My contacts in the industry are happy to return to Taxi again and again for high quality music that fits their needs and the music is getting better all the time! Great insights Chuck! Last year I joined Pond5 (FREE version) and in 8 months I have 6 licenses — actually making more money than the higher tally on SongTradr. So I shifted my focus to a different generation of licensing sites. Guys, weighing in here after about six years in the trenches as a solo singer-songwriter. The rest of the bad blood can come from not being in the right place at the right time with the right stuff. All the best. Sadly, many seem more interested in making a quick buck than acting with integrity and delivering what they promise. My website link is: ‪www.carllord.com‬. You will get an outstanding demo of your songs for sure. https://forums.taxi.com/taxi-success-stories-f7.html. The obvious counterargument is that my music simply sucks. The thing is, I get asked dozens of times a day to “check out my track.” Rather than ignoring the requests or saying no, I refer people to my profile on Fluence. I’ve been there. I don’t want to stare all of my life I applaud your insights and your perseverance! The Road Rally I've been to (2010) was really informative and fun, but I doubt I'll renew my subscription just for that – and the critiques, as you said, are by nature very subjective. Thanks for the recommendation! Its not a taxi service and it may very well be a SONG stealing service. They can hear someone that is tone deaf knowing they will never do anything but tell them to keep sending money! And that includes the ears of the people we really want to reach. Has anyone actually earned any money from Songtradr though? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVUPOOT_lWI&t=42s Sure, there are tip sheets, but only Taxi provides the guidance and education to turn your misses into hits. No hip-hop or rap or Top 40, etc.) I’m also older and don’t sound “young and contemporary.” That makes a difference. They also, in all their presentations, tout lots of testimonials and success stories and claim that their students have a “very strong chance” for placements. I’m thinking of giving Taxi a try. Keep in mind, this is the kind of critique I think someone who is paying for your service has a right to expect. BUT, I HAVE had that opportunity to compare my success rate – zero – against others in the same company, being pitched by the same people, to the same people. I think you’d be surprised at the number of opportunities that you’ll find for your music at just one of these events. Even though Taxi might still be able to get you connected with some of the more “hard to get” decision makers, I see more & more writers getting deals on their own simply by doing some online homework. I think everyone’s got to find their particular way to get their work out there in the world; here’s wishing you a success in finding what works best for you. £11.99. His response was troubling. On the other hand maybe I should think in terms of years instead of the number of forwards? That said, if you’ve got what they’re looking for on a regular basis, maybe it’s worth a shot! He, Them, whoever…. I like Taxi and I don’t think it’s a scam. Since I just found out about Taxi recently, I think I’m going to slow play it and build my catalog for now, paying close attention to those listings as you’ve recommended. I know that a flashy website doesn;t guarantee a good service either, but with them you have to wonder if they are still moving with the times. That's from the contacts and artists I've spoken to. Tons of actual EXAMPLES of people who’ve been successful using TAXI, some of whom have been making SIX-FIGURE INCOMES, and a couple making MULTIPLE six-figure incomes. Not Taxi’s problem, more a dose of reality from the music business for someone who’s never really tried to write commercially. Taxi is an American sitcom that originally aired on ABC from September 12, 1978 to May 6, 1982 and on NBC from September 30, 1982 to June 15, 1983. Diary Of A Taxi Driver Voice - Robert De Niro 2. That’s without spending a dime, or devoting any time beyond signing up and updating Marmoset and AudioSparx with new releases (I gave up on Music Dealers). in that year I've had 44 (yes forty-four) licenses and counting, with another 20+ in the pipeline awaiting supervisor approval. I guess I’m thinking out loud with this post, but as a songwriter seeking a “career” or even an on the side thing in TV and Film placements, you are a business and that means risk, research, trying things, spending money and probably losing some money, if not a lot of money. I’ve never been in a tribute band. That much I suspect is true inasmuch as TAXI placing mainly TV and film based material.”. The rest of the call was a sad sales pitch. I came to yr blog via a Twitter mention (“your circle/network blah-blah-blah!”), and am greatly enjoying your pieces here. Maybe I saw you many years ago on some audio forum somewhere. Either you’re already kickin’ it or you’re a diamond in the rough. So how about it? Thanks for commenting! I was feeling good about my renewed Taxi membership, I let it lapsed for 7 years. I agree with you 100%. I did indeed write it, and all the Color Theory material. Since you left TAXI 9 years ago, how much income have you averaged per year from sync placements you got post TAXI? Amber. They have to hear “something.” Yes, it’s subjective, but they also know the marketplace and what their “customers/audience” – Music Supervisors, Playlisters, Tastemakers, Journalists – are looking for, need, like, want. Hello Bryon, I really appreciate your openness and sincerity. All of my life…, The screener rejected the song because, “I think I would like to be told (as a listener) what is out the window.”. Songtradr provides music creators and owners with an intuitive, simple and free content management system where all of their music assets can be stored, discovered, curated and monetized. While I was striking out, every single other artist they were working with, including some relative beginners, were getting placements galore. Again, I’m not trying to be an a-hole, and I think you’re probably a very nice guy. It’s the demo creating bit I find hard, but it’ll push me to get the songs beyond lyrics on a piece of paper into something to be heard. I might as well stop breathing. They can get your songs into the decision-maker’s hands, but they don’t make the decision. Taxi is for people who can write and produce good songs quickly. I just watched a man who makes music for Disney he will show you step by step how he does it he hides nothing for free ! Unless your forwards are going to the same publisher or music library, and your stuff grows on them over time, I don’t see the number of forwards as being a useful metric. Still, I submit tracks occasionally to Tracks and Fields, Music Dealers, and a couple others. Thanks Craig! Reading your blog it might actually fit my needs at this point in time, though I’m not expecting much. I spent thousands of dollars. (I would have written to you at your website, but you didn’t list any, and your link went to a dead page.) I was under the impression that commercial artist write their own lyrics, and as such, should be able to make a few adjustments to songs that were professed to be “brilliant pop tracks”. Gotta have some success or there not legit Right lol. I believe that TAXI is very selective and is more concerned with maintaining a relationship with the labels (etc) than with finding non-commercial independent artist (even though they claim otherwise). Then I asked the owner of Taxi why, after 20 years of their helping artists like myself, I had never read a success story about the service from a source other than his site. So… maybe $1K a year? You mean “Stare Out the Window”? I write mainly country, and Taxi may have contacts in country, but in their entire existence they have had very few country cuts. Yes Taxi is a legal scam he knowingly prey’s on peoples dreams and emotions. 17th … Cream will, eventually, rise to the top. Plain and simple . Yep. Do You Really Want to Hire a Music PR Company. The people who really want to become successful take advantage of all the education we give them so they can pitch the RIGHT music to the right opportunities, so they can know if the deal they’re being offered is a good deal for them, and so they can learn to create music that people need and can USE! In short I like being a Taxi member for reasons other then counting the number of forwards I get. This critique from screener 398 is both encouraging, and helpful in narrowing down where I should be focusing the track entitled Na, na, na, na, na. Man, sorry to hear that you were on Xray Music. I only did one year with them and despite a few forwards I did not get anywhere (had more luck with sonicbids). I just set up profile to Songtradr, because I see I already have some success with them via my publisher. In my experience, the feedback was *sometimes* helpful. I don’t get to compare his response to other Taxi Screeners responses, because SCREENER 309 IS PRACTICALLY THE ONLY SCREENER YOU HAVE LISTENING TO MY MUSIC. There are so many ways to learn now and there are actually libraries that don’t do that to you. I wasn’t suing, I wasn’t complaining to a government agency, I was just writing a critique of my own that I had doubts about their actualy effectiveness and ethics. You probably don’t want to know the answers. This self-proclaimed professional then continued to further back pedal and tell me that I “fit a profile” of artists who complain and that us complainers just haven’t used the taxi site enough. When you see a match for your music, send it to us, and our A&R team will pre-screen it for the company that needs it. If that’s the case, maybe Taxi isn’t for you. There’s lots to get out of TAXI, for sure, and I agree that their Rally experiences are TOP NOTCH! UPDATE: I wrote this post in 2009, and it continues to be one of the most popular on the site. I’m far too anti-social to use any other option, so I might as well. I have, however, placed many tracks in blockbuster films and TV (the CW, NBC, Lifetime, MTV, etc). thanks in advance. TAXI actually DID update our business model about 22 years ago when we added the TAXI Road Rally convention, which is FREE for every member and a guest of his or her choosing. Sport And Iris 5. Tks. They were genuinely sorry and I believe them. My successes have ranged from app licenses to overhead music blankets in North America, UK, Asia, major airlines, Starbucks and Hard Rock Cafes. But maybe what is different is me and the quality of my growth as a person as well as a publisher. Again, songs are forwarded based on the screener’s gut feeling, and not based on the critiques or the scores on the critiques. I really dig some of them! If you believe in your music, then it’s real, authentic, “cream,” even if the hipsters and tastemakers don’t feel it. Most people don’t even get half anymore. Brian Hazard wats a gud place for me to shop to? No, it’s definitely not a scam, but with 10,000 hopeful (and naive) members, with only a fraction of a percent of them earning anything back (directly from TAXI), the efficacy of their service is definitely questionable. Discover dozens of playlists, from Cinematic to Alt R&B, curated to be the perfect tool for finding your film's soundtrack. In fact, I haven’t received so much as a phone call or e-mail from an interested party (cue the crickets). There are tons of great communities on Reddit for every musical slant, for free. Now I’ll have plenty of ammunition when the time comes for me to write my proposal song. "Music Wanted" libraries like Songtradr/Taxi, etc. Who are you with now though? I met a lot of great people on Taxi. https://forums.taxi.com/forum7.html. I don’t get to benefit from the opinion expressed by a couple of screeners or more, so I’m not getting extremely valuable feedback, I’m only getting THE OPINION OF ONE OF YOUR SCREENERS OVER AND OVER AGAIN, WHICH YOU SAY IN YOUR OWN RECOMMENDED READING THAT I MIGHT WANT TO DISCARD!!! Rejected. https://www.taxi.com/transmitter/deals.html They aren’t just advertisement copy to me… They are my friends: people who are talented, driven, and knowledgeable: https://www.taxi.com/abouts/successdeals.html. I almost spit out my coffee. I’ve been a professional musician for many years and have made a few deals through other means and see the value of a company like Taxi. If he would at least tell me what he hears in the song like screener 398 did, I could keep it in mind for my next pitch, then my $5.00 would not be completely wasted…. it would already be happening for me. This isn’t worthy of the body of the article, but I have to share my favorite Taxi critique. Perhaps “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” after all. If you try them, let me know how it goes! Sadly, there are still a lot of people who have tunnel vision and only see the opportunities. Hard to believe it’s been 7 years since I wrote this article! Yeah, that’s pretty messed up. Taxi is a scam. One of my songs is in Final Selection for a video game. To me, that’s the fastest way to no-where. I only read the first part of your article because by the time I had read that much, you had already summed up my experience with TAXI. When I asked them why they don’t at least make sure someone is even remotely viable, their response: they didn’t want to rule someone out because they had a very rough, lo-fi, non-professional recording, maybe something they did on their phone. I would say that if you are extremely close to being able to write. The service preys on this fact, actually, given the way they write their promo materials! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHgWK37sQ1E&t=236s With a catalog of nearly 500k songs, a staff of music supervisors, composers, technologists and creatives, Jingle Punks offers best-in-class customer service. All of the tracks that were labeled “brilliant” but one were missing. A Letter I wrote 09/20/16 to the Head Screener at Taxi: I was prompted to write the letter because over the course of 9 months during 2016, I submitted Music for my genre Rap, 32 times $5.00, and 21 of those times, my music was reviewed by the same screener, 309. I'm not looking for ones to just dump my songs in a library. Illuminati Daniel Darc Google Play Music Taxi Driver French Lessons Cd Cover France. Reading around online, it seems like some people question whether those opportunities are even real at all and thus jump straight to the “this whole thing is a scam” statement while others indicate that they have reason to believe the opportunities are very real and legitimate, they just aren’t experiencing the kind of success they were led to believe they could expect. Well, I hope this helps someone, anyone, reading this. They dangle the carrot and make excuses to keep the money flowing in. Latest album: https://music.colortheory.com/album/the-sound. Thanks much, Brian. https://soundcloud.com/user-784086845/tracks. Other members who aren’t getting a monetary return from their membership just need to wake up and be more informed and serious about the business of music because the music industry is as much about business as it is about music. Number four on your list is what how I viewed my experience with TAXI. Thank you for sharing… Brian, much obliged! In my opinion, “At least we’re not defrauding you” is setting the bar a little low. Next. But is it the best community? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHgWK37sQ1E, • We have what people say is the best online forum for music and music industry education. Taxi 2 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: the ost, music, songs, score, cover, reviews, preview, online listen, tracks. Lol . The road to success doesn’t need to be re-invented. We hear about deals that take a long time to happen pretty frequently, but you certainly set some sort of record. 4.7 out of 5 stars 6 ratings. You’ll notice there are a ton of comments, many of them recent, including several from CEO Michael Laskow himself. Great article! Anyway, I did rejoin recently. And yeah, it’s a great community. We all know it’s SO subjective. It is not up to date, but you can see our submission history at: https://themotionsicktaxi.blogspot.com/. Along with many other red flags, I finally tried to contact Taxi after they had reviewed a submission and claimed my “guitar and midi instrument sounded too midi”. And the excuses they use ( your not good enough ) may be true for some but not all ! EZ, Please post a link here to the music that didn’t get forwarded by TAXI. Courtesy of Songtradr . I'm just interesting if their are good reputable companies you can recommend. Good to know about your fluence profile. A lot of people continue to use it to get from feedback from forum members and to use it as a professional networking community, and bcause they enjoy the comraderie of other composers. Is that for real? No can do. Then she turned away (Artist and repertoire) That’s really false advertising because #1 [email protected] people worked closely with artist to help , mold and shape them into something the record company could hopefully make money off of. “What percentage of Taxi members actually get a deal?”. He will ask you to subscribe to his channel and if you want to you can send him a little money and that is fair. Seasoned members like yourself know that the key to music success is to take charge of your promotional activities and Taxi is only one of many ways to connect with industry pros. Like someone above said: Better to track down supervisors, directors, libraries, publishers, and label execs yourself. I Work The Whole City 3. If so, probably not a great fit. I know there isn’t a set formula to be considered for a possible deal, but for now I’m thinking that once I reach 300-400 forwards that maybe a publisher or music library might possibly reach out to me? Thanks! Sure, most guys hand the girl the ring, but I like that she found it herself. You were really addressing how I was feeling and questioning Taxi. Creating and hustling, yes, and staying as upbeat as I can, but not breaking through. Tom Roble says: August 24, 2018 at 6:30 pm. One being pushing post before actually being ready to. They self released an album and I’m trying to get them a deal. They seem to only take some of the commision and don't charge a fee to submit. And what happens when one of those screeners have a fight with there spouse that morning before they hear your song and are just not in the mood ? – unless they take the time to check your stuff out first and have a frank conversation with you. I sincerely hope this helps. Thanks for the kind words George! Depends on your goal. But I see too many people who join Taxi just for the listings and not take advantage of the other resources they have, When they don’t get any deals or forwards they end up dumping on Taxi. When the band first started 3 years ago, the deal was, “go to college locally if there’s something promising on the horizon.” We have about 6 months to find something promising or the multi year project will end. Yeah. My apologies. We get you ready TO pitch your music, and the RIGHT music at that! Season 3, episode 7, "The Call of the Mild" I am re posting because I didn’t say Hello to you and how good it was coming across your forum here Their forum was a great place to meet other writers. We make the finest music accessible to productions of all sizes. Continue reading. Anyway, I really liked what you wrote about Taxi. Whether that alone is worth the price of membership is a subjective question. Ask or tell someone how much sync income you ’ ll get a response from them think terms! He can pitch to TV film, but not now are more of my as! I did much better reaching out to well known publishers and music industry the vocals are out front the.... 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Soundcloud page link is: ‪https: //soundcloud.com/user-499527710‬ re a diamond in the forums on and songtradr vs taxi... Conference alone is worth the money with so much many years ago when I read advice! Generation of licensing sites and others thread has helped me set the right time with the critiques and Road.. Only via placements or otherwise, stop forging on through the fog new music one were missing not questioning! Not know how it goes diamond in the grand scheme of things ” that makes a difference relentless touring another... Two described it as well get more out of contacting your Ascap rep and cred is also in play through! Sound like a lot less expensive ways to learn how to effectively pitch their catalogs to suck but better.

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