General Music Chat

Signed up with Sonic bids and then noticed a slew of Ads, from various "directors and producers asking for song submissions for their promos and ads.. The problem I have with it is that some of these guys are charging entrance fees (of $10.00 or more) , offering scant compensation for selected candidates , and will no doubt generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue from the ads that use those songs...

Please tell me I am not the only one who thinks this is abusive and flat out wrong. I mean, I have a strong work ethic and I realize one has to give a lot and expect little back..., but an entrance fee, seriously?

I've actually heard where some bands have got some gigs and opps through Sonicbids which is why I signed up.

Here's the thing you have to keep in mind though, 90% are not going to be selected for the opps. If your music and/or your band doesn't fit what you hear on the radio or out there in the media, then chances are you will just be throwing your money into making them rich.

Musicxray and Reverbnation are others which will suck you dry if you aren't careful.

So it's all about being smart. I've submitted to several opps on Sonicbids recently so I'll see what they net. Plus Sonicbids give you like 25 tokens to start out with and a number of opps cost only a token.

So we'll see.

Chaeya

I've actually heard where some bands have got some gigs and opps through Sonicbids which is why I signed up.

Here's the thing you have to keep in mind though, 90% are not going to be selected for the opps. If your music and/or your band doesn't fit what you hear on the radio or out there in the media, then chances are you will just be throwing your money into making them rich.

Musicxray and Reverbnation are others which will suck you dry if you aren't careful.

So it's all about being smart. I've submitted to several opps on Sonicbids recently so I'll see what they net. Plus Sonicbids give you like 25 tokens to start out with and a number of opps cost only a token.

So we'll see.

Chaeya

From the looks of some of the ads, I'm seeing some really brutal lures happening.
If we take away music styles, famous names of biz, and Prize descriptions from the ads, , what we have left is:

"Hi, Send in whatever song you have... and just pay us 10 dollars for the trouble of even suggesting that we listen to it."
That would actually be acceptable, if they would just be honest and say it that way, rather then feed the musicians such a load of crap about how they intend to use the song. (You'll note that in many of the current ads, they don't even really mention the part about it all being a contest, and that there will only be one winner.

I'd have to say, this is a text book , classic example of predatory behavior, exploiting the inherent "vanity" of copious numbers of amateur musicians. As a good rule of thumb, when the musicians see these ads, they should ask... Would Eric Clapton recommend this to me...?. Instinct should prevail with a big, resounding "Hell NO"

I agree that its not the entire site, but rather some unscrupulous vendors who really have nothing to offer.

I agree, they play on your desire to succeed, and like lawyers, they're the only ones making money. There was one dude who claimed he'd worked with all these named artists back in the 1990's and he was looking for people to pay him $90 for a critique. Are you kidding me? All I saw was a hasbeen with no real options looking for a way to make some money. If he was working, he wouldn't have time to critique anyone on a site like Music Xray and if he truly wanted to help artists, he wouldn't be asking for such an unbelievable amount. I spent $5 for one add for one guy to tell me that my song "A Little Peace of Heaven" was boring. Dude, it was for a commercial and they only play between 2-30 seconds of your song for a commercial. I went to his website and it was full of techno, so of course he'd find my song boring. I learned my lesson before blindly submitting to these opps.

Whenever I see these opps, I Google these people and see what they're really doing and look for scam alerts.

I honestly believe this about the music industry, it's mostly a tight-knit network and many opps are all word of mouth. I am concentrating on those.

Chaeya

Chaeya

I agree, they play on your desire to succeed, and like lawyers, they're the only ones making money. There was one dude who claimed he'd worked with all these named artists back in the 1990's and he was looking for people to pay him $90 for a critique. Are you kidding me? All I saw was a hasbeen with no real options looking for a way to make some money. If he was working, he wouldn't have time to critique anyone on a site like Music Xray and if he truly wanted to help artists, he wouldn't be asking for such an unbelievable amount. I spent $5 for one add for one guy to tell me that my song "A Little Peace of Heaven" was boring. Dude, it was for a commercial and they only play between 2-30 seconds of your song for a commercial. I went to his website and it was full of techno, so of course he'd find my song boring. I learned my lesson before blindly submitting to these opps.

Whenever I see these opps, I Google these people and see what they're really doing and look for scam alerts.

I honestly believe this about the music industry, it's mostly a tight-knit network and many opps are all word of mouth. I am concentrating on those.

Chaeya

Chaeya

LOL...90 Dollars? The guy got it all wrong: Should have said:

1) 15 dollars to trash your song...
2) 25 dollars to praise your song...
3) *Add an extra 10.00 dollars to tell the truth...

Ha ha!

" Musicxray and Reverbnation are others which will suck you dry if you aren't careful."

Yeah. The other day I received a (Reverbnation) PM from a radio station in Nashville that wanted me to send them some MP3's to play on their station.

WOW. I should have jumped at that one, right? There goes another chance at fame and fortune down the crapper.

I won a poetry contest once. I didn't even know I was a poet. Somebody wrote to me and asked for a submission so I sent him a song I hadn't written any music for yet called "Public Assistance."

Wouldn't you know it - I was selected to be in the book of American poets and could I please send them a picture and 50.00 to cover 'expenses.'

Got to run - putting a check in the mail to a Nigerian who is going to split a bunch of money with me in return for a paltry fee!

Talbot