUR SONGS, when you are a hit writer or artist yourself. You simply have no time or inclination to even listen to anything from this vast outside group of people.

It is ALL 100% PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS. The farther you get away from that the less your chances are of anything.

I don't call any of these people "SCAMS" as much as "over promising" and "underdelivering." The "real music business" is far too insular to go for any of that. Do you have a chance with any or all of them? Sure.
Is it likely? Not hardly.

A person in the middle of the desert, could pick up a rock, throw it and possibly hit a car in the middle of LA traffic also. But it is pretty unlikely.

MAB

Personal Relationship is good in any business....Music is no different...

Music is the ULTIMATE EGO BUSINESS. Because songs are worth ABSOLUTELY NOTHING until they connect with a thousand things that make them worth something. And everyone is your potential ally AND DIRECT COMPETITION. So RELATIONSHIPS are all you can hope to build. Success in writing. performing, working in this business are all by products of the relationship and your ability to succeed is DIRECTLY INCUMBENT ON YOUR ABILITY TO MAKE OTHERS LOOK GOOD AND SUCCEED THEMSELVES.

MAB