34 out of 34 returned so far !

[hoknes]

Well I knew this was going to be tough. The comments I get back are usually not too bad - but i'm just not quite close enough. Though I admit i entered many songs that i had recordeed that sometimes weren't quite the right song for the genre etc but I thought perhaps the screeners would see past that and recognize a song has potential and not worry about the instrumentation etc of my demos.So I suppose that is not the case? So then is it true that I should be thinking a singer with an acoustic guitar might be a safer bet to go even on the rock and pop stuff? Keeps it generic and open for the screeners to "imagine". Any thoughts on this? What about quality of recordings? Mine could be a bit better but I know they arent terrible - if we are just pitchings songs and not official recordings can't they see past that also ??

[gitarrero]

May 13, 2008, 10:18pm, hoknes wrote:Any thoughts on this? What about quality of recordings? Mine could be a bit better but I know they arent terrible - if we are just pitchings songs and not official recordings can't they see past that also ??well, I can tell you that all songs I know (..that are handled by highly successfull publishers) that got pitches are no "demos" - they're fully produced.I think that's just a sign of time - nowadays you can produce high quality tracks with a studo worth of maybe about 10-15k $ (or even less) - that was not possible 20 yrs ago. since every kid has a computer at home with a soundcard and sequencer, everybody basically can do a record - the diffrences lying in the know-how of how to do it.so it's just "the standard" now that the production sounds great.I have a simple & small studio (1 room in our appartement) and it didn't cost me a fortune to build it. but I produce tracks that compete in pitches for major artists - just as an example of what's possible with todays digital technique.so if you want to get forwards for high-bar listings and eventually make a living of your music, than I'd suggest to either learn how to produce by yourself or find a partner who you can collab with and who has the knowledge of doing great productions. ..and of course, you can pay somebody to do the production for you since it might be not easy to find somebody who do it for free AND has the professional knowledge (btw - I also offer productions for songwriters )hth,martin

[squids]

May 18, 2008, 9:24pm, hoknes wrote:I appreciate all the comments. I only started submitting this year and yes I submitted a lot quickly cause I knew I would learn a lot by the critiques but now that I got my first 40 turned down i'm trying to figure out what it takes to make it just that next step better. I 90% agree with everything they write. But I have a couple songs I feel are really strong and they were turned down so thats frustrating.Yes, frustration is the word for that. I know that word. I'm going to have that word tattooed somewhere. Soon. I can almost guarantee that in another year, you'll be reading someone's post who's jes started and hear them say almost the same thing and you'll smile. You'll be in a much different place then so it'll be easier. That's a fact.

[squids]

Right. I shoulda used the word 'writer' instead of musician, I apologize. I blame lack of sleep or possibly time, I can't remember which. Can you hear me growing yet? hahahahahahaha

[davewalton]

Jul 11, 2008, 12:30pm, claire wrote:Well lately everything I send in gets returned. On the submissions that have critiques I get all 8s and 9s, the songs are almost always on target for the listings, the reviewers think the songs are great...but. There's always something. Same songs that get picked up at publisher pitches on a regular basis in Nashville get returned by Taxi. I think there's a big difference here in the publishing you're picking up and what you're submitting to via Taxi. I've been wrong exactly 103,345,456 times before (and my "Listen To Dave" t-shirt sales went into a slump that month) but you might comparing apples to oranges. Here's a sample Taxi listing...CONTEMPORARY COUNTRY SONGS a la KEITH URBAN are needed by the Sr. Director of A&R at a Major Nashville Label. Gee, I wonder who this is for? Even if it's not him, it's somebody LIKE him. Outside of Taxi, how easy is it for you (or anyone) to get this gig, writing a song for Keith Urban or anyone like that? Is this the kind of thing you're getting picked up for on a "regular basis"... writing songs for Keith Urban and others at that level? If so, then you don't need Taxi but I'm guessing "no" is the answer to the question. Either that or Chits has seriously overestimated the difficulty of writing for a major label star. So regarding this particular Taxi listing (which would also be known to every Nashville songwriter, agent, attorney, waitress and bartender), how many grammy-award-winning, multi-platinum, multi-top-ten hit Nashville songwriters with proven track records are ALSO in the hunt to write songs for Keith Urban? THAT'S your competition and it seems is what Taxi has to use for their criteria to forward or not forward on these. This is just my speculation (to some extent) but it isn't too far from reality. When Taxi submits music to a "major label" (who is looking for NOTHING but potential #1 hits), those tracks have to be, in the screeners judgement, as good as or better than anything that the most successful Nashville songwriter can currently put out. Otherwise, what's the point of sending in a track from a Taxi member if it's anything less than what Nashville's most successful songwriters have pumped out recently and will likely be submitting? I'll bet Nashville's current crop of hit songwriters, using their connections, will have a pretty good selection of tunes to submit directly to whoever this is. So if anyone can say "I submit regularly to Capitol Nashville and it makes it past THEIR screeners but Taxi rejects these same songs", well then they have a point, but otherwise...

[squids]

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. 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. Don't know much, really. That's my motto lately: Don't know much.

[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...

[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.