34 out of 34 returned so far !

[billg]

I'm working on a BIG HIT called "I think I don't know more than you thought you didn't know".

[davewalton]

Jul 11, 2008, 7:38pm, squids wrote:Well, I dunno, Dave. I get what you're sayin' here, especially when it comes to artist pitches. I don't submit to them but rarely and only out of curiosity ("huh, I wonder if this would pass?"). For film/tv stuff, though, that's a different kettle of fish. It's quite possible to get returns at Taxi and get accepted elsewhere for those sortsa opps. Of course. But it's not a "Taxi screener" thing. I submit to hundreds of film scoring opportunities each year (outside of Taxi) and pick up maybe 4 - 6 each year... all with the same show reel pieces. It doesn't mean that only six people knew what they were doing (by accepting my music/services) and the other 194 didn't (by rejecting the same material). That's always the crux of the posts regarding screeners that return material... they don't know what they're doing. My arguement is always "what about the people that WERE forwarded? Their forwards were by screener incompetence also?". It cuts both ways always. The same screener can't legitimately be "incompetent" at 2:05pm when rejecting one song and "competent" at 2:10pm when forwarding another. Here's one generalization that I've noticed. It seems that hitting the target of the listing (more than half of the equation) is generally harder for songwriters to deal with than it is for composers to deal with. Songwriters write from the heart (their strength). Composers write to hit targets (their strength). I know of some songwriters that gave up on Taxi because their strength of writing from the heart was in conflict with hitting a pre-designated target. Since it was a "great song", a rejection because of a minor miss as far as the target of the listing... well, it was just to frustrating to deal with and just didn't make sense to them. Quote:And honestly, I don't know who that listing is for......it only says "ala Keith Urban" not "this is totally for Keith Urban so put out something new like right now!" As we both know, there're layers of artists at labels, some not so big as others, some pretty dang big. I can't tell from this listing who the heck it is. Not to say anyone here wouldn't be freakin' thrilled to get a cut on a medium sized artist's album, jes saying that the listing isn't specific about who this is and what that would mean if you got a cut. I don't know if the A&R guy is the one who influences the producer to choose the songs or not. Actually it tells you everything you need to know. Maybe not Keith Urban himself but this is a major "A list" artist (hence "ala Keith Urban"). One thing you can take to the bank, Taxi won't list A-list "alas" when it's really for B-or C-list "alas". It's "ala" Keith Urban and that means top level artist.Anyway, as Hummingbird mentioned, the only way for Claire to really discover what's what with her returns is to either (a) ask for Claire-ification from Taxi (get it? CLAIRE-ification... never mind ), or (b) post the listing, the song (with lyrics) and the critique (if there was one) on the forum and let you songwriter folks dissect it. A lot of forum posts only assume the incompetence of the screener and, well, that doesn't seem like much of a learning process for the person posting. FWIW,Dave

[billg]

Ok Dave you're wrong on one point . . . The screener above CAN be "incompetent" at both 2:05 and 2:10 IF the rejected song at 2:05 ended up being signed (outside of Taxi) by the liasting party and IF the forwarded tune at 2:10 was rejected by the listing party.I'll still take a t-shirt, extra large please Hey, how did that smiley get there??????

[davewalton]

Jul 12, 2008, 11:39am, billg wrote:Ok Dave you're wrong on one point . . . The screener above CAN be "incompetent" at both 2:05 and 2:10 IF the rejected song at 2:05 ended up being signed (outside of Taxi) by the liasting party and IF the forwarded tune at 2:10 was rejected by the listing party.Actually I said...Quote:The same screener can't legitimately be "incompetent" at 2:05pm when rejecting one song and "competent" at 2:10pm when forwarding anotherSo no t-shirt. Quote:Hey, how did that smiley get there??????Those darn things...

[heinsite]

bill and dave--you guys are hilarious and worth the price of admission on this board--wait--never mind...wh

[squids]

Dave, glad ta see ya back!! And you're so right about the differences between composers and songwriters except that sometimes songwriters bail out too if they can't give up on the notion of writing from the heart and replace that with the notion of focusing on writing for pocketbook purposes. There're only so many years you can keep getting rejected for persisting in following your muse versus what an a/r company says is gonna sell. It's a really expensive hobby, chasing our feelings around on tape. Also, I do instrumentals and I tend to write them from the heart and then edit them with the ruthlessness of a barracuda. Does that qualify? They seem to do well, I've got a few signed, anyway.Regarding our differences in our perceptions of the listings, this is where I must go wrong cuz when I see "songs ala Keith Urban" I always simply assume that means "songs like he'd do" not "songs he WILL do". I really don't see writers getting cuts on A list albums. They're certainly getting forwarded for them if we go by what you're sayin'. So maybe that means that the listing was actually about someone who has the same style as the artist mentioned but not that kind of success (yet). See what I'm saying? Cuz I know fo a fact that if a forum writer got a cut on someone like Keith's next album, they'd be all ova the boards lettin' us know!! And damn right too! Other than Kelly gettin' signed (go girl! ), I'm jes not seeing that sorta news since I've signed on. Believe you me, I'm all waitin' fo it too, wanna be the first to congratulate 'em! Also, Mr. Laskow wouldn't hesitate to let us know as well, it's in his company's best interest, right?As for incompetence in screeners, on the thread about kudos to screeners, I say exactly what criteria I use to decide if they're competent or not, not on whether they forward me or they don't forward me. And really, it's based on what Taxi says they're supposed to do so it's a legit list of requirements. Wow, this sounds really serious, doesn't it? Must be nervous having a disagreement with you. Do I get a t-shirt for engaging in debate? And if so, does it come in white, have cap sleeves and a rounded neck and says "Squids debated with Dave! And Lived!"? I only look good in those kind. Heh. And I totally put smilies in on purpose (bill! I knew you knew how to use 'em, heh!) Smilies are my friends. Lookit how friendly they are, how happy they are to be here. Awww.

[davewalton]

Jul 12, 2008, 4:56pm, squids wrote:Regarding our differences in our perceptions of the listings, this is where I must go wrong cuz when I see "songs ala Keith Urban" I always simply assume that means "songs like he'd do" not "songs that he WILL do". You're right... songs that someone like him would be doing. But, in addition to that, the "ala" reference as an artist pitch also tells us that this is a major label artist song pitch... someone in the same league as Keith Urban (and possibly being him). The listing guy is the Sr A&R rep for the major label... not a low-level deal. That's one thing I saw on my little Taxi trip... the names attached to the listings at the time (back in, what June 2007?). There's LOTS of VERY impressive listings that's for sure and probably you'd be flabbergasted if you knew sometimes what you were actually submitting for. You say "Oh... it CAN'T be him. Taxi can't have those kinds of connections". Yes it can and yes they do. Quote:I really don't see writers here getting cuts on A list albums. They're certainly getting forwarded for them, so I figure that means that the listing was really about someone who has the same style as the artist mentioned but not that kind of success (yet). See what I'm saying? Cuz I know fo a fact that if a forum writer got a cut on someone like Keith's next album, they'd be all OVA the boards lettin' us know. Other than Kelly gettin' signed (go girl!), I'm jes not seeing that sorta news since I've signed on. That's what I was saying about the difficulty of getting forwarded for a "Keith Urban level" song pitch. Every grammy-award-winning, multi-platinum-album, A-list proven songwriter in Nashville will also be pitching for this. This kind of thing is Nashville's Holy Grail and whatever the screeners send along, that has to be (in the screeners judgement) as good as or better than the very best that Nashville currently has to offer. Talk about your high bar. Having a random forum member "unknown" break through right to the VERY top out of nowhere... unlikely. But, although they're not forum members, there's several Taxi members that wrote, submitted and ultimately got #1 hits with major A-list artists. Taxi touts these guys all the time. Quote:Wow, this sounds really serious, doesn't it? Not with all these things floating around in our conversation... But, if you still think this is too serious...Who IS that smirking 70's guy???

[squids]

Wow. You're right. You DO look serious. A suffering artist, fo sho!!

[davewalton]

Jul 12, 2008, 6:08pm, squids wrote:Wow. You're right. You DO look serious. A suffering artist, fo sho!! That was 1976 playing with a funk/horn band called "Willie Makit". One of the best bands I ever played with but we never made any money (what's new).

[squids]

P.S. Right backatcha with the retro-tinted early 80s photo. I wasn't smirking but definitely in the sufferin' stages. http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb57 ... ers-1.jpgI will spare you the band photos.