Slice The Pie Changes

Updated on: by Miranda Grimm

We have talked about Slice The Pie a lot on the Facebook Fan Page, it is a fun way to make some good side cash.

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Slice The Pie is helping the music industry by allowing artists to post their music, then scouters can rate and give feedback on the music. The scouter is paid for each review. In the past scouts were given a star ranking based on a formula involving many factors. The higher your ranking, the more you were paid. You can read more about it on my old post on Slice the Pie here. 

However, things have recently changed and their system is a lot different. Many of us were not sure if we would like or dislike the new system. Let’s first talk about the changes that were made and then lets all share what we feel about the changes.

The original setup at Slice The Pie was a bit confusing. From what I can tell so far, the new set up is even MORE confusing!

The heart of it all remains the same: listen to a track, rate it and give a written review.

However, in the past we only had to listen to 60 seconds of the track. Now we are required to hear at least 90 seconds of each song.

Thankfully, we can begin writing in the review box as soon as the song plays. So instead of listening for 60 seconds before we can begin our review, we can now being writing as soon as we are ready, we just cannot submit until at least 90 seconds have been heard.
It seems this could increase your speed while also allowing the artists to have a more thorough look at their songs.

In the past we were give an accuracy percentage. It was confusing at first, how can you be judged by your accuracy if you are giving your opinion? Well, the point of Slice The Pie is not to be giving your opinion, you may hate the song but have to give it a good rating because your personal style should not determine the potential a song has to make it big.

Imagine yourself looking for talent as a music producer, if you find the right song/artist you could make millions! It is not about whether you like the song, but will the world like the song? Will it make it big? THAT is how you need to think when rating at Slice The Pie.

Anyway, Slice The Pie has done away with accuracy percentages as well as the star rankings that once corresponded with your rate of pay (up to 2o cents per song).

Now you receive a base pay between 1 and 3 cents, based on your ranking. This significantly low rate is supposed to be helped with a bonus that is determined on how well of a review you write. This leaves a lot in the air for how much you will receive per song. Your review will be judged on its length, grammar and spelling and how helpful it genuinely is. If your review is not helpful, short or filled with spelling errors, you probably will not receive a bonus and only get the base of 1-3 cents per song!!

I am not sure what determines your rank (base pay), it is probably related to how alike with everyone else you rate the song on a scale of 1-10.

 

Then you have things like Experience, Levels and Energy to think about!

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Experience is pretty simple, the more you work, the more experience you gain.

The more Experience you gain the higher level you go. I have yet to figure out if or how your Experience or Level affects anything. Slice the Pie or someone, tell us why should we care what level we are?

 

Then there is your Energy Bar. You gain more energy every 3 minutes of scouting. When you submit a rating, you lose energy. If you run out of energy, you have to wait for more. This is apparently Slice The Pie’s way to slow some people down and give more accurate reviews. So, go too fast, you will be stuck waiting for more energy!

 

So what do we think of the new system?

I worked a little to see how I would be paid. First, I can tell you Slice The Pie requires you to write more. If you write a few sentences, it won’t let you submit. I had to write at least 5 sentences before it would let me move on, which pretty much filled the text box without causing it to scroll down.
I earned a variety of pay, generally between 5 and 10 cents.

I probably spent more time on each song, trying to fill space with words and felt as though I was repeating myself just to fill space. In the past I would run out of ways to word things and now I think I would run out even faster!

From my experience with the system so far, I am not liking it as much. Even when I tried the hardest, I was not able to make over 10 cents. In the past, I could get my rating up to the 15 cents mark and stay there most of the time. I don’t see myself being able to earn 15 cents a song anymore! I also imagine it taking me longer per rating than it did before- lessening my per minute value!

So please tell me what do you think! Any tips you have learned that you can share with me? Visit SlicethePie.com

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Lana Lou Who

November 22, 2011 at 1:21 pm

I think I’ve decided that the best way to consistently write good reviews is to come up with a framework criteria. What is important to you when you listen to music? Having a set list of questions that you answer about each and every song will ensure that you are providing lengthy and insightful reviews without having to wing it every time.

Victoria - Ozarks Crescent Mural

November 23, 2011 at 3:11 am

Miranda, do you have a referral link so that I can sign up under you? Maybe you listed one and I just completely missed it or maybe they don’t offer a referral program. Thanks!

Miranda Grimm

November 23, 2011 at 9:02 am

Unfortunately no referral program. But thanks for asking!

Gwen

November 26, 2011 at 8:18 am

I do not have much experience with Slicethepie. I have recently joined so I’m not familiar with the old Slicethepie setup. There seems to be a glitch to where the same songs are repeated over and again, even if you’ve already submitted a review for that particular song. The highest that I’ve been paid for a review is currently 11 cents. I’ve only submitted 10 reviews so far, so I’m expecting the rate to go up. I looked into their Facebook discussion page and found one person being able to make 18 cents per review. Even still, 18 cents per review isn’t much if you take into consideration the length that these reviews must be to even come remotely close to 18 cents. Then you have to play the guessing game of what you think the rest of the reviewers rated the song at. I don’t think I’m too good at this, as I haven’t given anyone under a rating of 5, in which a 5 was only given once.

I agree with Lana Lou Who that having a guideline to refer to, as you’re listening to a song, will help fill in the space. The first thing that I do, is type out my opinion of the introduction; Is it a smooth entrance? Attention grabbing? Then I start in with my opinion of the vocals; Is it pitchy? Memorable? Can this person just not sing? If it’s a duet, do I like it? Dislike it? Do they compliment each other or not? You can even talk about the background singers. I also include my opinion of the rhythm/beat, the instruments (if I can pinpoint which instrument is being used), the chorus and how the song ended. If something stands out in the song that is exceptionally good or bad, I type out the exact minutes/seconds into the song. Eliminate abbreviations and any other shortcuts. For example: Instead of typing, “At 01:23,…”, type, “At one minute and twenty three seconds into the song,…” Remove apostrophes to type the words fully out: Would not, would have, could not, do not, I am, there is, it is, etc. This can help to fill in space as well. At the end of my review, I give any friendly advice. If I feel the song is perfect the way it is, I type that out as well. You could even write about the lyrics; what feelings it gave you, was is powerful? Emotional? A tear jerker? Well written? I’ve read a how-to page on how to rate music; their advice was to not be afraid to state the obvious.

Hope this helped a little. Good luck!

Michael

April 19, 2012 at 12:05 am

It’s been a while since this blog posting has seen an update, so I just wanted to give my thoughts and some tips.

At first, I was kind of confused about the whole Experience and Rank thing, but I learned to not pay it much mind at all. I do think that it MIGHT have a beneficial impact though on down the line, which leads me to…

I was making a fair bit of change on reviews, though I maxed out at 11 cents. But, I kept plugging away, gaining levels. I never did a lot of reviews at a time, enough to maybe get me around the $2 mark. A few days later, I got an email saying that I was open to bonus tracks and that my base rate would be 13 cents a review. Well, it’s been two days since I got that email, and I guess I’m still receiving those bonus tracks. I’m averaging around 23 cents a review now, which isn’t half bad at all. (The music has gotten better too, I think!) I honestly think that if you constantly give good reviews, you don’t lose that bonus.

But, how to do those good reviews? I think the template idea is a great one. I keep mine fairly loose though to be able to write more things based on the song itself and listening to it. (A helpful tip is to hit enter so you can divide your sections into paragraphs. I think it helps to separate my thoughts and aid reviewing.) I use about 4 paragraphs, though one paragraph may only have a sentence or two. (Again, it’s more about dividing my thoughts.) The first paragraph is always about the first 30 seconds of the song, and I just give my honest play-by-play of what I’m hearing and if I like it. The second and third paragraphs deal with vocals and music. The last paragraph is my overall impression and whether it could be a hit, where it would be a hit (on the radio, in commercials), and to whom (rap lovers? pop fans?).

I think that the system loves music terminology, so be sure to use words like vocals, melody, harmony, background, instruments, rhythm, beat, intonation, verse, chorus, notes, tempo, etc. As far as instruments, try to name them, but if you can’t (likely with the techno or dance songs), call it a keyboard. I also try to throw in what I think of the production quality, like if the song “sounds” professional and not like it was recorded through a tin can.

I prefer a loose template since the system is aware of repeated sentences. The best hint I have is to just type out what you are hearing and thinking the first thirty seconds. Does it sound good? What instruments are there? Is there singing or rapping yet? If you can just type out the first paragraph this way for the first thirty seconds, the last three ones will fly by because you already know a lot about the song. (All the songs are in the 5-minute range or so, and tend to be fairly “standard” sorts of things you would hear on the radio. So, you don’t have to worry about a song switching genres entirely or anything experimental like that. The first thirty seconds tells you everything.)

Rating the song from 1-10 is a big part of the payout too. I agree with Gwen on everything she said, especially the part about not going below 5. When I did that, I got paid quite a bit less. I wouldn’t vote a 10 either, since that is an extreme number that may not get voted that much by people. Sticking between 5-9 has done me well; you’ll at least get somewhat close to the consensus that way.

I hope all of this has helped. If anyone would like, I can copy and paste a review sample up on here. I dare not do it now since I’ve typed a novel as it is. I just wanted to share what I’ve found. Good luck! And thank you to Miranda for the great blog post to begin with! This whole site is excellent; one of the best I’ve seen.

Miranda Grimm

April 19, 2012 at 11:31 pm

Fantastic advice here! Thank you!

Eli

August 16, 2013 at 7:05 pm

At first I wasn’t sure whether it would be worth the time, being that to some extent you do have to be creative while reviewing a song from an honest standpoint. But after a few reviews it not only became easier to comment, but it also help me to actually realize what is it that makes a song ‘good’ for me. You definitely expand your music vocabulary and widen out your taste in music. Over all, it can be a fun and productive way to spend some free time.

slicethepie.com/?wyd = 635969

Lara

August 21, 2013 at 3:47 pm

I’m quite new to Slicethepie, and I have to agree that using a lot of terminology gets you a lot of money.

I like to just generally type out my thoughts as the song goes on, but I don’t like skipping out during the song since I might miss something.

My base rate is 0.02, however I’ve never dipped below 0.20. One of my highest paid reviews so far, I marked it a 5, however I gave a lot of constructive criticism and I got paid 0.26!

I do have to watch my spelling though, as I think they might penalise me for using British English, rather than American English.

I think it’s an easy and fun way to make money whilst discovering new music and getting paid for the pleasure.