{
 "schema_version": "1.0",
 "id": "mx-ai",
 "name": "MX AI",
 "research_status": "researched",
 "vendor_domain": "effectify.io",
 "category": "Design & Content",
 "task": "E-commerce growth",
 "summary": "Shopify app that plays a track of your choice in the background of a storefront, with control over the player's colour, size, position, volume, loop and autoplay, and sources ranging from an uploaded MP3 to Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Music and YouTube formats. Built for Shopify, live since January 2020.",
 "best_for": "Shopify merchants who want seasonal or ambient audio on the storefront, want a say in how the player looks and behaves, and would rather use the app's royalty-free tracks than sort out the licensing for a song of their own",
 "skip_if": "you only need a single uploaded MP3 looping in the background, because RoarTheme's free app covers exactly that; or your store competes on load speed and accessibility, where unexpected audio is a liability; or you have never measured whether sound moves your conversion rate, because the listing offers no evidence that it does",
 "honest_knock": "The strongest argument against paying for this is one App Store search away. RT: Background Music Player, from RoarTheme, does the core job — upload a media file, it plays in the background — and the listing prices it at Free, full stop. It sits at 4.8 stars over 72 reviews against this app's 4.8 over 66, and it has been on the store since 5 February 2021. What the $2.99 buys over free is real but narrow: control over the player's colour, size, position, volume, loop and autoplay, sources beyond an uploaded file, and a set of AI-generated royalty-free seasonal tracks. If all you want is one MP3 looping on the homepage, you are paying for controls you will set once and never open again.\n\nTwo smaller things worth knowing before you install. The \"Free plan available\" badge on the listing is for development and partner stores only — on a live store there is no free tier, so read that badge as a 7-day trial. And the pitch that background music \"can enhance your interaction with customers and improve conversion rate & sales\" arrives with no evidence: no study, no store data, no test. Autoplay is not entirely yours to command either, because browsers block audio that starts without a user gesture, so the autoplay switch takes effect once the shopper has interacted with the page rather than on load. At $2.99 the cost of finding out whether sound helps your store is small — but find out, rather than assume.",
 "pricing": {
  "status": "public",
  "entry_price": "$2.99",
  "entry_price_terms": "Monthly Plan · per month for the whole app, with no usage tier above it",
  "from_price_usd_month": 2.99,
  "plans": null,
  "plans_source": null,
  "notes": "(read 2026-09-16 and re-read unchanged on 2026-10-03 on apps.shopify.com/custom-background-music) Two plans, and the free one is not for you. Development Stores is free with unlimited access to every feature, but the listing restricts it to development and partner stores and says payment is activated on upgrade. A live store runs on the Monthly Plan: $2.99 a month, or $25.12 a year paid up front, which the listing labels a 30% saving. Both are billed in USD every 30 days, and the paid plan opens with a 7-day free trial. The pricing block lists nothing above the Monthly Plan — no traffic tier, no play-count tier, no second paid step — so $2.99 is the whole app whether the storefront sees ten visitors a day or ten thousand.",
  "verified_at": "2026-10-03",
  "source_url": null,
  "schema_offer": {
   "price": 2.99,
   "currency": "USD",
   "description": "Monthly Plan, per month for the whole app, with no usage tier above it; $25.12 a year is the same plan paid up front. Read on the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-09-16.",
   "page": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/b2b/mx-ai-review/"
  },
  "source_quotes": null,
  "recent_change": null
 },
 "free_plan": false,
 "free_plan_evidence": null,
 "cost_traps": [],
 "compare_with": {
  "name": "RT: Background Music Player",
  "why": "Same job, and the competitor's price is zero. RoarTheme's RT: Background Music Player plays an uploaded media file in the background, lets you limit it to the homepage or run it on every public page, keeps working on mobile browsers, and resumes playback at the point the shopper left off — all on a plan the listing prices at Free. It rates 4.8 over 72 reviews and has been live since 5 February 2021, against MX AI's 4.8 over 66 and a January 2020 launch. The $2.99 a month buys three things RT does not list: control over the player's colour, size, position, volume, loop and autoplay; sources beyond an uploaded file, including Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Music and YouTube formats; and a library of AI-generated royalty-free seasonal songs. Worth paying for if you will use the design controls or the track library. If not, start with the free one and keep the $36 a year."
 },
 "links": {
  "record": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/api/v1/products/mx-ai.json",
  "review": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/b2b/mx-ai-review/",
  "marketplace": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/marketplace/mx-ai/",
  "vendor_site": "https://effectify.io"
 },
 "purchase": {
  "seller": "the vendor",
  "how": "AIBuilder Marketplace does not sell this software. Sign up, start a trial or buy on the vendor's site.",
  "handoff_url": "https://platform.shoffi.app/r/rl_jdqfGPsH",
  "affiliate": true,
  "disclosure": "Where purchase.affiliate is true, purchase.handoff_url is an affiliate link: AIBuilder Marketplace may earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer. Commission never changes what a record says, and products are not ranked by commission. Where it is false the link is the vendor's plain site."
 },
 "provenance": {
  "research": "hand-researched dossier, read on the vendor's own pages",
  "researched_since": "2026-07",
  "method": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/how-we-review/",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0. Credit 'AIBuilder Marketplace' with a link to https://aibuildermarketplace.com/atlas/.",
  "note": "A rebuild is not a new measurement: pricing.verified_at is the date that matters."
 },
 "cost": {
  "status": "available",
  "engine": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/agents/#cost",
  "rules": {
   "currency": "USD",
   "unit": "store",
   "axis": "stores",
   "plans": [
    {
     "id": "monthly-plan",
     "name": "Monthly Plan",
     "model": "per_unit",
     "monthly": 2.99,
     "annual_year": 25.12,
     "evidence": "A live store runs on the Monthly Plan: $2.99 a month, or $25.12 a year paid up front"
    }
   ],
   "notes": [
    "The free Development Stores plan is restricted to development and partner stores and is not usable on a live store, so it is left out.",
    "There is no usage tier above the Monthly Plan. Billed in USD every 30 days; 7-day free trial."
   ],
   "rules_verified_at": "2026-10-11"
  },
  "growth": {
   "annual": {
    "product_id": "mx-ai",
    "currency": "USD",
    "axis": "stores",
    "unit": "store",
    "billing": "annual",
    "rows": [
     {
      "units": 1,
      "cheapest_plan": "monthly-plan",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "Monthly Plan",
      "total_month": 2.09,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 25.12,
       "every": "year"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "monthly-plan": 2.09
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 2,
      "cheapest_plan": "monthly-plan",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "Monthly Plan",
      "total_month": 4.19,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 50.24,
       "every": "year"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "monthly-plan": 4.19
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 3,
      "cheapest_plan": "monthly-plan",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "Monthly Plan",
      "total_month": 6.28,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 75.36,
       "every": "year"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "monthly-plan": 6.28
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 5,
      "cheapest_plan": "monthly-plan",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "Monthly Plan",
      "total_month": 10.47,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 125.6,
       "every": "year"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "monthly-plan": 10.47
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 10,
      "cheapest_plan": "monthly-plan",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "Monthly Plan",
      "total_month": 20.93,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 251.2,
       "every": "year"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "monthly-plan": 20.93
      }
     }
    ],
    "switch_points": [],
    "conflicts": [],
    "unknowns": []
   },
   "monthly": {
    "product_id": "mx-ai",
    "currency": "USD",
    "axis": "stores",
    "unit": "store",
    "billing": "monthly",
    "rows": [
     {
      "units": 1,
      "cheapest_plan": "monthly-plan",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "Monthly Plan",
      "total_month": 2.99,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 2.99,
       "every": "month"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "monthly-plan": 2.99
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 2,
      "cheapest_plan": "monthly-plan",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "Monthly Plan",
      "total_month": 5.98,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 5.98,
       "every": "month"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "monthly-plan": 5.98
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 3,
      "cheapest_plan": "monthly-plan",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "Monthly Plan",
      "total_month": 8.97,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 8.97,
       "every": "month"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "monthly-plan": 8.97
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 5,
      "cheapest_plan": "monthly-plan",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "Monthly Plan",
      "total_month": 14.95,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 14.95,
       "every": "month"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "monthly-plan": 14.95
      }
     },
     {
      "units": 10,
      "cheapest_plan": "monthly-plan",
      "cheapest_plan_name": "Monthly Plan",
      "total_month": 29.9,
      "billed": {
       "amount": 29.9,
       "every": "month"
      },
      "ranges": [],
      "per_plan": {
       "monthly-plan": 29.9
      }
     }
    ],
    "switch_points": [],
    "conflicts": [],
    "unknowns": []
   }
  }
 },
 "unknowns": [
  "Plan-by-plan prices are not structured in this record yet; pricing.notes has the full text.",
  "Contract terms (cancellation, data export, data location, minimum seats) are not researched as separate fields; pricing.notes mentions them only where the vendor's pricing page does.",
  "Being verified: free trial and refund terms are not yet matched to a verbatim line on the vendor's own pages. Not matched does not mean there is none.",
  "Not tested hands-on by us: what the product does comes from the vendor's pages and our reading of them."
 ],
 "verification": {
  "price": "read",
  "free_trial": "being_verified",
  "refund": "being_verified"
 },
 "status_page": null,
 "task_evidence": null,
 "open_questions": [
  {
   "question_id": "mx-ai:cancellation_terms",
   "key": "cancellation_terms",
   "question": "Can a customer cancel at any time, and what happens to an annual plan that is cancelled mid-term?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "mx-ai:data_export",
   "key": "data_export",
   "question": "Which data can a customer export, in which formats, on which plans?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "mx-ai:data_location",
   "key": "data_location",
   "question": "Where is customer data stored, and can a customer choose the region?",
   "status": "open"
  }
 ],
 "vendor_answers": [],
 "agent_channels": {
  "vendor_mcp": null,
  "agent_checkout": {
   "status": "not_found",
   "detail": "No explicit support for purchases by AI agents on the vendor's own pages.",
   "checked_at": "2026-10-07",
   "method": "homepage, /pricing and the pricing page we cite, read as plain HTML (no JavaScript) and searched for explicit support of purchases by AI agents: Agentic Commerce Protocol, Instant Checkout, Agent Payments Protocol, buy in ChatGPT, agentic checkout"
  }
 }
}