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slicethepie.com
by TheSpaceBetween2
Slice the pie is a site that pays you to review tracks from smaller unknown bands. The concept is a great one and indeed the website design is well laid out and easy to understand. You have energy which determines how many tracks you can rate, one track equals one energy but every few minutes it replenishes so if you listen to a full or ... most of a track by the time you have finished reviewing your bar will be back to full. When you first sign up it prompts you to give your age, name, email address (please give an email address registered to a paypal address as this is where they pay you, you can not change it easily once done) and what genres of music you like. I choose dance, pop, rock, indie, electronic, I said I did not mind rap or country so much did not want classical. Although it seems your choices are largely irrelevant as I got country quite a lot as well as a few other genres I had rated down a little bit. I also get more rap that I said I wanted still I let you know for completeness of the review!
Depending on the quality of the reviews you submit your "rank" goes up or down which determines you base rate of pay which is then multiplied by some factor dependent on the sites quality algorithms. A newbie starts out bronze with a bass pay rate of 0.1, it's not hard to progress to silver with a base pay rate of 0.2 however gold which is 0.3 and platinum which is 0.5 are very hard to get to. At my base rate of pay I was getting between 8 and 18 cents per 3 minute track. However the algorithm for determine what you get seems weird and inconsistent as similar reviews get varying pay from the top to the bottom of said range I gave. I earned the 10 dollars you need to request pay out and did so.
I then continued to rate tracks until I came to a track where it did not accept submission at first, it just gave no response so I clicked button again and it gave message "you have not let enough time between rates please wait" then I somehow was logged out and when I tried to log back in it said " your account has been blocked for violation of terms of service which are :
1. Slicethepie is about fun, so have fun, kick back and review to your very best ability.
2. Be aware that your reviews go directly to artists, record labels and radio stations. Try to be as descriptive as possible. Every review counts. Please ensure that your reviews are constructive. A good reviewer will comment on a range of track elements as well as writing several sentences. Please ensure that your reviews are written in good English.
3. Please don't cheat*. If you cheat, we will not pay you. That's official. And we'll block you from using the site.
4. You may find that some of the tracks on Slicethepie contain explicit lyrics. Please review these as you would any other songs.
5. Your details: We will never share your details with anyone else (especially any artist you leave reviews for). Plus although we love you, we won't email you unless there's something special going on that's relevant to you. Just occasionally you might get an email from us promoting one of our partners but in any event all email settings can be configured from within your account.
None of which I had violated as you can see, however by their system not accepting my review and me double clicking it triggered some highly sensitive cheat trigger claiming it to be multiple browser windows.
Looking at their Facebook page many, legitimate reviewers have had problems with them, most commonly the "use of an open dns proxy server" seems to be a complaint from literate posters who seem genuinely angry and not chancing their arm.
Thus my experience added to others experiences makes them seem a questionable outfit, with their way of evading paying most people being to ban them on spurious charges. I contacted them and got my account reinstated and the payout I had requested the previous week was then paid to me, I did receive 10 dollars, £6.28 in my paypal which is good however I am not going to be secure until after 120 days when it is much harder for them to attempt a charge back.
My advice would be just do a few reviews a week, don't try and earn 20 to 30 dollars a week as they are not happy to pay it. It seems if you can avoid a ban for doing nothing wrong then you will get paid however charge backs and actually avoiding a ban could see your income diminish to zero or one successful payment.
Pro's
* Do Pay if your account is not locked
* Good website design
* If your account is locked you can have it unlocked once or twice after which it will be a fight
Con's
* High incidence of accounts being locked for non existing cheating or "using an open dns proxy server"
* If you account is locked whilst awaiting a pay out you lose your money if it's your last lock
* Very low number of unlocks considering high incidence of non-scammers being locked
* Cannot do a high volume of work as that definitely increases the chance of a lock.
* Lack of feedback on reviews to say what you did wrong and what you did right
* Paying to much per review, it's clear that people would far rather appreciate not being locked than earning a rate which puts pressure on the company to lock people it doesn't like reviewing or just random people due to profit margins.
Tips:
* Do only a few reviews a day, if that, earning slowly will decrease lock chances
* Do not review anything once you have requested pay-out until you have been paid
* If it refuses to accept your review, do not try to post again, log out, clear browsing history, log back in.
Summary:
A promising idea that at worst introduces you to a few great bands however due to the slightly generous rate of pay it seems the company don' t have the cash to pay honest reviewers so they only want the cream and possibly the drudges as the drudges cost them no money whilst still giving some sort of feedback. It feels like it's the "middle class" reviewers who are most likely to be hit because their feedback may not be up to professional standard yet is good enough to earn a rate of pay of 10 cents or more per minute, these reviewers cost the company decent money whilst not quite providing the service the company desires. There is still money to be had but your best chance of making cash is to do so slowly in order that you are not a liability to the company, also don't review whilst awaiting a payout, read reviews on how to improve your writing for the song reviews and when it all comes to an end, as it inevitably will please don't be hurting yourself by reviewing for them whilst you were waiting on a 10 dollar pay pal payment!
This review will be updated from time to time if the company improves or gets worse.
This review or a variant thereof may appear on ciao under the same user name.
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netflix.com
by busybee87
I've been intrigued by streaming services since they launched but as I'm not a fan of subscriptions I was keen to make sure I'd use the service enough to merit the cost.
I originally tried Netflix in late 2011 on a free trial but was not impressed with the selection of films at the time. I prefer ... independent/foreign/documentary/cult films to blockbuster movies and didn't feel Netflix offered this.
Fast forward to January 2013, and a second free trial offer comes up. I've heard by this point through word of mouth that Netflix has acquired many more licenses in the UK and now has a much better selection. My second experience with Netflix confirms this. The range is now much wider (not just blockbusters but a great 'independent' film section).
The easiest way to use the service is to scroll through through the films in each genre (romance, documentary, stand up comedy, TV programmes, children and family films, etc.). However, users can also go straight to the "Genres" tab and click into each genre to get a longer list of available films to stream.
My personal highlights are excellent US TV shows such as 'Breaking Bad' and 'Sons of Anarchy'. Netflix will usually buy a license for all seasons of a show. The £5.99 a month is much cheaper than buying endless box sets that I might not watch again! After using the free trial for a month, I subscribed in February 2013 and haven't looked back.
My boyfriend and his housemates chose to opt for a Netflix subscription instead of paying for a TV license as they never watch live TV. I will definitely consider this in the future as Netflix + On demand TV streaming (not live shows) is easily enough TV for me!
I can also say that Netflix works extremely well from both laptops and consoles. I've used it from a Playstation. Netflix works 'in browser' rather than through a downloaded program but never buffers or has trouble loading content and doesn't freeze like Iplayer or 4oD. There are also no annoying adverts!
I have tried LoveFilm and found the interface difficult to use and the selection poor. LoveFilm is only £1 cheaper per month so I'd say Netflix is worth the extra money.
As I see it, Netflix will only grow as it buys more licenses. US Netflix has been around for longer but is now huge. Netflix is also now creating original shows. The first offering, 'House of Cards' was well written, beautiful filmed, and had both a great plot and impressive cast. I look forward to more Netflix originals in the future.
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slicethepie.com
by kt21blonde
I have been using Slice the Pie for almost a year now and one weekend I managed to make around $70.
You can review a variety of songs on the ordinary site but if you go to slicethepie.com/catwalk you can make big money. The catwalk is a similar concept but you rate items of clothing. If you write good reviews mentioning the ... material, colours, design, your personal opinion, what target audience the item would be best suited to etc you make $20 per item. This soon adds up and your balance is beyond the $10 minimum withdrawal in no time. The catwalk only lasts for so long (several weeks) or when you have rated all of the items. User are normally informed that the Catwalk is active via email but if you are an existing member, it is worth trying to access the above mentioned link and logging in and if the Catwalk is active, you will be greeted with an item of clothing rather than a song. This is the fastest money making website I have used and I have a lot of account with survey, click sites, etc.
This is great for a bit of extra cash when you need it!
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