Just learned that my song was not selected in the Round 6 Singer/Songwriter contest.  I don’t mind not being selected, but had hoped to get some more specific feedback beyond the boilerplate communication.  I hunted around and saw a reply from you to a previous complaint about this regarding your service for the purpose of evaluation.  It’s great that you provide this service; however, the entrants to this contest have already paid $30, and it looks like you’re asking for an additional $30 to get feedback.  This seems excessive.  Maybe you could give a break to the non-selected entrants and charge them only, say, $10 for feedback.

Just a thought.

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Lior,

I just wanted to thank you for getting together with Steven Williams and offering his critique services through We Are Listening…
I got a very positive response from him for all of the lyrics I sent him…
Anyway… I also wanted to let you know that I believe feedback from the staff at We Are Listening on my other lyrics has helped me tremendously and it is much appreciated…

Thanks again for your continued, valuable service…

Steven

I have made all the rookie mistakes and then some.

From building websites to building an email list, I have spent a small fortune creating my business. Had I known then what I know today, I could have saved thousands of dollars, spared myself countless sleepless nights, and achieved the success I enjoy today much sooner.

If you’re already enjoying the success you deserve, read no further.

But if you’re feeling disgruntled with the music industry, frustrated with the promise of a multitude of internet services, and darn right pissed off that all the work you’re doing isn’t paying off, please read on. I’ll make it short.

Secret #1: Email Is The Holy Grail
Whether you’re tricking out your MySpace page or performing at your local venue, always think about what you can do to collect more email addresses. Believe me, there is nothing of greater importance than your email list. If you’re not using a professional email service, start now.

Secret #2: Passive Radio Is Passé
Massive online radio sites get your music in front of targeted music fans. They are not your average passive radio listeners, they are music fanatics feverishly searching for music just like yours. Yeah, you have to pay for the privilege, but the exposure you get in return is guaranteed and trackable. In the music biz, it’s hard to find that kind of bang-for-your-buck value. Jango Airplay is the largest online radio promotion service I know of. Are you on it?

Secret #3: Get Professional Help
Whether it’s your songwriting or your marketing (or anything else), never underestimate the value of expert advice. We Are Listening provides professional assessments for songs and lyrics. It’s what we know and what we’re good at. But you can find a service, coach or consultant for any project you wish to fast track to success. The humility required to ask for help and receive critical feedback is the mark of an independent artist and entrepreneur that people want to listen to and associate with. Personally, I can use all the help I can get!

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Song Contest & Critique Status Manager

Think of it as your personal song contest and critique status manager and editor, accessible by clicking on My Account (at the top right of every page on our site).

What is a Status?

We assign a status to your contest submission or critique the second your transaction is complete.  For contests, your status is Received until the contest deadline.  After the deadline, it’s In Review for up to 30 days.  Within 30 days, at the point that the judges have made their final selections, you receive a final status: Not Selected, Runner Up, Finalist or Winner.

With critiques, it’s simpler.  As soon as you purchase your critique, your entry is In Review.  When the reviewer has completed the critique (within 14 days), the status is Complete.

Why is Status important?

1. So you can self-edit your entries.

For example, if you had trouble uploading your song file, wish to make changes to your lyric or even want to substitute your entire contest submission, as long as your status is Received, you can!  And you can do it in just a couple of clicks by logging into your account.

2. So you can keep a record of your important communications with us.

When we assign your final status (Not Selected, Runner Up, Finalist or Winner) or complete your critique, we notify you via email.  As of next week, these emails will be saved in your account, along with every single detail associated with your contest entry or critique.

How do I access these details?

By clicking on Details on the right of each contest or critique item in your account!

If a final status has been assigned to your contest entry (Not Selected, Runner Up, Finalist or Winner) you can click on that to view the email that was sent to you, by whom and when.

Why did we go to the trouble?

1. So you have total control over and insight into the service that you are paying us for.

2. So you no longer need to depend on emails from us.  We will continue sending them, you can be sure of that, but all the information you can possibly wish to have about your contest entry or critique will be at your fingertips.

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How To Get 200 New Fans A Week

Marketers use focus groups to determine the consumer attitude toward a new product before millions are poured into launching it.  It is a form of qualitative research and practiced by companies of every size and discipline.  Focus groups are designed by experts, require considerable resources and take time.  However, the core principle of acquiring pertinent feedback in order to improve a product or arrive at a solution for a problem before “the damage is done” can be effectively applied on a much smaller scale, if done right.

I caught up with the General Manger of SoundOut, James Sopper, this week to find out how his company has brought the value of focus groups to artists and labels through a cost-effective and intuitive online platform.

James, please tell me a little about your professional background, how you got involved with SoundOut, and your role at the company.

I graduated from Imperial College in London with a Masters Degree in Aeronautical Engineering about nine years ago and, pretty soon after that, I took on the role of Technical Manager for a triple World Speed Record campaign.  After a good few years of speed-sailing and many days spent on frozen lakes in Canada, I began working for a large US medical company as a project specialist and it was while I was there that I was introduced to David, CEO of Slicethepie, by a mutual friend.  After speaking to David at length about the new business he’d spent the last year setting up he invited me to join the team (I say “team” although at that stage it was four desks and a foosball table set up in what was formerly a school classroom!).  Three months later, in mid June 2007, Slicethepie was born.  Since then, I’ve been leading various strategic projects behind the scenes at Slicethepie, the latest and by far the biggest being SoundOut.  My current role is SoundOut General Manager and I’m tasked with day-to-day operations as well as pushing forward with new developments, features and improvements .

What is SoundOut’s core offering?

SoundOut’s core offering is Consumer Insight and Analytics sourced directly from music consumers.  We take a whole stack of blind reviews of your track (both numeric 0-10 ratings and written text reviews), crunch the data for you and present the results in an easy-to-read report.  We report on things like gender bias for the track (whether guys like it more than girls for example), age bias and whether there was a consensus of opinion on the track or whether opinion was divided to name a few.  We also analyse the text reviews using some very clever processes built for us by CFL Software Limited which pull out the key themes mentioned in the reviews – things like “heavy bass line” or “long intro” – and let you know the overall sentiment behind those themes (whether they were thought of as positive aspects of the track or whether those elements let the track down).  I guess the main difference to other sites is that the reviews submitted to SoundOut are blind; the reviewers can’t choose which tracks they review and they aren’t told the name of the track or artist until after they’ve submitted their review so the artist gets genuine, anonymous feedback.  We also do a lot of analysis on the actual text used in the reviews which is revolutionary.

When did you launch SoundOut and what has the response been like to date?

SoundOut was launched on January 13th 2009 so it’s really only been about five months since launch.  The response has been great so far but what’s really surprised us is the number of SoundOut users who have come back to order more reports.

What is the relationship of SoundOut to Slicethepie?

They’re sisters!  All the reviews for track submitted to SoundOut are collected via the Slicethepie Scout Rooms.  There’s a huge army of music fans out there who have dedicated a lot of time to reviewing music on Slicethepie – SoundOut simply taps into that knowledge and experience.

How do you propose that the artists/music promoters who order a report from SoundOut leverage this data to meaningful, career-advancing opportunities?

That’s the million dollar question!  SoundOut reports are being used by large number of music professionals for various purposes – everything from radio station programmers drawing up playlists to labels as a pre-A&R filter and, of course, the artists themselves.  So I guess it depends on what you want, for example, the age and gender information from a SoundOut report can help an artist decide which radio stations are the most appropriate ones to send demo tapes to.  I won’t go so far as to say that a SoundOut report is going to open doors for you but it will give you a little insight as to which doors to go and knock on first.

A report from SoundOut is certainly nice to have… but is it a “must have” in today’s climate?

I’d say that in today’s climate, information is a “must have”.  Gone are the days of just seeing how many “friends” you can get to add you as you can on MySpace – bands need genuine feedback from people who listen to music just as much as record labels, radio stations and music supervisors.  It’s no secret that the majors have been using market research and focus groups for years but the costs associated with these were always beyond the reach of all but the biggest marketing budgets.  SoundOut offers a credible, reliable, fast and cost effective solution to bring this kind of data to aspiring bands and indie labels.

What success stories, if any, have you recorded to date, attributed to the use of SoundOut?

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and seeing as SoundOut is only five months old it’s still too early to tell for sure.  I can tell you that a number of artists have put entire albums through to help them determine which single they should release first – those albums are due to be released later on in the year so it’ll be interesting to see what conclusions they draw from their reports and how those relate to the decisions the artists themselves have made.

What can we expect from you in the near future?

We’ve got some pretty big plans for SoundOut and are putting the finishing touches to some really neat new features.  The accuracy of SoundOut has attracted a lot of attention and because of that some of the stuff we’ll be releasing later in the year will help artists monetise their music and access new markets… so stay tuned for more updates!  As always, if anyone has suggestions, comments or ideas, then please feel free to email me at info@soundout.com

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