SoundBetter.com Review - An Honest and Unbiased Professionals Experience

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2019: SoundBetter has been acquired by Spotify. We will wait to see what changes to the platform this brings, and those changes will be reported here. Since last year, SoundBetter results in dramatically lower numbers of inquiries from clients, presumably because the provider market is over saturated. You almost never get inquiries and must almost exclusively buy credits and submit to jobs in order to be hired on the platform now. And even when you try to bid on jobs, most have already reached the “maximum number of bids allowed” per job. In my test, 7 out of 15 on the first page were already at capacity. This platform has huge potential but certainly needs some tweaks in terms of infrastructure. Just thought I would update my readers on my experience as of late. If anything changes I’ll let you know. Full review below.

Have you ever had a really great idea?

Well, I can say with relative certainty that if you’re a professional provider of music services, such as mixing, mastering, etc, every single one of us had the dream that was to become SoundBetter.com – only one problem. No one could built it.

Then SoundBetter.com came around, and they did.

Some time in 2014, I stumbled across a website that professed to be the answer to the problem of any musician who is looking for audio engineers, but may not live in a city big enough to have good, quality mixing. It also naturally provided a solution for the providers of say services to connect with would-be musician, rappers, singers, and the like. The website was SoundBetter.com – a “marketplace for musicians to find and hire Recording Studios, Mixing Engineers, Mastering Engineers and professional Session Musicians.”

I was a bit skeptical but thought, “Hey, what’ve I got to lose? It costs nothing. I’ll give it a shot.” I posted my resume on the site with a short bio and samples of my mixes and thought if anything, this could be fun or cool and I might get a client or two. Before long, I actually had a good number of clients contact me explaining that they loved how my mixes sounded and that they wanted to hire me to mix their music. Awesome!

How Does It Work?

The site basically allows musicians, singers, rappers, and pretty much anyone who wants to find someone to hire musically, to post a job on their job board, dubbed the “Premium Job Board,” and then invite mixers that they think would be a good fit for the project to bid on it, kind of like Freelancer.com. Engineers can also browse jobs and submit to them using credits which you can purchase, (again like Freelancer,) but I rarely, if ever, do this, and I imagine other professional mix engineers don’t do this either. More on that in a moment.

SoundBetter.com was founded by Shachar Gilad, the site’s CEO. Which kind of makes sense how such an awesome site came to fruition, because Shachar was actually behind marketing projects for both Waves and Apple before he launched SoundBetter. No surprise then, that he could recognize the need and then act on it and create a 500 Startups company.

Top Quality Professionals At Competitive Rates?

The first question you might be asking yourself about SoundBetter is – what’s the quality like? Well that depends.

They have two tiers of providers: standard and premium. The first tier is for anyone who lists themselves as a music industry professional. The second tier is a program that you must apply and be approved for – the Premium Program. Premium costs proividers $59 per month, if accepted. The first thing I can tell you right away about SoundBetter.com is that when they say that they actually manually vet their Premium providers’ applications, they actually mean it. I got a phone call and was questioned about my experience in the industry, and my credentials. Professional ‘Premium’ providers must be vetted to be approved.

What type of musicians, producers, and singers can you actually find on the site? Right on the front page you can find your answer:

Just to name a few.

There are countless others like myself, who have worked with multiple Grammy-award winning artists, on major motion pictures etc, as well. In my case, I have the rare privilege of also being a major-label signed recording artist, so I’m able to provide not only mixing, mastering, and production services to clients, but also vocal services, with almost 2 decades of experience. So I’d say the level of quality you can get is as high as you’d expect to find, short of going to an RIAA event.

Everything That Glitters Isn’t Gold

As mentioned, not every provider on SoundBetter is a Premium Provider, so if you’re a musician looking to hire a professional, you do have to deal with the fact that there is both quality and quantity, which overall is probably a good thing. You also have to deal with the fact that when you post something to the job board, even if you invite someone to a job posting, that posting still stays on the job board – which is available to all providers – who can swoop down on the listing and try to take the invitee’s business. This too, is probably overall not a good thing. Imagine every time you swiped right on Tinder, people became alerted to the fact that you’;ve swiped recently, and sent you messages. That’s kind of what it’s like. Lol.

(More options for you, I suppose? Depends on how you look at it!)

If you’re a provider, then you have to understand that, as mentioned, most jobs on the job board have been sent to people that the poster intended for the job. So your essentially scouring through lots of “leftovers,” if you will, but not always. Another downside is that, as I mentioned in the update in the beginning, most of the jobs have reached capacity by the time you get to them. In my test, 7 out of 15 were full and not able to receive any more submissions. At this rate, you’d pretty much have to be on SoundBetter a LOT in order to use all your credits. (You get 15 credits per month, as Premium provider.) I’ve actually got over 400 credits!

 

SoundBetter Credits

 

The truth is, when you’re a busy professional and you’ve got clients coming to you, it’s hard to justify the time (and credits) required to “bid” on jobs. Not only that, but any professional mixer is going to have rates that are going to get SO low-balled by non-professional mixers, that sometimes you rarely get the job anyway, because some guy with a laptop and an untreated room is going to outbid you and say he’ll mix the project for 30 bucks – (that Tinder thing I talked about earlier).

Another thing worth mentioning is that you get lowered down in the search results for not responding quickly. I think this is a mistake. I don’t know about you, but I have a life outside of work, also known as weekends and holidays. That means I don’t respond to SoundBetter inquiries on weekends or holidays, just like all my other work email. But SoundBetter will actually punish you for this. You’ll be lowered down for waiting days to respond, regardless of reason, as can be seen here in the photo below.

 

 

The reason why they tried to include this feature in the first place is because in general, user experience (UX) is strongly correlated with customer satisfaction. So they want to keep users happy. In order to do this, their algorithm is checking for response rate, assume (AI) that this somehow ties in to the quality of the user experiences on the platform.

This is a trigger in AI systems for determining the value of content – determining whether or not content should be shown. For instance, Google does this with their search algorithm. The more suited toward user experience a search response is, the better it will rank. There is a key difference though, and this is the part that SoundBetter wrong, I feel. Their service is dynamic – it is not static, like content. Just imagine; only restaurants who served people 24 hours show up first. If people pull up to order while closed — even if this is normal — your rank is lowered. This is why it makes no sense.

In general though, faster response times are good for sales. If a lead is generated, the faster you respond to the lead, the more likely you will close a sale. But they have left out a key factor of this as well: In sales, that process is usually automated, meaning, those instant responses are automatically generated on your behalf – you don’t actually write them. No one would be expected to manually respond to sales inquiries or leads in real time manually, 24/7 the way SoundBetter does, not even at a high end firm. This is an oversight on their part.

Further proof of this is Facebook. On business pages, they include “Response Times.” But Facebook, being a billion dollar company, has thought ahead and allows people to build bots that automatically respond to messages on your behalf, immediately, thus keeping response time high.

Another thing for which you will get lowered in rank, as you can see in the photo, is not responding to job inquiries even when the inquiries make no sense.

For example, if a job says, “How much do you charge for beats?” you’re required to respond and include a dollar amount on that job, or you’ll lose your rating. Even if it doesn’t describe what actually needs to be done. I’ve gotten some of the most absurd job requests that didn’t warrant a response because it was impossible to attribute a price to them. It would be like a dating site that required women to respond to every indecent proposal she got or risk losing her profile visibility.

Like…really?

Once I caught on to the fact that ignoring ridiculous requests was causing me to lose my ranking, I started answering them by putting the lowest allowable response price – $20.

So What’s The Verdict? Is It Worth It?

SoundBetter.com is something that was needed in the industry for a long, long time. This is something that I have shared with Shachar in my excitement about finding the site. Before the site was launched, there wasn’t really a way for musicians to connect with audio professionals to get top flight mixes done. It’s kind of like MusicXray.com, except MusicXray is for musicians looking to connect with executives, and people on the administrative end, managers etc, whereas soundbetter allows you to connect with audio professionals on the creative end.

Are you going to make money with this as a Premium provider? Is it worth the investment? If you’re willing to take your job seriously and prospect for clients, then the answer is YES. But it is going to take an investment of time on a regular basis, since most jobs over a certain time frame are already at capacity. Logging in every day is probably a good idea here. But if you do it, it can be lucrative.

 

SoundBetter earnings dashboard

 

As I mentioned, the provider market is somewhat saturated to I get far fewer inquiries now. I had pretty much already made that figured within 2-3 years of being on the platform, and that’s without applying for jobs.

On September 12, 2019, SoundBetter was actually acquired by Spotify. This actually makes a lot of sense for Spotify, because they now allow their users to directly upload their material to the platform. What they hope to accomplish with this acquisition is a marketplace where artists can get everything they need in order to confidently and consistently upload music to the platform. More users on the platform, as we have seen from Facebook, means more advertising revenue, and more advertising revenue naturally means more profits.

But whether you use Spotify or not, if you’re someone who realizes you might benefit from collaborating with other professional level musicians, producers, engineers, etc, I highly suggest you give the site a try. It’s free to sign up and browse, and you will undoubtedly find someone there who can help bring your musical ideas to fruition.

And now I pass the mic to you. Have you used SoundBetter.com? I’d love to hear your experiences!

21 thoughts on “SoundBetter.com Review – An Honest and Unbiased Professionals Experience”

  1. I think its a great idea. However, I was shocked at how expensive it is for a professional to get premium access. At almost $400 a year it makes it almost impossible for an up and coming professional to get access to key parts of the site (e.g. bid for work). And therefore, what is the point? Instead of being a place where it creates a level playing field it just serves to make worse the gap between those already successful and those trying to break in.

    1. Hi Kevin. Sorry for the delay. I hear what you’re saying about the fee. $39 is a little bit on the higher end compared to other revolving services in different industries. Personally I think $29 would be a better price point. But there are a few things to be considered.

      First, there’s no other site like it anywhere. That one’s a no brainer. Inevitably, there most likely will be, this happens in every field. Inspiration always gives rise to imitation. Perhaps then things will settle down a bit and fall somewhere between $19-$29 per month.

      But secondly, you have to consider the value of a site such as this. They do have some hangups, especially with the token and bid system, but you have to consider different factors such as the service you provide. As a mix engineer, I make enough on one to two tracks to pay for my entire year worth of membership. So while it may be a bit of money up front if you’re just starting out, I think it turns out to be worth it in the long run.

      Lastly, I want to mention that if you’re a professional engineer or industry professional, all of the years and money it costs to get to a world reputable level aren’t cheap. I think they want to cater to professionals as providers, so that means people who have spent more money on memory foam for the walls than they would on two years worth of membership. Just to put it in perspective for who their demographic is… I say give it a shot. I’ve always made more money in a month with them than a years worth of membership. Let me know if you try it after a month how it’s going!

  2. Hi – enjoyed your analysis of the site 2 questions :

    Is it 39 a month for the ability to bid or is it 39 a month regardless?

    If one doesn’t Ben but just gets their profile searchable is there a decent amount of exposure?

    IE what determines my location in the search results for say top-line Melody I’d imagine if it’s not in the top 50 that the responses drop off pretty sharply after that even if I have a good reel

    1. Hey Roy, did you get a chance to use it yet? The price includes a certain number of bids per month. I think it’s 15. That becomes a bit more of a sticky situation, as the amount of “professionals” increases. I’ve heard lots of not so good mixes from some mixers on there. Some are great. But if it gets oversaturated, then 15 bids might be a problem for them in their model. If you live in a larger city this may be a problem as well. I was never a fan of the 15 bids model. But I am a fan of getting new clients so… whatever works right?

  3. I used it with a premium membership for a month or two a year or two ago. The problem was that although the service providers were curated and the website itself is AWESOME, the client side was typically a mess of nonsense. As a mastering engineer I was getting invited to jobs that were described like this:

    “I need mastering on a video. I have my own musicians.”

    No joke. What are you even asking for? How am I supposed to bid on that job? For a premium priced membership, the quality of work available was generally dismal, and any “real” sounding jobs were rare enough that they reached their maximum proposal limit instantly.

    That being said, I’ve done a couple thousand dollars of work through there and the experience has been excellent. I highly recommend signing up for a free account at least. I just think for me, the $39 USD is more profitable when spent on coffee or beer with new clients.

    1. Haha! I totally understand what you mean about the client side being a mess, and I totally agree. For us providers, the jobs should be well explained and clear. It’s kind of just a sloppy bidding war kind of a thing. Like that insurance commercial where the old fisherman goes, “I got you a dollar.” then he pulls the dollar from the lady and goes, “Gotta be quicker than that!” Haha. Nice site, by the way. I bet you’re really enjoying that Gyratec! Cool piece of boutique gear there. 👍

  4. Hi, as a client, I wrote out a really detailed paragraph about what I wanted from a few producers. 5 was the total amount I could contact for the day. One automatically emailed back with “is unavailable for (said project)”. Does this mean they rejected the offer? Also, it has only been about 30 minutes, but how long do you think I will have to wait to hear back from the producers? I can comment what I wrote to see if you think it made enough sense for them to consider me. Thanks for the info btw!

    1. Hi Gabrielle,

      If they replied that they’re unavailable then yes, they’ve rejected the offer because either they’re not interested or simply unavailable to complete it for whatever reason. And I would definitely say that 30 minutes isn’t enough time to get many replies just yet. I can tell you that SoundBetter.com uses the amount of time that goes by as one of the criteria for being a good provider on the platform, so us providers are encouraged to reply as quickly as possible to encourage customer satisfaction. So give it time and eventually you will get your replies 🙂 Hope your project goes well, and if you have any further questions feel free to reach out – David

  5. Well, this site is totally a mess from a client side. I was looking for a producer, the’ve got 138 pages of them. I started getting them thru and stopped at 40 pages. Chrome failed at 20 page with it’s “load more” button, had to switched safari. After couple a months I continued and all the pages messed around. TO choose the best ones I must look thru the same people again!! from the very beginning. Moreover they still don’t have geographical location of people.. Shame(

  6. Whats good?

    I am an artists amongst other things and i have had some success with soundbetter and the only money i paid was the fee to recieve payout. I have made $350 bucks from one job and they found me. I have a completed profile and just been asked to translate french lyrics to english. I am not saying my way would keep you aflloat with your bills (as i am not even premium), but the fact that i have made a decent amount of money off one job and have been contacted for about 6 or 7 in total. I am going to give it a shot but i would advise paying monthly on this one until you have made a nice amount of profit to pay off your premium for the year. Hope this helps…God bless

    Charlie T

    1. Hey Charlie – Thanks for the input, glad you had a great experience using SoundBetter and especially not as a premium provider, it gives a lot of insight for people on both sides of the spectrum.

      I agree with you that if you’re passionate about music, it’s a great way to make a little extra money doing something you love. If you aren’t a premium provider / professional in the industry, (meaning you don’t make your full time living off of providing these types of services), it is absolutely a no-brainer to sign up. At the end of the day, there’s only one thing better than doing what you love to do… and that’s getting paid to do what you love to do! Thanks again, and I wish you much continued success with your music!

  7. What’s up? Keyzus here.

    Thanks for the insight. I signed up for soundbetter at the top of this year. I made about $2K in the first 3-4 months. I don’t have a premium account but I stumbled across this while trying to make the decision of purchasing a premium account. I believe that I could’ve made more, but there’s an over saturation of guys charging $15 for beats. 😞😞😞. I’m gonna give premium a try regardless, I’ll let y’all know how it goes. Follow me @KeyzDaDon (all social networks)

    1. That’s what’s up man, I’m glad to hear it went well for you pretty quickly, and without even needing to sign up for premium! I agree with you that it’s definitely getting saturated and that there needs to be some kind of shift in the business model. What I would really hate seeing is SoundBetter becoming like BeatStars.com or SoundClick because of a flood of low quality, low price production, but I think they have some things in place to limit that. I certainly hope so. Let us know how it goes, looking forward to the update..

  8. Hi I’m a indie Artist and I just stumbled across this service. It was nice to see the extensive collection of musical professionals offering their services. (I made sure to save the site for later). Yeah I was reading the article above and it said something about the responses being automatically generated using algorithmic messages. I’m confused because I got someone to respond but I didn’t know if I was really messaging with the music professional. So am I messaging with the actual professional or is it a generated response?? And also there wasn’t any option for me to delete the free account I had made. Any clarification would be helpful.

    1. As far as I know, there’s no automated replies. The replies are done by the person. You’d have to check if the response sounds general/robotic to you…

  9. So is it safe to say that all producers are legit. I found a pretty well known producer who I requested some work from and got back a price quote that is just too good to be true. So does sound better screen the producer before adding them to the site to verify that it is indeed them and not someone posing to be them??? That’s my biggest worry that the person I’m speaking with maybe isn’t the real person

    1. The website screeens all of the Premium Provider, so if they gave you a quote that’s too good to be true, it’s probably because for some reason they wanted to give you a discount, I don’t know. You’d have to compare that quote to what is says on their profile!

  10. The SoundBetter platform is unusable and uncomfortable for many prominent artists because the man who created it set an abusive tone right off the bat with his FAQ and his terms. There is no other way to put it – the creator set the precedent and the precedent ruins the platform for anyone who is professional enough to have fans. Anyone who garners fans will also garner the jealous ones, the stalkers, the haters, the whatever-you-want-to-call-it-ers, and more, and that means that without protection, the professional will not be protected, and that is not conducive, nor does it align with, the idea that SoundBetter is a good platform for professional musicians when it clearly is not. And this of course is not only limited to artists in the spotlight. SoundBetter could have been a good platform for musicians if only the platform had a little thing called empathy. The creator and empathy and SoundBetter are not good friends, and if you leave it up to him, things will never change. And that is sad.

    To top it all off, now Spotify has joined the I-dont-actually-care-about-artists-enough-to-protect-them-in-a-reasonable-fashion party. In other words, Spotify now OWNS SoundBetter. And they STILL don’t care. And they raised their price to 59 a month.

    There are people in this world who genuinely do not care about the well being of others. They only care for themselves and they rationalize away all of their guilt and shame.

    “We make no representations, offer no assurances, and do not investigate any of our Users’ backgrounds, morality, character, skills, or capabilities, and you hereby acknowledge that you assume the risk of any encounter or interaction with such persons.” – SoundBetter Terms & Conditions

    But at the end of the day, the creator received the ‘what-the-heck-is-this-i-dont-like-this’ message from his providers a very very very long time ago. The only problem is, he seemed to think that he was rather smart for ignoring it all the way to the bank. I can almost hear him lightly chuckle as he smirks into his heaping pile of soul-money. (Soul-money: like blood money, only instead of blood, they take your soul).

    Sadly what he failed to understand is that he could have made it to the bank either way. But one more penny is more important to this person than knowing that someone out there is going to be okay because they aren’t going to be needlessly tortured that day by someone else out there in the faceless abyss on SoundBetter.

    And you know why no one says anything altogether as one so the madness can finally end? This is why:

    “CLASS ACTION WAIVER
    You agree that any arbitration or proceeding shall be limited to the Dispute between us and you individually. To the full extent permitted by law, (i) no arbitration or proceeding shall be joined with any other; (ii) there is no right or authority for any Dispute to be arbitrated or resolved on a class action-basis or to utilize class action procedures; and (iii) there is no right or authority for any Dispute to be brought in a purported representative capacity on behalf of the general public or any other persons. YOU AGREE THAT YOU MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST US ONLY IN YOUR INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING.” – SoundBetter Terms & Conditions

    As you can see, I am here to say what a group of professional musicians will never be allowed to say to SoundBetter in a court setting, and that is this. This world is filled with a plethora of subjectivities, misunderstandings, sagas, back and forths, mismatches, double truths, paradoxes, and all of that jazz. But you cannot rationalize abuse. It is that simple. You cannot rationalize abuse.

    You can only look the other way and simultaneously wonder why our world is so thickened with this cold, careless, inhumane, muck. But that muck sinks into your skin. It infects every pore, and so you can rationalize it away all day, but there is still a thin skin of muck there – a thin screen that you feel. That is how it feels to ignore the painful truth, and that is how it feels to have your life invaded by a job that is needlessly tormenting. The muck invades both the innocent and the guilty because no one is there to say “Is this where the madness ends”?

    Well is it?

    There is already too much trauma in this world. Too much pain, too much misfortune, too much unfairness going on! Is it really necessary that Spotify’s SoundBetter is also part of the reason why our world is so full of abusive people who bark out “you’re just too sensitive” all the time to anyone who doesn’t want to be harshly maltreated for no good reason while on the job?

    Oh but wait, I’m sorry. We don’t classify as being employees or contractors on SoundBetter even if we are premium providers who are capable of making a full time income. We would have too many rights if that were the case, and SoundBetter can’t have that. See here:

    “NON-EMPLOYMENT

    You are not, and shall not present yourself as, an employee, contractor, or agent of SoundBetter, or that you are in any way affiliated with SoundBetter, in any capacity (whether on business cards, social-media, or on any other websites or media).” – SoundBetter Terms & Conditions

    Now listen, we artists are sensitive for sure! How else would we create music otherwise? But that’s not the issue here. The issue is that abusive people say their victims are “too sensitive” all the time, and SoundBetter’s too busy pretending that the abuse they manifest does not exist!

    Meanwhile, SoundBetter manifests abuse that would otherwise never have existed because their language sets a toxic precedent right off the bat – just take a look at their FAQ for example. Look at the article in their FAQ called “What Can I Do To Maximize Success With Clients & Get Good Reviews?”, and you will see a very warped, accusatory, anti-provider tone.

    While you were looking that up (if you chose to, that is), some random toxic user out there just checked the terms and became emboldened and fermented in their own poison. You see, everyone is too afraid to mention this harsh reality, but not mentioning it won’t change anything, and mentioning it won’t change the fact that the first thing that abusive people do when they want to abuse is check the terms and see how much they can get away with!

    Why is it so hard for Spotify & SoundBetter to understand this? They will make less money in the long run by continuing to pummel their socially inept choices down our throats! And they just don’t get it. In the long run, the ones who really succeed are the ones who care for the people. Unlike SoundBetter, they won’t just leave their people alone in the woods! Unlike SoundBetter, they won’t just look the other way! Unlike SoundBetter, they’ll look evil in the face and tell it to go back to where it came from!

    You cannot have stars on a website and then refuse to protect them. That literally makes no sense!

    Shame on Shachar!
    SoundBetter should KnowBetter!
    And Spotify should know better too!

  11. The SoundBetter platform is unusable and uncomfortable for many prominent artists because the man who created it set an abusive tone right off the bat with his FAQ and his terms. There is no other way to put it – the creator set the precedent and the precedent ruins the platform for anyone who is professional enough to have fans. Anyone who garners fans will also garner the jealous ones, the stalkers, the haters, the whatever-you-want-to-call-it-ers, and more, and that means that without protection, the professional will not be protected, and that is not conducive, nor does it align with, the idea that SoundBetter is a good platform for professional musicians when it clearly is not. And this of course is not only limited to artists in the spotlight. SoundBetter could have been a good platform for musicians if only the platform had a little thing called empathy. The creator and empathy and SoundBetter are not good friends, and if you leave it up to him, things will never change. And that is sad.

    To top it all off, now Spotify has joined the I-dont-actually-care-about-artists-enough-to-protect-them-in-a-reasonable-fashion party. In other words, Spotify now OWNS SoundBetter. And they STILL don’t care. And they raised their price to 59 a month.

    There are people in this world who genuinely do not care about the well being of others. They only care for themselves and they rationalize away all of their guilt and shame.

    “We make no representations, offer no assurances, and do not investigate any of our Users’ backgrounds, morality, character, skills, or capabilities, and you hereby acknowledge that you assume the risk of any encounter or interaction with such persons.” – SoundBetter Terms & Conditions

    But at the end of the day, the creator received the ‘what-the-heck-is-this-i-dont-like-this’ message from his providers a very very very long time ago. The only problem is, he seemed to think that he was rather smart for ignoring it all the way to the bank. I can almost hear him lightly chuckle as he smirks into his heaping pile of soul-money. (Soul-money: like blood money, only instead of blood, they take your soul).

    Sadly what he failed to understand is that he could have made it to the bank either way. But one more penny is more important to this person than knowing that someone out there is going to be okay because they aren’t going to be needlessly tortured that day by someone else out there in the faceless abyss on SoundBetter.

    And you know why no one says anything altogether as one so the madness can finally end? This is why:

    “CLASS ACTION WAIVER
    You agree that any arbitration or proceeding shall be limited to the Dispute between us and you individually. To the full extent permitted by law, (i) no arbitration or proceeding shall be joined with any other; (ii) there is no right or authority for any Dispute to be arbitrated or resolved on a class action-basis or to utilize class action procedures; and (iii) there is no right or authority for any Dispute to be brought in a purported representative capacity on behalf of the general public or any other persons. YOU AGREE THAT YOU MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST US ONLY IN YOUR INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING.” – SoundBetter Terms & Conditions

    As you can see, I am here to say what a group of professional musicians will never be allowed to say to SoundBetter in a court setting, and that is this. This world is filled with a plethora of subjectivities, misunderstandings, sagas, back and forths, mismatches, double truths, paradoxes, and all of that jazz. But you cannot rationalize abuse. It is that simple. You cannot rationalize abuse.

    You can only look the other way and simultaneously wonder why our world is so thickened with this cold, careless, inhumane, muck. But that muck sinks into your skin. It infects every pore, and so you can rationalize it away all day, but there is still a thin skin of muck there – a thin screen that you feel. That is how it feels to ignore the painful truth, and that is how it feels to have your life invaded by a job that is needlessly tormenting. The muck invades both the innocent and the guilty because no one is there to say “Is this where the madness ends”?

    Well is it?

    There is already too much trauma in this world. Too much pain, too much misfortune, too much unfairness going on! Is it really necessary that Spotify’s SoundBetter is also part of the reason why our world is so full of abusive people who bark out “you’re just too sensitive” all the time to anyone who doesn’t want to be harshly maltreated for no good reason while on the job?

    Oh but wait, I’m sorry. We don’t classify as being employees or contractors on SoundBetter even if we are premium providers who are capable of making a full time income. We would have too many rights if that were the case, and SoundBetter can’t have that. See here:

    “NON-EMPLOYMENT

    You are not, and shall not present yourself as, an employee, contractor, or agent of SoundBetter, or that you are in any way affiliated with SoundBetter, in any capacity (whether on business cards, social-media, or on any other websites or media).” – SoundBetter Terms & Conditions

    Now listen, we artists are sensitive for sure! How else would we create music otherwise? But that’s not the issue here. The issue is that abusive people say their victims are “too sensitive” all the time, and SoundBetter’s too busy pretending that the abuse they manifest does not exist!

    Meanwhile, SoundBetter manifests abuse that would otherwise never have existed because their language sets a toxic precedent right off the bat – just take a look at their FAQ for example. Look at the article in their FAQ called “What Can I Do To Maximize Success With Clients & Get Good Reviews?”, and you will see a very warped, accusatory, anti-provider tone.

    While you were looking that up (if you chose to, that is), some random toxic user out there just checked the terms and became emboldened and fermented in their own poison. You see, everyone is too afraid to mention this harsh reality, but not mentioning it won’t change anything, and mentioning it won’t change the fact that the first thing that abusive people do when they want to abuse is check the terms and see how much they can get away with!

    Why is it so hard for Spotify & SoundBetter to understand this? They will make less money in the long run by continuing to pummel their socially inept choices down our throats! And they just don’t get it. In the long run, the ones who really succeed are the ones who care for the people. Unlike SoundBetter, they won’t just leave their people alone in the woods! Unlike SoundBetter, they won’t just look the other way! Unlike SoundBetter, they’ll look evil in the face and tell it to go back to where it came from!

    You cannot have stars on a website and then refuse to protect them. That literally makes no sense!

    Shame on Shachar!
    SoundBetter should KnowBetter!
    And Spotify should know better too!

  12. Farhad Norouzilame

    Hi everyone,

    I moved from Fiverr to Soundbetter to find some professional vocals for a new project we had on the pipe. We agreed with an artist on a price and we started. The first round was good but a few faults in the vocals and I asked him to correct.

    Next round to my surprise, a few words came with special accent (what I had not asked for and not even close to the guides and back vocals I had sent previously).

    But when I asked for correction, I confronted very dry, and cocky correspondence which was: you need to pay for it. OK I pay 300 USD which I don’t think is unfair considering everything right now. But should I stand for an artist mistake and get such answer?

    When I asked the Soundbetter guys, their answer was more like I have asked the artists business partner! Not professional at all! First & Last time for me maybe if they cannot resolve this as a professional platform .

    Regards,
    Farhad Fred,
    Stockholm, Sweden

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