A new approach to the submission fee that's win-win

[coffeysongs]

Curious what my fellow Passengers think about this.

Right now, TaxiA&R charges its members $5 per individual submission to a listing, no matter the duration. I would like to suggest that Taxi replace its current $5 flat-rate per submission fee with a more equitable $1 (or $2) per rounded-up minute-total per listing submission fee. $5/submission can get very costly for Passengers, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet and who are trying to submit for lots of listings (or where the client has specifically requested a batch of recordings, which can add up to $25-50 or more for just one listing).
If the purpose of the submission fee is really as Michael Laskow has stated "to ensure quality submissions", then a $1-2/minute fee should suffice and still achieve the stated goal. Otherwise it just appears that Taxi is nickel-and-diming Passengers, who already pay $300/year for the subscription.
The website could be set up so that on the “submit to listing” page, Passengers select one or more uploaded recordings to submit and the website then calculates the TOTAL minutes (rounded to the next highest minute) of the combined submissions for one particular listing.
A $1-2 per minute-of-material fee for each listing would serve to remind Passengers to submit only their best work and, because it is based on duration-per-listing, would also encourage them to keep each submission short and to the point (which is generally what clients are after anyway). Additionally, Taxi wouldn't just be paying lip service to their motto of putting quality and industry-opportunity for its Passengers ahead of service fees.

[Casey H]

People have been suggesting how Taxi do THEIR business for as long as I've been involved with Taxi, since the early 2000s. What I can tell you is Taxi has done a lot of analysis over the years as to what works and doesn't. $5 has been the sweet spot that has been working for them. Keep in mind all the various purposes to the fee. As you mentioned, it's to weed out the non-serious, people who just want to throw any spaghetti against the wall, etc. But also, it goes toward paying the screeners for their work.

The better solution is not to over-submit for any one listings. Narrow it down to you best 3 (maximum) tracks for a listing. If the client contacts you, you can offer more tracks then.

BTW, Taxi has not raised their annual membership fee or submission fee since the 1990s (before I was on board).

Best
Casey

[cosmicdolphin]

I don't think that will fly, it will drastically reduced the amount of income because most cues are a couple of minutes long, and not many songs are over 5 mins.

Mark

[cassmcentee]

Let's say I had only $5 to spend for the entire year...
If I collaborated with someone, that would buy me 2 submissions

Let's say I didn't want to collaborate...
I would take the tune that I think has the best chance of getting forwarded
Post it in the "Peer to Peer" section for feedback
If other ears don't hear it as being a winner I would pass and try again with another tune
Repeat till there is a unanimous cheering from the community to submit

Prices are going to go up in 2021
How you spend your money is your choice
Wisdom would dictate to spend what you have wisely
There is so much good and genuine feedback from this group that you can do just that
Sincerely,
Cass