TAXI

May 05, 2010, 12:50 PM

Is anyone here a member of TAXI? I’m thinking about joining, but I’ve heard that they are very critical, and I’m afraid they will reject my songs, and/or tell me to redo them, which I can’t afford to do. I was wondering if anyone knows just how tough they are to impress, and, in your opinion, would any of these songs be good enough for them.
  Moderators, your opinions would be most welcome and appreciated as well…
http://www.mycountryspace.com/kennedy9154

May 06, 2010, 06:45 PM

Vikki Flawith is a member ( http://www.vikkiflawith.com ), and has gotten some publishing and/or synchronization licensing through http://www.taxi.com . Check out the site. Sign up for their newsletter. See what the specifications are for the music their customers want to buy.

Question #1 is: Do you have broadcast ready recordings? They’re not usually looking for ‘scratch’ demonstration recordings, unless they’re of a quality suitable for radio play, or ready to go on the soundtrack of a tv show or movie. They’re probably not looking for something you can have recorded in a couple weeks or months or next year. ‘Now’ is the time frame they’re working in, even though it may be months before you hear from the customer if you get that far.

Question #2 (probably) is: Are you ready business-wise? Meaning that you have the demanded releases from all players, co-writers, producers, anyone who might block use of the work or complain later they didn’t give permission for their contribution to be used. Are you authorized to sign contracts on the works?
Question #3: Is your broadcast-ready work what their customers are looking for, as specified in their listing?

TAXI screeners are critical, reviewing your submissions to specific requests to see if they agree with you that the music fits the request. If they think not, they ‘screen’ it out, the aforementioned ‘rejection.’ They may give a feedback evaluation, telling you why they rejected it.

May 10, 2010, 08:13 PM

Besides looking for songs for their customers they also help find artists for their customers.

May 11, 2010, 02:25 PM

Thanks Gary. I’m gonna wait a few more days before I make a decision. I got an e-mail last night from http://www.sweetrosiemusic.com asking for more info on “The Cupcake Song”, so I’ll wait and see what they have to say. You have to submit to them through http://www.musicxray.com
  If I go with Taxi, I do have all the publishing/co-writer agreements in order, and everything like that, my problem is just second guessing myself….Are my songs good enough? Will they tell me to redo them and come back? I can’t afford to do that…I have thousands invested in demo’s right now, and I can’t spend thousands more on them. I don’t know… Think I have a chance? http://www.mycountryspace.com/kennedy9154

May 11, 2010, 02:32 PM

Hi,

I´d say.. if you are afraid that the song could be rejected because of poor quality don´t do it. The Taxi membership is pretty expensive…

And YES they are very critical. Can be a good thing - at least you get a feedback and every feedback help´s you to get better :)

May 11, 2010, 09:26 PM

The genre aspect seems like it has a chance. If they want country for background music in a scene yours fit that criterion.

“Crawdad Road” has a memorable storyline and hook, so it may fit the criterion for marketing to artists to cover. 

If the recording quality is satisfactory, they fit that criterion. I don’t know how to judge that. It sounds like the quality is there, to me, amateur ears, listening through my computer. But will it play on a soundtrack?

Someone said TAXI will refund your membership fee if you decide, after 1 year, that it is not going to be productive for you. If it’s in black and white in the contract then there’s a money-back guarantee. You’ll have to read it to see.

May 12, 2010, 07:53 AM

I’m reading “The Craft and Business of Songwriting” by John Braheny ( http://www.johnbraheny.com ) and just got to the TAXI critique sheet (page 109) he developed for the company. It may have evolved since then but I’d be surprised if the basic structure of it has changed. It seems to cover, succinctly, everything the screener is looking for to evaluate whether a product can supply the specified qualities for a customer.

The TAXI® Song and Demo Feedback form addresses:
STYLE
MELODY
STRUCTURE
LYRIC
TITLE

and rates them 1-10 (10=best).

In STYLE it some of the things it asks the screener to evaluate whether it is “On target for this listing” or “Not close enough…”
MELODY has boxes to check if it has “Good music in the verses,” or not, the chorus(es), or not, whether verse and chorus sound too similar, whether the hook is obvious and memorable.

Some of the things in STRUCTURE: Is the introductory passage too long? Is there good sectional contrast? Could it use a bridge?

LYRIC has a long list. My songwriting starts with the first line that comes to me, hooks me, the first listener. TAXI asks, “First line makes me want to hear more.” Examine your own first lines and see if the ‘hook factor’ is really there, or if you just accepted what came to you and went on. It asks if there’s a “Good use of imagery.” Does it “Rhyme well.” “Communicates emotion to listener.” “Too predictable.” And many more.

TITLE: “Good title” or ‘So-so’ or “Can’t determine title by listening.” And more.

It has an OVERALL COMMENTS section.

The numerical rating, it advises, may not prevent a forward to the customer. And it will give “The main reason(s) you were not forwarded for this listing is:”

If you can’t evaluate your own works by these criteria and say good things about your product then odds are TAXI won’t either. Some self-evaluation seems the place to start. I got my book from http://www.amazon.com . http://www.johnbraheny.com may have a download you can explore.

May 12, 2010, 11:58 AM

If you would like to become a member; maybe you should ask if they can provide their average members conversion rate of getting deals. I think this is a pretty important figure because this can help you estimate if your membership turns out to be profitable venture.

Conversion rate (for every member) is equal to number of submissions that results to deals/total number of submissions made

It would be nice if they can provide the average conversion of all their members not just a selection.

So if they say that on the average; all members conversion rate averages at 5%. Then if you are planning to do 100 submissions and Taxi charge $5 per submission. Then the total marketing cost including membership will be:

Cost of membership = $299.95 + (100*$5) = $799.95

Now if you have 100 submissions, the estimated deals will be 5% x 100 = 5 deals.

If you will be able to provide how much will you earn in those 5 deals, then you can decide whether Taxi membership is profitable or not.
For example, let say you will estimate that each those deals results in $100 performance fee (estimate only), then you made $500 from it (5 deals x $100 income).

It means that Taxi membership is not worthy since the profit factor turns out to be less than 1.

Profit factor = Total income/Total cost = $500/$799=0.6
Ideally for Taxi to be considered a profitable investment, you should be aiming at least 1.5 above (the higher the better).

The tricky in the above computation is estimating how much will you earn in each of those successful deals, it needs an accurate figure(mine is only an estimate). Then work out with the total cost of Taxi membership. Well, you won’t be able to compute or assess profitability if Taxi won’t even provide the average conversion rate of all their members. I believe this is an important figure, much better and more reliable than all testimonials shown in their website.

Cheers,
Emerson Maningo
Music Publisher
http://www.musicforlicense.net/

May 14, 2010, 09:26 AM

That seems like a sound strategy Emerson, but I’m not sure it’s logical. It’s kind of the Don Juan approach. Don Juan propositioned every woman he met, and enough of them accepted his proposition to make him famous. I think someone said about 10% went for him. But not every woman found his proposition attractive (90%), and I’m sure he did not find, literally, ‘every’ woman he met attractive enough by his specifications, to proposition.

With TAXI submissions YOU have to make sure your product is ‘attractive’ by all the criteria specified BY THE CUSTOMER. If they demand a product for a female singer and your lyric is from a male point of view, it wouldn’t succeed in getting forwarded to that artist, unless it could be rewritten to supply the demanded point of view. But if they specified ‘female POV’ in the listing you may not get a chance to rewrite. If the singer had a moral image that your song violated, it wouldn’t succeed in getting forwarded to that artist. If they wanted an uptempo piece for a romping chase scene in a movie and you sent a dirge, it wouldn’t succeed.

TAXI is not a magic window that anyone can toss anything through and it will sell. The product has to supply the demand. That demands that as much of what is in the control of the SELLER be ‘shaped’ to match, to supply, the specifications demanded by the BUYER. If the seller can’t supply the demanded quality of recording, quality of song, quality of performance, then it won’t matter how many submissions they make. The buyer is not buying. When you go to the grocery store you decline to buy many products, preferring to buy those that supply your demand for quality, quantity, and price. TAXI is a marketplace, concentrating buyers, and offering ‘space’ for sellers. They can’t pre-screen those who want to be their members. They have to let them join and see if they can supply the TAXI customers’ demands. If they can, great. If not, it is likely to have been due to an underestimation of the sellers’ perception of the quality or accuracy of their product for a given buyer’s demand.

May 21, 2010, 01:12 AM

If your songs are good enough to be forwarded through TAXI, then you need to be pitching them to the publishing houses in Nashville.  However, that effort has it’s own obstacles.

Are your songs good enough?

Ask yourself if they are REALLY as good as what you hear on the radio.  Be honest with yourself.  If they are “as good”, then you don’t have a chance.  They have to be better than what’s on the radio.  Nashville is drowning in “good” songs.  You’ve got to write GREAT songs to get any attention.

Nobody said it would be easy.

Ed.

May 21, 2010, 05:47 AM

Hi James - I was a member for one year, a few years back.  All of mine were rejected, but, the feedback was mostly positive.  Some of the songs were demoed from a Nashville studio, others weren’t.  I was under the impression that the quality of the song wasn’t as important as the ‘content’, (lyrics/melody) was.  I took their marketing line as such and was sucked into their black hole.  My songs may not have been good enough for Nashville, but, I thought they were fine just because they moved people emotionally.  I guess they are looking for hits/not side B songs….???  Here’s a thought, you will never know if you don’t try…..

May 25, 2010, 01:04 AM

If I can add my 2 cents here,
I too have been thinking for a while of joining TAXI, but have found it a little too expensive.
If you’re worried about it, maybe try having a couple of your songs critiqued.
Gary mentioned John Braheny. He does critiques. I tried him for one of my songs, and got some good constructive feedback.

Jun 05, 2010, 12:07 PM

Thanks everyone, for your comments and advice. Recently, a major label contacted me and told me they were gonna pitch “A CANDLE ON A CUPCAKE” to one of their more famous artists, and about a week later, a company called SWEET ROSIE MUSIC offered me a contract for the same song. SWEET ROSIE is headed by a guy named Don Ferro, who seems to have a name in the music business, but I have never heard of them myself. Now, I’m kinda stuck… It might take the record company a few weeks/months to decide, and if I sign the contract and the record company decides they want the song, I just gave away half of my publishing for no reason. Also, an e-mail from Sweet Rosie mentioned that they need my address for future “Royalties and Fee’s”. Royalties I can handle, but the “fee’s” part scares me. If I sign the song to them, and they decide that my demo isn’t good enough at some point, they can make a new one, and make me pay for it (If they can get blood form a turnip) or take it directly from any royalties. I know I swimming with sharks, but I don’t know if Sweet Rosie Music is one of them. 
  I’m torn here, and sure could use a little insight if anyone has any. Have any of you heard of Sweet Rosie Music? ( http://www.sweetrosiemusic.com )
  Another thing…I entered this song in a contest that won’t be final until the end of June. If I sign the contract before then, I’d probably be obligated to at least split it with them. It received an “Honorable Mention” in the “2009 Great American Song Contest” so I figure it has a pretty good shot, but that’s not the one I entered.

http://www.mycountryspace.com/kennedy9154

Jun 05, 2010, 06:51 PM

Does the publishing contract have a reversion clause, specifying when the song reverts back to you, if they don’t get it cut and to market?

If not, they can lock themselves into a share of your publishing whether they ever do anything to get it to market. Then, if YOU get it to market by your own efforts, they STILL have a right to that share because you signed that open-ended, never-ending contract.

Since the publisher is ready to contract I’d tell them you have some things pending and need to get through those issues before you can consider their offer. Specify the time frames if you can, to give them specific ideas. You need not tell them anything else about the contests or label.

The contest(s) may have clauses in their entry agreement you didn’t give much consideration to when you entered, giving them some rights, perhaps a share of publishing, if you win. Review the terms and conditions and see.

If you agreed to empower the label to pitch your song to an artist that constitutes a ‘contract’ with them. A contract consists of an ‘offer’ and an ‘acceptance.’ You may need to wait until that ‘contract’ is complete before signing with anyone else. The label should have specified a time span for getting back with you. Otherwise it’s open-ended, perhaps never-ending.

Jul 02, 2010, 06:33 AM

The key thing to remember about Taxi.
Every review you get is one person’s opinion.  I’m not talking about the listings and getting returned or forwarded, I’m talking about the mini review.  It’s one person’s opinion. 
Don’t take that and run off and start changing the song because of it.  Don’t start thinking, well, this person is a professional, he must be right.
It’s one person.

I’ve had the same song get 5,6, and 7’s and two weeks later get 9’s and 10’s.  Songs where one reviewer told me how to restructure it and do this here and that there and another tell me how good it was. 
The inconsistency in those mini reviews is revealing.  Don’t ever, like it never never never, take them as gospel.  It’s one person.

The Taxi apologists will tell you you need to listen to them to grow as a musician.  They are professionals and have years and years of training.  Well, the question is then which one do you listen to?  The one that doesn’t like it or the one that does?

Jul 02, 2010, 08:17 PM

I don’t know how it works. As I understand it the TAXI customer specifies what kind of song they want, instrumental, country, rock, lyrical subject matter, perhaps tempo or length.

Do you mean you re-submitted the same song, unchanged, for the same customer specification and got different reviews?

Or did you submit the same song for different customer specifications?

Suitability for one submission’s specifications might garner lower numbers if the reviewer felt it wasn’t appropriate or ideal for that customer’s specifications.

Another customer’s specifications, in the opinion of another reviewer or the same reviewer, might find the song more ideally suited.