Then Watch this video with "John Berhaney" Opinion From A Industry Professional..

I am not yet a Taxi member. But from everything I have seen and read and watched, I am convinced they are an organization that helps songwriters get better and helps those that are great to get deals! I do not know how much help you can get nor do I know if it is significantly easier to "break in" using a different service (or none at all).

But I have been quite impressed with the high quality of the songwriting and production I have seen on the Taxi forums. So, one way they help immediately is to expose you to a standard that may be well above what you are used to! Furthermore, the songs I have reviewed at Taxi tend to be more modern than you might hear in certain software forums!

My interest in songwriting is mostly as a hobby. I am interested in getting my songs as nice as they can be but I have little to no interest in trying to pitch songs. So, I may or may not join Taxi some day!

I think if you want to really learn and subject yourself to critiques and the level of quality required to get even just forwards, then TAXI might be a good investment.

But I wouldn't expect any successes from TAXI unless your writing is at a pretty high level and your productions are "radio-ready". The competition is pretty fierce. I think TAXI is better at TV/FILM type stuff. We have discussed for a while that outside opportunities for songwriters to pitch songs to artists are pretty close to zero.

Both JohnJohnJohn and Kemmrich are spot on. However, for the thousands of songs and songwriters that come out of Taxi, only a few members have skyrocketed out of the masses to fame and riches. I think many make a decent living but I also think if fame and riches from song writing and music is your dream, the average person's chances of breaking away from the pack are better with Taxi than with YouTube, CD Baby, Soundcloud or most publishing companies.

TAXI.... been there, done that.

I was a member for several years back around 2009 or so.... went to the rally in LA, rubbed elbows and chatted with some hit songwriters and swapped stories with several of the "taxi stars" and met Michael, the TAXI president.

Yeah, there's a handful of folks who get some nice cuts and can parlay that into a career of sorts. Most are part time and get one or two cuts. A few get into it full time and make some decent incomes from film and TV cuts. The ones making a living from it.... I personally consider that to be $30k gross per year or more, are all full time and spend 8 hrs a day in their studio writing and recording cut after cut after cut. One guy I met there in LA had over 800 cuts in libraries that were being used on a daily basis. He made anywhere from a couple hundred bucks on a cut, with the majority being $5 or less per use. You gotta get a lot of spins at $5 a spin to make a living. Like I said, most folks are part timers as a result. His PRO statement was 3 pages long with 90% of it under $5 each.

The vast majority get nothing. Few forwards, and few responses and nothing signed.

Taxi is an expensive proposition since it requires a sign up fee, and renewal fees as well as having to pay for critiques for each song you want feedback on. Plus... there is a submittal fee per song. If you are submitting lots of songs this can add up quickly.

My experience with Taxi was mostly ok.... I submitted dozens of songs over the several years I was with them. About 15% of those got forwards ...or approval from the screeners and were sent to the end user. Most of those forwards ended in silence..... crickets.... nothing. Several were signed by a major east coast library..... then ........ nothing. There was really no way, as is the case with TAXI, NSAI, Film Music Jobwire to get any sort of feedback from the screeners as to why they reject a song. They use the catch all excuse.... not on target for the listing. What that means is the screener could simply think the song was too fast or too slow, the production was not broadcast quality, the writing/lyrics were not up to par, the music was not up to par, the singer wasn't good enough, the style of the song wasn't close enough to what the listing called for....and literally any of dozens of reasons....and they don't generally tell you which one.... they simply say... not on target.

What you do have to understand is that I believe the TAXI listings are real and the people making money there are real. However, the game is played at a very high level. If you are not writing the best of the best, and your production chops are lacking, and your singer doesn't sound like a pop star diva..... your chance of getting a cut is similar to the long time survival rate of the proverbial snow ball in the flames of hades. Most taxi members and songwriters tend to have a very hard time getting over the bar in the first place and then hitting the target to get a forward and then having their song stand out among the hundreds of other songs submitted by other sources all vying for that 10 second cut or 30 second commercial underscore.

Advice regarding TAXI: Do you think you want to join? Well, before you spend several hundred hard earned dollars on a membership.... join the forum they have. It's free to join. Read the listings and pick several that you think you would like to submit to.... Also, try writing something new for one that has a close up deadline. NOW..... go to the forum and find the one with threads for songs for current listings. Post your song and ask for people to listen and tell you if they think it's "on target" for the listing.


Another option:

NSAI... Nashville Songwriters Association International .... not a listing service and not going to help you get a cut. They are an educational service.... lots of really good videos in their library that's available only to members. However, for your membership, you also get 12 really detailed song reviews. They discuss all aspects of your song to help you grow as a writer. They do have events that you can attend as a member if you are close enough to Nashville where you can play your songs for and meet the publishers who are supplying the songs to the artists. There have been a few hits through this avenue... but not enough to call it a viable way to get your music out.

I have been, and continue to be associated with NSAI. Time will tell if I renew the next term since membership costs just went up significantly as of Jan 1. I have used their song critiquing service to really "tune in" one of my songs. My big issue with their critiquing service is that the screeners are listed by numbers....and genre/style. You have no clue who they are, and you are unable to ask questions of them concerning a review of a song. You have to resubmit the song and then you can ask the question. That eats up your submission credits. There also appears to be a fairly high turnover rate with the screeners. One that I had worked with on several songs suddenly disappeared from the list.... I had to start over building another faceless relationship.

Another Option:

If you are looking to get your songs out to the movers and shakers, there are other options. There are several listing services that are much less expensive. Film Music Jobwire is one of them. No membership fee required to submit. It costs a dollar or two more if you're not a member.

In addition, there are a number of libraries that are on the net that you can submit to directly. They have in house screeners and it's usually FREE. If you have good music and good production, they will tell you and accept your music. This is the path I have chosen, and as a result, I have met and signed with quite a few good libraries both foreign and domestic. One of these was a library that I submitted 41 cues for a TV show. It ended up being for the show Duck Dynasty. My cuts didn't make it into the show, unfortunately. But just having the cuts submitted was a blast. It was from a $6 submission of one 30 second cue to FMJ. I now get emails from several libraries on a regular basis that tell me exactly what they are needing for upcoming film & TV projects so I can decide to submit or write for them if I care to.

No matter which path you choose, you have to be writing good music. You are competing with the best of the best songwriters and composers when you are vying for cuts on TV shows and in movies. My advice is, write, study the craft, write some more, study, learn, read, write... then do it again......it's not easy to make a career in film and TV music, but the odds are slightly better than trying to get Garth or Reba to sing your country song due mainly to the large need for new music for the TV shows and commercials on the thousands of worldwide cable channels.

Anyway.... that's my 2 cents on TAXI and the other services out there.

Comments? Agree? Disagree?

Just my opinion...it sort of has the same feel to me as when casino's showcase their winners.

Personally, I don't know of anyone, that is currently landing cuts, that is using it.

Ok, I am not looking to sign with them, but I had just watched a John Berhaney video last night, and I wanted to see what people thought about some of the statements that they make on that video. His main thing that he is trying to get across, is write, and keep on rewriting the song until it is at it's best. From the little time that I have been writing my own songs I have learned that people hate re-writing their songs, and they think that the other person that suggest it is crazy.

Then, I also have a friend that says that if it's not good enough for them, then the He double toothpick with them. He don't think that you should have to re-write the song when you have already have given it your best, and I think that sometimes your best is not good enough, even if you think that the song can't be re-written you can always pull something new out of the hat. I am not an expert and do not claim to be, but when you get people that are telling you these things to do and you don't want to listen to them, then you are probably not going to get a cut ever.

The other thing that I wanted to point out was that they said that people will write songs that have maybe 3 to 4 chord changes and sounds all the same is what people are not looking for, they suggest for you to have your verses sound the same, and maybe a little change here and there, to make things interesting, but in the chorus make it go somewhere else, in this piece maybe change the music and the tune for the chorus, in other words provide a very good sounding hook, so that your chorus does not sound anything like the verses.

This is the thing that all other bands are doing that are on top. The are making the chorus sound entirely different than the verses. I think that this is why BIAB is a very good tool, because you don't have to have the versus sound exactly the same as the chorus.

You can change BIAB to have it go through the choruses and the versus only one time. Some of the videos that I have watched suggest that you repeat the chord progression 3 times, but that makes your song sound all the same through the choruses and the versus.

You got to change the chorus and the verse up, and make something sound different, that is what the people that make hits do. So, as far as signing up for taxi, no, not for me, but some of the information that they can give is very valuable.

I have one main test that most of my decisions have to pass: "Is it sustainable?"

Any path that isn't sustainable is destined to fail, and the wise choice is to abandon it for a more sustainable path.

Sustainability might be defined as the ability to at least EQUAL the return on investment. As long as the path pays for itself and maybe earns a little more, you can stay on that road forever.

But if something costs you $400 per year and earns you nothing, year after year... it fails the sustainability test.

(my 2 cents, YMMV...)

That makes perfect sense. I have gotten sucked into things like that before. Then as being a wise person if you spend money and don't make nothing back it is wise to abandoned the idea. Now as far as BIAB and recording studios, I enjoy the craft of writing, creation, and not having to pay anything to record it. I do a lot of songs that I keep private, and they only fall on the ears of family and friends, but I paid a heavy price for some of the things that I have, but I sure do have a lot of fun, so I guess you can say it is sustainable. I have 3 versions of BIAB, I have cakewalk music creator, I have 4 8 track digital studios, a marshal stack, 5 guitars and an awesome piano, and 3 different keyboards. I enjoy every one of these things, so I can say that they are all sustainable. But As far as Taxi nope, not going to happen. I got involved with other things like you said, and there was an awful lot of money going out and nothing happened. I was a fool to believe their lies once, but never again. Thanks for your 2 cents.

I would add one key point to this...if it makes you happy and you can afford the cost then you should do it! I would guess there are a lot of us here who will not make back the amount of money we spend on gear and software but it is definitely worth it because it gives us joy! Same thing for something like Taxi! If you join and become active at Taxi it may very well be worth the time and expense for what you will learn above and beyond any deals you get referred to!

Or, it may not be worth it to you! My main point is there are metrics other than money out/money in to consider!

Just a note:

It's “Braheny”, not “Berhaney”. He was a great guy, who with Len Chandler, founded the L.A. Songwriter's Showcase (LASS) in 1971. The L.A.S.S. was a precursor to Taxi. I was a member way back then.

They mentored a virtual Who's Who of songwriters:

http://johnbraheny.com/about/lass/lass-stories-and-kudos/

RIP John.



Regards,

Bob

Exactly! I have a small fortune invested in guitars, bases, computer, software, and hardware. My monetary return on this investment is very little but I have gained a lot more. I have many Internet friends, a couple I have met in person, plus I have increased my knowledge base by listening to these friends as well as an appreciation for many genres of music.

Hopefully I have helped a few along the way.

Plus I have had a ton of fun using this equipment playing covers, composing and recording music. It also got me interested into buying and learning how to play a new instrument, my wind controller.

So yes money ain't everything!

I agree!

Money as a sustainability qualifier mostly has to do with business decisions (since business is about making money)

As far as money spent on personal enjoyment is concerned... I do think that you can quantify the amount of pleasure derived and weigh it against the time, effort and money required to achieve it. In all things there is a point of diminishing returns.

The same amount of money that is appropriate to spend on "fun" under my current situation might be unsustainable if I lived in a cardboard box under a bridge. But as long as I can meet my needs and have money left over for fun, then that spending is sustainable.

I guess that's the point I was trying to make.

I think it's safe to say that most musicians have a ton of money in gear and other related things.

Yes... if you have the money to spend, and can afford to do so, then certainly, do what you wish.

One thing I will say about TAXI and NSAI and any other similar company/organization.... if nothing else comes from them, and you apply yourself and avail yourself of the opportunity to learn and study, and attend their events, you can not help but become a better writer.

Perhaps you will never attain a gold record on the wall or have your music playing in TV shows, but you can enjoy the satisfaction of practicing your craft at a higher level.

What person, who starts to sketch and paint or play golf, or ski, as a hobby, wants to remain at the beginner levels? Yet I have known a large number of musician/songwriters who are the very embodiment of staying on the bunny slopes at the ski lodge. They say I write what I write and it comes from the heart and that's good enough for me. OK, I can understand that but hey.... there's always room to improve and do it better.

If there's one thing I have learned from both of these songwriting organizations, it is this..... REWRITE THE SONG. Rewriting was mentioned above in another post..... That is one of the best ways to improve a song. However, when I make that suggestion to many writers, I get a lot of grief, not only from the writer but also from his/her friends defending the first shaky draft as a "great song". It has happened in other forums and it's happened here. I hesitate now to mention to someone they should re-write the song or even just a part of it because very few people will say in reply...... yeah... that's a good idea.... and actually do it. I can count on one hand those who have taken that advice over the years. The majority will either defend the first draft or say they are too busy and that they will do that on the next tune..... and so it goes. They continue to write "first draft" songs, hoping for something to change for the better. Rewriting is hard work.

Enjoy the hobby, but take the time to study your craft and make yourself better by improving your skill set. Be willing to do the hard work.

here's another real-world example of a sustainable vs unsustainable approach to advertising yourself:

Let's say you've written a ton of songs, and you want to market them. The unsustainable approach would be to pay for advertising. Its not that advertising wouldn't help... but The minute you stop paying for ads, the benefit ends. And as long as you pay for the ads, unless you are selling enough songs to pay for them, it's a hole in the money bucket that drains funds.

But if you make music videos... and if you make it a point to put an ad at the end of each video, pointing people to your songs (or other service you want to sell)...

... those ads will stay online indefinitely, and not cost you a cent. It's easy to sustain an ad campaign that doesn't cost you anything. All the better if you are able to create videos that go viral!

If ads in videos didn't work, Youtube wouldn't be doing it.

"Everytime I see Michael Laskow (Founder & CEO of Taxi) on YouTube or any other promotional outlet, I keep thinking to myself he is a modern day John Bozeman.

Bozeman started off looking for gold, then quickly realized he'd make more money "mining the miners" and began selling goods to miners. Now, the miners certainly needed tools and supplies, but I'm sure John Bozeman fed their dream by telling them how much gold was there just waiting to be found.

They make more money off a marginal talent, one who submits frequently and without success. In fact, the ideal scenario for Taxi (based on their business model) is that the majority of their members get some forwards, some "near hits", but not a contract. It's only when you get a contract that the client is revealed and the direct channel (bypassing Taxi) becomes available to you. Therefore, once you have success through Taxi, you develop a direct relationship with the client, which then greatly reduces or eliminates altogether the need for submitting through Taxi.

As a business man, I have to ask myself why their business model creates a clear financial incentive for their members to submit without success.

So, taking it a step further (in a devious way), if I'm Michael Laskow, I want to help you get better, but not so you get a contract, but so that you don't lose hope. If you still have hope you'll still be firing off those submissions to Taxi."



To me it sounds like you are on the right track with your mindset. Your friend, probably not. Even the best work with others to get more out of themselves. You MUST be able to identify what needs to change. The weird part is, it may not be the song!

I could also be something else altogether. Your reputation, ability to market it, using the channels that are used to get your song to who it needs to go to...all of that.



I thought this was sort of good advice. I agree with keeping it interesting. If you listen to the radio, hooks are ALL over the place. It's not that hard to flow chart a song to find how often to create a hook and how often to repeat those hooks.

As far as chords, my advice, grab songs you like that are current hits (if your goal is to get airplay) and notice how many chords they use.

I see it more as the same chords, but the changes are varied. It's in the feel more than anything.

Again, just my opinion and I may be wrong!

Good luck and thanks for sharing the video!

I think you might do better with The Starmaker Machine.


(Grin added to signify humor ("humour" for you Brits).


Regards,

Bob

Or wait for the man with a big cigar

Everybody knows that to succeed in the music business, you must have good ears.

I think we should take Bob's Starmaker Machine idea and mix it in with a little bit of TAXI, and call it "STAR BUS"

(Like TAXI, but the fare is cheaper)

I used to operate a limousine service. My regulars knew I was a musician, so they appreciated the name—Roll Star (with a star logo between the two words).

Richard

Well, I know exactly one guy who uses TAXI, the aforementioned Steve Guiles, and TAXI has gotten him placement in several TV shows and commercials.

That said, Steve's abilities are deep and wide and his hook-writing is pretty amazing. Any manner of pop/rock is in his wheelhouse. He is a prolific songwriter. I'm talking 100+ songs a year. As a hobbyist.

Steve is still employed as a middle school teacher - that's his main paying gig.

To say that once TAXI gets you a placement, that it eliminates the need for the service itself because you have a relationship with the end client, that isn't necessarily true. These clients have access to thousands upon thousands of songs as source material and what you were able to provide to fit the mood of a shot of a certain commercial does not mean that you are now going to be employed forever by that client.

I'm thinking of famous song placements for a particular end customer. Volkswagen is pretty well versed in this arena. In the past 15 years or so, there are some brilliant song placements by VW's ad agency ranging from Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" https://youtu.be/BIOW9fLT9eY to Clannad's "Theme from Harry's Game" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KpNzalFKPo to Da Da Da by Trio: https://youtu.be/jdccNAOvPHg to Molly's Chambers by Kings of Leon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKOnYX05btM to Fly By Night by Rush: https://youtu.be/V57v_UlaZP0

Pretty hard to think of a more diverse sounding group of songs placed in commercials. Yet, each song fit the theme and mood of the commercial. I'm guessing they will continue to make great matches.

Anyways, Steve has had pretty decent success with Taxi, and now he's known by Taxi and they consider him a go-to guy for simple straight up pop stuff.

You had mentioned some things to me in some post of songs that I had written and I made the changes that you suggested. I cant remember what songs they where, but you where right. I changed it for the better and it became a better song. If you have the old post of that could you repost it so I can see what song it was, and I will post a link to where it's located? The first draft, and the second draft. Well, I hope you can find this and let me know. Thanks.....

For some of you that missed this, here is a song that I wrote "At The Foot Of The Cross" My verse sounds the same as the chorus, I am thinking about re-writing this because of that flaw in my song. After I took the Coursera course, I noticed this right off the Bat. So you tell me what you think, Should I re-write it and make the course different, or should I just leave it the way that it is, it is a pretty song. Here is the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyHBDjLk42Q

Occasionally you have to let one through -- so she or he can say: TAXI helped me, I made it.

Just like most musicians will never be stars, although some will gain some local or regional fame of sorts.... so too with writers.

Out of a few thousand writers, a small handful will write tunes good enough and be in the right place with the right people and turn it into a career. Out of all the TAXI people, there's a small handful who are full time and paying their bills and taxes from writing for film & TV. There are a greater number who are part timers and make a few thousand dollars a year from placements. There's an even larger group with one or two placements and signings..... and who haven't covered their costs at this point quite yet.

Obviously if you're making money and that covers your dues, you would stay. There's a pretty heavy turnover rate in the music publisher/library world..... new ones come and old ones go all the time. Some of the libraries I am signed to have been sold to other companies. I get updates and listing emails from the libraries I am with. That's where I now work on placing my new cues.

There's more than one road to the destination. Taxi is but one of those roads. Call it a toll road if you like.


After thought to edit:

DO the math..... you want to make a full time living writing cues for film & TV? What does that mean? For sake of discussion... lets say $50,000 gross a year. That's reasonable.

With a cue price payout of $5 a play for a short spot in a TV show, that would require 10,000 plays a year or 27.4 plays a day 365 days a year. Throw in a few cues that pay out $200 or more a play and you can reduce the $5 plays a bit. Obviously, to reach that level of plays, you need thousands of cues out there signed, and being used daily. Anything less and you will not be able to pay your bills. So, if you have a few hundred cues, and think you're going to make a steady income.... think again.

The big dollar payouts are normally one time license fees. TAXI loves to advertise them but in all the time with TAXI and even now just getting their emails, I do not think I have ever heard of a single TAXI member scoring one of the big payouts of $25k or more on a national TV commercial.... I might be wrong, but I can't recall hearing that news. So you write a song for a big name car commercial that is going to run nation wide in a publicity campaign. They will buy the rights outright for a one time payday. It might be $25,000 or it might be $5000.... split that with the publisher 50/50 if there's one of those representing the song.... or keep the full amount on a direct to end user deal and split it all with the tax man.... however, those deals are few and far between and are akin to winning the lottery because the competition for those spots is brutal with a foot in the door going to any writers who have already worked with the company in the past.

Got to go to my day gig, which does in fact pay the bills.... TTYAL....

If he is writing hundreds of a songs a year, and he has been with them for years and has gotten "several" placements...



Enough said.



You are misunderstanding that statement. It's saying that you no longer need taxi for THAT client. Why would you? Are you under the impression these end line clients use taxi exclusively?



If he is a "go to guy", I would assume he's not the only person who is decent at what he does. They would have a roster of great writers for their clients. I just really haven't at all heard that to be the case.

Again, I may be wrong. I'm just giving my opinion of what I've seen. Perhaps you have seen much more than I have.

I think Herb about summed it up for me. He made some GREAT points...again in my opinion.

Trapper,

TAXI does a live show about once a week or so that you can watch for free. Watch the ones with Robin Frederick - she literally wrote the best selling book of all time on songwriting. (And just so you know in her book she recommends BIAB.) She also wrote the first definitve book on tv/film songwriting. Watch the videos with Jason Blume and the ones with Suzan Koc. The one with Kara DioGuardi. Rob Chiarelli. Too many good ones to mention. It's a great show. Michael is quite informative and entertaining all on his own. He didn't engineer gold records or build TAXI by being a duffuss or a con artist. These are big time major leaguers sharing their knowledge. There are also videos about what new members can expect, videos with members, videos with screeners, videos to teach you different genres. Watch them when you have 90 mins to spare, then decide for yourself.

Here's the youtube link for TAXI TV Live videos. Click the "more" button at the bottom for more videos. You can also watch on ustream live and see the chatroom but I like the youtube videos because I'm not available when it's live from LA. It'll usually be on youtube by the next day.
https://www.youtube.com/user/taximusic/videos

I am not a member but Ian was. Ian was also a former forum member here who passed away suddenly. (God rest his soul. I still think of him and miss him very much.) Anyway Ian was a member of TAXI. He told me that he absolutely loved it and it made him a stronger songwriter. He had renewed for another year when that terrible accident took his life.

BTW, the LA workshop that comes free with membership - that alone would cost as much as the yearly membership when compared with most other big name workshops. Out of my budget at the moment to fly across country but great deal for those who can afford the airfare, meals and lodging.

Plus 1 to Josie's comments and not to overlook that your chance to actually get a placement increase 100% when you become a member and can actually submit a song....

A few comments....


Yeah, the LA convention is free with your membership... 2 tickets. However, in my case, it was around a thousand dollars for airfare and hotel and food.

NSAI also has a similar event in Nashville. The tickets are not free.... a couple hundred bucks and, you still gotta get there and have a place to stay and eat. I was getting set up to go to one of those as well but the costs were still near a thousand dollars and I was planning to drive the 500 miles. I never did go to that one.


Once you get signed with someone..... that person may not call you back or send you the new listings they have, so, theoretically, you would want to keep membership to pick up those listings.

Yes, there are several libraries who use TAXI members exclusively. 100% of their listing requests go to and through TAXI and they do not accept any submissions of songs from any other place. One of these just happens to be the guy "catherder" who has or had (at that time) a lock on several of the biggest daytime TV shows on the air. He was using just over 100 TAXI members with a handful of those getting 90% of the placements in those shows.

Hahaha....my hair was starting to hurt reading all of this. Now it was worth it.

For the record, there would be nothing wrong with looking at it as in investment, much like college. The college would more than likely never pay you, yet what you learn there may serve you a lifetime.

I'm repeating myself a bit, but here it goes for clarification...

If party A loves your work and wants to work with you, at that point, you get to have direct contact with party A. From that point on, taxi is no longer needed to work with party A.

I'm NOT saying party A no longer will need to use taxi to find additional talent. I'm saying to work with YOU they would not need to.

I'm also NOT saying that YOU will not need to work with taxi for projects from parties B, C, D...you would.

I am simply saying that you and party A would no longer need taxi to work together.



As so it is marketed.

This is what I know. Michael Jackson was paid millions to drink Pepsi in their commercials. Wait...not ACTUALLY drink...give the appearance that he did. He didn't drink Pepsi!

I'm not going to explain endorsement deals as I'm sure you all understand them.

I work day in and day out with people who are "exclusive" but do A LOT of work with people "on the side." They are high level, currently in demand, musicians. Not a musician that toured with a band from the 70's. Musicians who are on tour or record for the musicians you hear when you turn the radio right now.

I'm not saying that happens at taxi, I'm just saying it happens everywhere else in this industry.

I would also like to state, I am not anti-Taxi. They bring some great resources to people who can truly use them. I just wish they were a bit more transparent with how they fund themselves.

I think I will back out of the conversation now, as I feel I am coming across (again) as having no clue what I am talking about.

Write on! (or re-write if necessary)

DAMMIT!! I had my resurgent, back to my youth career all planned out and you just shot me down! No musicians who toured in the 70's??? DAMMIT...

NOW what am I gonna do? What WILL I do???

Bob

Ha! Hang here with me my friend!

I'm not sure how my comment will be taken. Just meant it as they weren't people who USED to tour and now look for side projects. Just saying they are the current "in demand" people doing side projects.

Notice, I did NOT lump myself in as being one of them. I will just say...they make me sound WAY better than I am!

Personally, I am a HUGE fan of the musicians from that era!

Caaron, you have misunderstood nearly the entirety of my post.

While Steve writes hundreds of songs per year, very few are written for the purpose of submitting to TAXI. Steve writes for the joy of it, and if there's something that piques his interest on TAXI that he thinks he can fill, he submits. It's a very small fraction of songs that he writes. Last year, he wrote a whole bunch of songs about Minecraft - for the fun of it.

He might do 10 submissions a year through TAXI - why not ask him yourself? He's had placements in commercials, TV shows. He has a very wide variety of styles. Here's his soundcloud page, you can contact him through there: https://soundcloud.com/newcoolnowmusic

Now, let's get to how TAXI works. It's purpose is not to connect music supervisors with ARTISTS, but rather to connect those folks with SONGS. Songs to fit a particular mood, style, purpose, etc. etc. etc. https://www.taxi.com/industry.php

Just like the paint chip displays at Home Depot give one choice of thousands of potential colors. Once you get a color that you like, you don't even have to use the brand of paint that posted the color. In reality, TAXI is even more like taking an object in to Home Depot to be color matched. The paint chip analogy is more like a music library or licensing service like Tune Society and the like. TAXI takes it one step closer to customization - music supervisor posts a listing looking for a whispery male vocalist with ukulele backing and twee glockenspiel melody doubling, with hand percussion rhythm tracks - and you as the supervisor will get to pick from a bunch of different artists submitting songs fitting that description. Your next placement might be needing a dark symphonic bed with an Enya-like haunting vocal over top.

Music supervisors have little reason or intention to deal repeatedly with an artist - that would be akin to going and picking the same color each time you go to paint your living room, then bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, exterior, etc. This isn't saying a relationship building experience isn't possible, but it's not the main role of music supervision.

Steve is pretty darned versatile as it comes to indie/pop/rock and when he sees a listing like that, he strikes - if he has time. Learning how to correctly match the desire of a listing is one of the things Steve has talked about in the past.

Here's his TAXI page: http://www.taximusic.com/hosting/home.php?artist=sguiles

Take note of his placements on ABC News, Fox network's The Mindy Project, MTV, etc.

I know Steve through two very different channels: 1. I did a review of one of the albums his band, Pushstart Wagon did back in mid 2000's, and then a few years later, we both participate in the February Album Writing Month, and we even did a silly collaboration song about Cheese Pizza, and came to the realization that I had done a review of his band's album a few years earlier.

Quick, anyone reading this thread - name a songwriter you know personally and would consider a friend that makes the bulk of their money writing songs. Very small college of folks that can claim that. The fact that his main paying gig is being a teacher shouldn't be taken as any kind of criticism of his success or failure using TAXI. Steve loves being a teacher. Would he rather have been a rock star? Maybe, but he is pretty passionate about his role as a teacher.

Perhaps TAXI's biggest fault is calling itself an A&R company. Artist & Relations. Not sure it works that way in a traditional understanding of those departments at record companies.

Josie had a great suggestion – listen to what others are submitting.

http://forums.taxi.com/peer-to-peer-f20.html?sid=3a7d804d75f28932ef6736e1ae2fc8c3


Before plonking down the dosh to Taxi, you might want to ask yourself a couple of questions.

“Do I write on this level”? Do I know enough about this side of the business to play in this sandbox? Do my songs grab the listener in the first five seconds? Are my recordings radio-ready? Can I write for a specific listing? Am I delusional?

If you can honestly assess the quality of your “work”, you might save yourself a ton of money. Very few can.

Then, there is always The Starmaker Machine!


Regards,

Bob

Sorry if I did.

I still feel a bit like you are trying to explain to me how Taxi works. I think we just have different views of how it works. I believe your view, according to Taxi, and your friend is correct.

I just have a different view of it is all.

I sort of felt the passion part about your friend coming from a mile a way. I almost stated it before you even mentioned it. I feel a lot of people live there.

IMO there are the...

starving artists

thriving artists

and those who have to support their habit. lol

Believe it or not, I live by a school that has a teacher who retired early from his former job. As stated, he now teaches. He doesn't do it for the money; he does it because it's his passion. That's not someone just saying that either!

I find a lot of people who "don't do their jobs for the money", still collect a paycheck! If that job ends, so does the love affair!

This guy actually works tirelessly. He is there HOURS before the other teachers, and is there many times hours after. Weekends...you name it.

Here is the kicker. He draws NO pay for teaching what-so-ever! In fact, he actually donates A LOT to the computer lab at school both time and financially.

I'm not saying that's the norm, or that most people could ever do that. I'm just saying, I believe THAT guy is really in it because he has a real love for teaching. There is no secondary gain.

Perhaps your friend is similar, in that, it's the reason he writes music? I don't know.

I do know this, if you really love music, and are committed to making a living doing it, you can. There are people on the forum that do that.

So, I will end with this an bow out of the conversation.

All of those who want to stick with or go with Taxi, go for it. If you want my take on it, feel free to PM me. It's not a negative take. As I stated, there are many great tools/resources there.

I hope to see you on the charts, or placed! That would be an awesome thing to celebrate! (To be clear, there is no sarcasm meant here. Seriously, how great would that be able to say "Hey! I know that person")

I forgot to comment on this. I feel this is fantastic advice. Thanks for sharing it!

Caaron,

It did seem like you bagged on him because his main gig is teaching middle school, and you drew a conclusion that his hundreds of songs written per year were for TAXI use and his tens of placements are evidence that TAXI doesn't work.

http://forums.taxi.com/topic129281.html

Again, I think that TAXI's biggest error is calling itself an A&R firm. Song placement, yes, A&R, no.

-Scott

I never really used Taxi for this purpose. We just used it for getting our recorded music more exposure.
I suppose it depends on your desire and need. We weren't looking to be song writers .. we were looking to promote ourselves.
Our Taxi membership let us get a usable, printable UPC, get on some mp3 download/buy sites like iTunes, wally world and a few others, and add some links to the site..
It was worth for us at the time. <grin>

thanks for that insight, Bob! It's not necessarily an advantage that would occur to most of us... but there *IS* value derived that justifies the cost

There is a new thread on the Keyboard Corner about Taxi so I posted a reply linking this thread. Here's the link because there's good info in that thread too:

http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2732945/1

One of the guys there, MathofInsects, responded with this after reading Guitarhackers posts here:

"At first I found guitarhacker's post to be incredibly informative, measured, and helpful. A nice dash of reality in an often foggy discussion. But then I realized: he is literate, intelligent, nuanced and logical. Yet he claims to be a guitar player. Therefore he is clearly a liar."

Since this forum is populated by a lot of guitarists I thought you guys would get a kick out of this. MOI is always coming up with funny stuff.

Bob

Now that's funny and worth every cent of the paper it's printed on.

Keyboard players love to trash the guitar god types who hog the stage, play too loud, show up late drunk and stoned, get all the chicks and generally embarrass themselves.

Keyboardists are the studious intellectual types doncha know.

Other than that we're all cool...

Bob

I'm with Herb. THAT is funny! I so didn't see it turning the way it did!

they are an organization that helps songwriters get better and helps those that are great to get deals!