Guys,

I would point out a few things here.

First of all, no one is Required to pay for anything. It is a very good rule of thumb to never pay for a critique, or anyone to listen to songs. If you are a great writer, you will probably find your own way, given time. The problem in this day and age if you wait for someone to listen to your material and find you, you will probably be waiting a very long time.
I have been here 21 years and I really can't think of anyone I have known in the past 15 years that haven't done some kind of paid critique, workshop, seminar, or lessons, be it guitar,keyboard, voice, business, etc. Some people go to college, some people go to the college of hard knocks. But all pay. In one way or another, all pay.

Getting critiques are often a way to cull down material as opposed to getting a statement of validity. It is more to get an assessment of commercial potential as seen through the eyes of people who do that for a living.

People miss all the time. These are opinions. If you dont believe they are valid, don't do them. However what you find are that professionals hit a lot more than they are wrong. The reason is perspective. If you are emersed in music all day long every day and silmultaneously subjected to the demands of the industry, see and hear what they accept and turn down, you generally have a broader perspective than those who are not surrounded by it all the time, write less methodically and have less information.

If coaching, mentoring, critiques, education, etc. are not worth anything, I would wonder why professional athletes, Tiger Woods, particularly, spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in continuing education, lessons, and coaching. It might be strength training, equipment training, etc. Most occupations have similar things. Seminars, review boards, professional counciling, is a very large part of almost every job in the world. Sometimes you might have very talented craftsmen but they have to have continuing education to stay current in things they don't know.


There is actually an order to these things. Getting critiques, help guide people in their efforts to up the level of their game. by having critiques done, they often become familiar with styles, subject matter, etc. to try to focus on and those to avoid in many instances, things that might have been overdone, overused, or simply not done very well.
As a writer advances in their career and are better known, as well as writing with others, they become known to publishers, and less and less "paid" critiques are needed, as they tune into the industry as well as their own artistry. Again, what a writer wants to say might not be the thing the market is interested in.
Getting paid critiques are only one avenue for finding out about one's music. The others are basically getting out there and marketing them yourself, playing shows, meeting people, making your way. There is nothing EVER that says ANYONE has to pay for anything.
But this is a different age. Publishers don't listen to music like they once did. They don't develop writers anymore. Writers are expected to come developed. They often don't do demos. Writers are expected to have examples of their work, recorded commercially. Record companies are building upon what artists already have started.
So getting paid critiques are one way of speeding up the process and making sure some of those very rare opportunities don't end before they get started.

MAB