First off…what is slicethepie.com?
It’s a site that was created to give aspiring musicians a chance to have their music rated and reviewed. This can lead them to raising funds to create their first album. The fans (or ‘scouts’ as they are referred to) rate and write in depth reviews which enables them to earn money themselves.
The artists with the best rated tracks get to have those showcased where the Scouts get to choose which ones they would like to support.
In return for supporting the artists the Scouts will receive a range of benefits from:
~ Free tracks
~ Merchandise
~ Free access to gigs
How does it work?
Each artist submits three tracks and these are submitted to the various Scout Rooms depending on the type of music. The Scouts are randomly given tracks which they don’t know who the artist name is nor the name of the track. Once they have reviewed that piece of music the name of the track and the artist is revealed.
This would seem to make the system of reviewing fairer because you can’t just vote on recommendations from your friends. Each music track has to have thirty separate reviews before their artist rating can be assessed. Only the top rated artists from each genre will be moved into the Showcase.
How do the Scouts earn money?
Earnings are dependant on the rating a Scout achieves by writing quality reviews, and the overall rating that the 29 other reviewers give an Artist. The ratings range from 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. They mention there is an algorithm which calculates these factors rather than being done by a real person.
These are the rates per star rating:
~ 1 Star – $0.03 usd per track
~ 2 Star – $0.06 usd per track
~ 3 Star – $0.09 usd per track
~ 4 Star – $0.12 usd per track
~ 5 Star – $0.15 usd per track
My conclusion…
While it seems this is a very good way for budding musicians to get their music showcased and possibly be able to have an Album created, I worry about the amount of time that has to be spent listening and writing reviews.
When I read comments like this…
“I’ve done 35 reviews and am on 1 star and have earned $1.34 USD!”
It does make me wonder if all that effort of writing 35 reviews was actually worth it!
Or this one which when you read it makes you wonder if you really would work for only $0.94 USD per hour:
“You can comfortably review ten tracks per hour if your taking your time and as it won’t take long to get 3 stars (about 100 decent quality reviews) that would get you about $0.94 USD per hour.”
If you have a penchant for writing reviews on music then you can earn far more than $1.34 USD, but overall I do not think Slice The Pie is a Scam but there sure are far better ways to earn money from writing music reviews.
~ Neil
WFHW Team
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I’ve 25 reviews in the space of 24 hours and earned $13.51. I love this site.
Hi Simon,
I hope it all goes well for you.
Cheers
Neil
WFHW
Can Slice of the Pie be rated from an IPad? I just joined, but the music wouldn’t play. It showed the word “waiting” as I waited. Still didn’t load.
Hi Michele,
I’m sorry I don’t know the answer to that one.
It might be worth contacting them to ask if they do accept iPads.
Cheers
Neil
WFHW
My wife has been “Trying” to submit reviews for over a week and has mangaged to amass a whopping $2.20. She conscientously writes the reviews using Key words found in a Word Cloud from one of their sample reports, but then the algorithm will not accept the review because “It has seen this review before” DUH!!! Of course it has seen it before if you use the KEY Words. If you do not use the KEY words the algorithm criticises the content of the review. But the most frustrating thing for her is writing a review and then getting the message “Unable to process this review, please log off and try again” This happens every session!!! SLP are very polite when you contact them, they suggested using another browser, we have tried all the browsers with no change. The problem lies with them, they either, do not want reviews from europe or, they do not want to pay for the reviews because there is no way to prove that they did not actually receive all the reviews my wife has submitted.
Hi Dee,
I’m sorry this has happened to you but these type of sites do keep changing the rules.
It doesn’t matter what you say or do the outcome is always the same.
If you wife enjoys wrtitng reviews then maybe she would be interested in following our Course.
Cheers
Neil
WFHW
Yeah, that has happened to me a few times, I lost my reviews and they said the same thing to me that I have to log out and try again. That was very frustrating, because those reviews took me more time and thought.. Also, I noticed that if I write faster the reveiw goes through, so maybe it is a computer glitch.
I’m on my 5th day, and my goal is to spend at least 1 hour a day reviewing, I love it! I’m up to $5..06.. But now when I write the computer says that my style is becoming too familiar. I see this as a challenge to help me strectch my ability in reviewing. I’m also educating myself about songwriting, and dynamics, finding other words to use so that I can express my opinion better. Anyway, good luck in your reviewing, it does work. Right now, I just got blocked, due to signing in and out too much. Don’t know what that is about, we shall see, wish me luck. Many blessings to you and thanks for the posting.
Hi Lorna,
Thank you for your comment and good luck to you with your reviews.
Maybe it would be better for you not to log in and and out, as this can trigger things with these type of sites.
All the best
Neil
WFHW
Hi
I’ve been using the site for a week or so now. I’ve found the most important part to be the ‘invite a friend’ section. Reviewing a handful of tracks in an hour can make you around $1, but I’ve managed to get 17 people signed up and earning 10% commission from them is what has boosted my account. I’m close to my first $10 now!
Hi Ady,
It’s good to hear you are doing well and are getting other people interested.
All the best to you.
Neil
WFHW
Hi!
Can you please tell me how slicethepie makes their money? Do the bands / artists subscribe? Do record companies get involved?
thanks
Pete
Hi Pete,
I expect through a combination of advertising, record companies and sponsorship.
This would be the normal route.
Cheers
Neil
WFHW
Slicethepie is feeling like a scam right about now. When I got close to the $7 mark all the offers changed to be worth a nickle and when I passed $8 the site has no more songs to review. Since the minimum payout is $10 but they don’t have enough songs to get you there I’d say avoid this service for now, they aren’t serious about their biz anymore or they wouldn’t upset their writers.
Hi Jeff,
Unfortunately this happens so many times that when you get close it takes even longer.
I really don’t know why they do this.
Cheers
Neil
WFHW
I have signed up and being off work ill i decided to sign up i have been going for it full throttle but refreshing the page every so often and reviewing a few if you added up the time even been on the site ive spent maybe a hard hour and a half on the site and i am up to $3.50, it is fun and it i can get up to $10 in a day or two i can transfer from paypal to my poker account :)
Hi kieranrussell,
Thank you for your comment.
It’s good to hear that you have made use of you time at home.
If you would maybe like to earn a little bit more, and have greater long term earning potential, you might be interested in the following training: Earn Your First $50 Online
Cheers
Neil
WFHW
I started out wanting to give my opinion but a few songs later found myself wanting to write in a way that pleased the algorithm and was turned off. When I take the time to write a 4-5 paragraph review of my experience with the song and I assign it a rating but then get a “your rating differs from your review” message I know something isn’t quite right.
Catch words, if you don’t use enough of the expected review words you can run into trouble getting the review a good rating and since your earnings hinge on it that’s a problem.
The service definitely needs to give a baseline expectation of what it wants covered in a review if they plan to continue using an algorithm to rate the review.
I’ve run out of .17 cent songs for the day and so when the .05 cent songs start playing my frustration has already peaked and I’m out.
Hi Jeff
Thanks for stopping by. We appreciate you taking the time to share your insight and recommendations for Slice The Pie.
All the best,
Terri
WFHW
Slicethepie gives no examples or structures. This leaves all reviews subject the an invisible standard.. I have review professional artists (Comedy and Country) prior, and directly for the artist. But I did not see a professional standard of expection. I refused to write a review after signing up. I will avoid them
Hi Todd
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your opinion about Slice The Pie. Your point is well taken, guidelines would be beneficial to both the experienced and inexperienced reviewer.
All the best,
Terri
greeting, me and my wife have been writing for slicethepie for 3 months now. they ALWAYS send payment, mon and thur just like they say. I can say that there are a lot of variables, we have made 10$ in a matter of a couple hours, days, at most a week. but in our free time both of us can usually generate between 100 to 200 per month with our skill alone. we also whore’d out our friend links and have several hundred friends, which on average earns us 10 to 20 dollars a week. never been suspended or refused payment so far.I believe the amount you earn is relative to how well known the artist is, I have found that if it is a famous song or band you usually receive 20 cents+, but if it’s a no name artist they pay is usually bunk , more like 5-7 cents. I have however seen friends make as much as 67 cents per, but the most I have personally made is 37 cents per. I have found that if the tracks are not paying well, just come back later. you’re not going to get rich doing this, but if you are intelligent and can type fast with few mistakes this is a great way to earn an extra few bucks. hope this helps
Hi Chartchecker
Sorry to hear you’ve had such a bad experience with AliExpress. It’s unfortunate the AliExpress is not standing behind their buyer protection program after all isn’t that why they put it in place.
All the best,
Terri
WFHW
Hi Bryan,
I am pleased you are doing well with Slice The Pie and haven’t had any problems.
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
All the Best
Neil
WFHW
Hey, not sure about all the other reviews, but I signed up 45 minutes ago, and earned about 0.52 cents in 5 minutes doing about a paragraph or so in detail about everything. the volume levels, the vocalist sound quality, pitch, tone, emotion. as well as reviewing the production techniques and other things. i earned about 0.19 per review wich made me 0.52 in 5-7 minutes tops. If you do the math, and stay consistent. It can pay very well, provided the website actually pays out!
This is also cool because I want to be a Music A&R.. good article overall!
Hi Spencer
Thanks for dropping by. Glad to hear that Slice The Pie is working well for you.
All the best,
Terri
WFHW
I just joined Slice the Pie and decided to give it a shot since I’m laid off from work right now and collecting unemployment. So far I have reviewed two songs and earned $0.11. I’m not sure how much I was expecting, but that’s actually a little more than I thought I would get. I have no intentions of spending a great deal of time with it everyday, perhaps a half hour to an hour. Hopefully, it’ll be good for an extra $10 a week or so. Thanks for the great article!
You’re very welcome Tara, and it’s great to hear that you are up and running with Slice The Pie!
All the best,
Marcus
WFHW
Actually Slice The Pie rates are a lot better now, I found I could make $10 in 1 hour 45 minutes, which I didn’t think was too bad for a site like that.
That’s very interesting to hear Harry. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with us and our visitors.
All the best,
Marcus
WFHW
Very good points in the article and comments.
I agree there’s definitely a conflict of interest. For the casual fan of music the priority isn’t a technical review. They want to listen to music and give quick “like or dislike” reviews which is understandable. Being paid for this opinion is the incentive. Its misleading that slice the pie tries to reach casual listeners (earn money listening to music!) then chastises them for not being astute writers, reviewers. If you ask the average listener their opinion they will not talk about creative writing, dB, tracking, etc. they will discuss the general aesthetics of the song.
For a professional, the incentive is providing constructive criticism. As a fellow musician I have experience that allows me to form a (technical?) opinion but I also have a lot to learn. I enjoy giving and receiving constructive criticism as it is crucial for growth and success. Technical expertise from reviewers should be rewarded with something other than money. Most professionals coming to Slice the Pie laugh at being paid change for their insight or earning “experience”. Slice the pie should work with recording arts schools, creative writing classes etc. to possibly create forums where professors have students review music as assignments. If they want expertise they need to seek out the correct demographics.
They also need to be honest because many of these song submissions come from various other companies that charge the musician
$30- $100 per song for “in-depth” analysis. An aspiring musician typically doesn’t budget spending hundreds to have an album reviewed. So when they do they deserve genuine proactivity not incentive based input where the reviewer is only participating for personal gain.
Gilmore
Gilmore glad you liked the article. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your suggestions regarding Slice The Pie.
You have some very insightful recommendations. Hopefully Slice The Pie will take you up on them.
All the best,
Terri
WFHW
Thanks for the post on this. I have been testing out this service from slice of the pie, and been using to earn some money (or see if I can with it) as well as enjoy the chance to listen to some unsigned acts and get them promoted. It’s a good idea and I enjoy reviewing things anyway, so I don’t mind doing that at all, but it’s a real shame that people have experienced the problems mentioned here, I wonder though if they have improved, shame if they are a scam, and wrong if their purposely not answering people who contact them.
Hi Ben,
You’re very welcome!
We agree that it’s nice to earn from a passion, but once again we emphasize that earnings with Slice The Pie are restricted. We rely on our visitors to keep us updated with the Slice The Pie service through their own personal experiences, and it would seem that low earnings continue to be the main issue.
Note that this does not make it a scam, but if it’s greater earnings that you are after then we suggest that you look at our recommendations for opportunities with greater earning potential.
Thanks again Ben, and we wish you well with your future ventures.
Marcus
WFHW
Hi WFHW,
I’ve just joined slicethepie today and earned $0.54 in just under an hour. This does not work for me at all, the reviews are only paid well when you display some sort of technical knowledge about the pieces of music you’re presented with.
Since i’ve no musical knowledge whatsoever, I assumed reviews from a typical music lover’s point of view would be appreciated, but with an avarage of $0.07 per review, and about 10 minutes of me trying to figure out how to put my opinion in words so that the system doesn’t reject my review or brand it as “unconstructive”; i hand in the towel.
Having a full-time job, i wanted a bit of extra cash over the summer, considering the dire economic climate in the UK (where i am based).
Altogether, it’s a good way to pass time when you’ve absolutely nothing else to do, it is not worth the effort if you’re looking for money.
Sure, a nice way to promote musicians and discover new music but we already have a fortitude of websites that provide that for you (Spotify, for example).
Regardless, thank you very much for the informative review of the service. I wanted to get heads up on the website before I try it and your piece on their services is pretty much spot on.
Appreciated,
Adam
Hi Adam,
Thanks for taking the time to add your thoughts…they are much appreciated.
I agree with everything you’ve said, and you are right to point out that it takes some time and considerable effort to earn enough to make it worthwhile. That said, for the complete music enthusiast I would imagine that they would get more pleasure from doing something they enjoy, whilst earning a little bit of extra cash in the process.
Thanks once again for taking the time Adam, and we are glad to have helped you with our review of Slice The Pie.
All the best,
Marcus
WFHW
I have been a slice the pie member for years. Recently they suspended my account because I breached its terms and conditions, although they never sent me an email to explain where those T&C’s were breached. They also owe me around $12 which I think they have kept for themselves now. I always gave honest, lengthy reviews. They do not pay 30c for each review, only occasionally, mostly it is 7c or 8c. I was earning around $11 per week. Spending around an hour per day on it but I need a replacement now. Any ideas?
Hi Kev,
Thanks for stopping by, and sorry to hear about your issues.
The whole ‘T&C’s’ side of things is something that we (as users) have to be aware of and fully understand, but you’re certainly not alone in not understanding them fully…we all do it.
It might be worth you contacting them and stating your case. You have always given thoughtful reviews, and I’m sure they have regarded your input as valuable. It would be a shame for them to lose you as a valued contributor if it was over something minor.
We do have a list of similar websites that might interest you, and you can find them on the following page:
http://www.workfromhomewatchdog.com/music-resources/
Wishing you the best of luck in your future ventures!
Neil
WFHW
I just joined today via a friend request email. Surprisingly, in a few hours I’ve earned just over $16.00 by reviewing songs. Then all of a sudden I am suspended because of a breach in terms & Conditions. What? Why? They are giving my reviews high grades (which is encouraging me to continue reviewing) then all of a sudden my account is suspended. Why? Because SliceThePie doesn’t want to give me my piece! I have sent several email requests for explanation and no reply.
Hi Bill,
Unfortunately breaking their Terms and Conditions will get you suspended.
It happens all too often when you think you have done a decent job, then you lose out.
I am very sorry this has happened and you are not the first to say so.
All the Best
Neil
I joined the site today. I made just 9 reviews and made $1.90. I am earning 30 cents per review. Although i didnt time how long it took me.
Tomorrow i will work nonstop for an hour or two and see how quickly i make the money.
I too would love to know review sites that pay you more!
Thanks for letting us Know Lorraine!
let us know how you get on when you time your reviews…it will interesting to see your time/income ratio.
We are working on the new reviews as i write this…they will be coming very soon!
Cheers,
Marcus
WFHW Team
Just wanted to add my 2 cents to that last comment guys – I was in a similar position and found that you can add supporting emails to your Paypal account. This was recommended by Slicethepie when I expressed my concern that the email addresses did not match up, and I did receive payment successfully (which to this day is the only one I’ve tried to withdraw).
Hope this helps.
Dan
Thanks for that tip Dan…this is great advice for those having Paypal-related issues with Slice The Pie.
Thanks again!
Marcus
WFHW Team
Hi Neil!
Thanks for enlightening.
But I would love to know those ‘far better ways’ for earning money by writing music reviews.
So please enlighten me on that too.
Thanks
Hi Nael,
Thank you for your comment.
We will be adding recommendations over the coming weeks and months.
Neil
WFHW Team
Hi Dave,
Sorry to hear about this problem, and yes it is a concern.
If the support dept of a website is not responding to a question or query, it’s a sure sign that thing are NOT as they should be.
Incidentally, we tried to contact Slice The Pie about some of the negative comments reported by our visitors, and we never heard back from them.
Not sure what to suggest here Dave, other than keep sending emails to support. It might help to use a couple of different email accounts when sending your messages, just in case they have (for some reason) flagged your email address.
Hope this helps, and let us know if you DO manage to get through to them!
Marcus
I am a member at slicethepie and think the new look is good, but one major problem I have is I need to update my email address to match my paypal and I have sent a few emails with no reply. This is my biggest concern about the site and there is no option to change the email etc on the site or live help.
Dave
Hi Kristy,
I agree with what you say, and I think it’s sad that websites like this “appear” to move the goalposts.
It sends out the wrong signal to people looking to earn some extra cash online, and as we all know…this can easily result in them assuming it’s a scam.
We have had a number of our visitors mention similar stories to us, so maybe it’s time for us to contact SliceThePie.com directly and ask them to look at what people are saying. I think it will help them improve their service.
Thanks for your feedback!
Marcus
WFHW Team
Slice the pie was always pretty low paying, but when I was bored I would log on and I used the site for a few years and was paid several times…but recently they owed me another $10 and they refused to pay me because my reviews weren’t “constructive” even though the way I did my reviews never changed at all in the entire time I used the site. Then they tried to tell me to log back in and rate even MORE songs and then if they felt like my reviews were good enough THEN they’d pay me. What a joke! They were already refusing to pay me so they really think I’m stupid enough to go back and rate even MORE songs? So based on my own personal experience I have to say they are a scam now. I don’t know what their problem is…maybe they’re not doing well financially and just decided to screw some people over to save money? Who knows…but I definately wouldn’t waste any time on there.