Greg, & Mr. Blazetrack: You are about to bring me over to the dark side. I actually spent over three hours today (OK, I'm a slow reader) checking out the bios/credits of the 65 "professionals" listed under the songwriter/publisher category. I hadn't recognized their names, but I certainly recognized the artists they have been successful with. There are a bunch of people on Blazetrack with some stunningly impressive credentials, and I in fact picked out 12 I thought it might be interesting to submit to.
Last night, I was paying bills. The cable/internet approached $200.00. The T-Mobile wasn't much better. I remember when TV was free, and my phone bill hovered around $50.00 No more. I'm thinking that the old adage "never pay someone to listen to your music" will work quite well if you don't want someone to listen to your music.
The "credits", or "costs" requested by the listeners ranged from 5 to 16, depending, I assume, on how far up the musical food chain they are -- but the credits are set by the professional, not Blazetrak. So the most expensive guy was at 16 "credits". If you popped for 100 "credits" up front, your cost is $900, or $9.00/credit. So, $144.00 for one song submission. Cheapest was 5 "credits", or $45.00 using the same ratio.
Frankly, there were several people on the site that I would kill to get a five minute listen from. The fact that they come back at you with a video critique adds greatly to the legitimacy of this site, in my opinion. "Ms. or Mr. Big" actually listened, not some intern in a closet in the back hall, wondering if he's going to get lucky on his evening date.
At any rate, I've spent a great deal of money on demos over the past few years, so I think a few hundred on this site is worth a shot. Will let you know how it works out.
Ott