A possible Waste of submission Fee?

[boyatheart]

I recently joined an online music publisher/library type website as a result of a Taxi listing, no contracts, simply online register and I was invited to do so by the company after they received my song from Taxi.It seems OK. It's a small operation from what I can tell and I was offered a premium membership for free because of the introduction via Taxi.However, is this a bit of an endless cycle? How many listings are like this? They are not the same as Taxi, but it's still a case of submitting your music in the hope it will be picked up as opposed to actually being used as result of the Taxi listing.The other issue I have is that some listings since I suspect could be for the same company again, which would mean my $5 per song would be a waste, because I can already send my tracks for approval directly to that company, which now has me registered on their system...... but how do I know if I am submitting to a listing for that company or not?Anyone else had this experience before?

[hummingbird]

Dec 13, 2008, 3:47am, boyatheart wrote:I... but how do I know if I am submitting to a listing for that company or not?if unsure, call TAXI and ask before submitting.

[windowman]

I seem to recall a similar question from a month or so ago. The thread got buried somewhere & I don't remember any real answers about it then either. Basically, you're getting forwarded to another service that does the same thing that TAXI is supposed to do? I wonder if this company is affiliated with TAXI. It seems to be a conflict of interest, doesn't it? Does anyone else know anything about this? I'd like to know too.Just curious.Wade

[billg]

Someone else mentioned this a while back (as Wade said) & I brought up the same point . A lot of people chimed in with the belief that it's GOOD for someone to receive your song multiple times. That may be true in some instances like a movie super or a label rep etc., but I don't buy it in so far as libraries are concerned. If I were king there wouldn't be any Taxi listings to companies that accepted unsolicited material from everybody but (until then) the only way to avoid it is to not submit to an obvious library listing. A lot of advice that's been given on this is to call Taxi but I really don't think they would appreciated if everybody called everytime they were concerned about this. Maybe it would make more sense to call them AFTER you've been forwarded to someone with whom you already have a relationship & ask for a credit for the $5 submit fee. That way you're not looking for a problem that hasn't happened yet AND if there are enough calls maybe the submissions to those companies would stop (or a "discalimer" of sorts could be added to the listings "this company accepts unsolicited submissions from anyone, be advised . . . you may already have an ongoing relationship with them" . . . kind of like the warnings from the surgeon general on tobacco

[Casey H]

Dec 15, 2008, 4:51am, billg wrote:Someone else mentioned this a while back (as Wade said) & I brought up the same point . A lot of people chimed in with the belief that it's GOOD for someone to receive your song multiple times. That may be true in some instances like a movie super or a label rep etc., but I don't buy it in so far as libraries are concerned. If I were king there wouldn't be any Taxi listings to companies that accepted unsolicited material from everybody but (until then) the only way to avoid it is to not submit to an obvious library listing. A lot of advice that's been given on this is to call Taxi but I really don't think they would appreciated if everybody called everytime they were concerned about this. Maybe it would make more sense to call them AFTER you've been forwarded to someone with whom you already have a relationship & ask for a credit for the $5 submit fee. That way you're not looking for a problem that hasn't happened yet AND if there are enough calls maybe the submissions to those companies would stop (or a "discalimer" of sorts could be added to the listings "this company accepts unsolicited submissions from anyone, be advised . . . you may already have an ongoing relationship with them" . . . kind of like the warnings from the surgeon general on tobacco LOL, BillThey could also include a warning:An anger attack lasting more than 4 hours could be a sign of a serious medical condition and you should seek immediate medical help. But seriously, I think the best you can do is pay close attention to the wording of listings- the same libraries are usually described the same way up front in listings-- East Coast, West Coast, where they've placed, etc. They are supposed to be blind listings so if taxi had to take phone calls and answer as to who the listing party was... well, that would be one helluva seeing eye dog... Casey

[jay10music]

The way the company being discussed here functions is like any other Music Library – they receive requests from Music Supervisors/Producers/Corporate Clients and they provide content from their stock library. They do accept unsolicited submissions and run a type of social networking site to connect artists and producers, but that is not the primary source of the content they supply – unfortunately, this side of the company is the only one that’s really promoted on their website. They reached out to TAXI because they recently formed partnerships with a few corporate clients who are in need of VAST amounts of really high quality material that far exceeded the quantity of music that comes unsolicited from their site. On their site, they charge a membership fee of sorts that will not apply to any TAXI member forwarded to them – the fee is for them to host a site. The listings they’re running with us are to add content directly to their library, given that the TAXI material fits their criteria. They are offering space on their social networking site as well, if the artist/writer so chooses. But that is not the primary focus for them – like a few other libraries we've worked with, they have allowed writers to submit through their site. And virtually all of them have noted to us that they put a heavy priority on TAXI submissions and typically don’t sign much of what comes through to them on the site. One of those companies reported to us that the ratio of what they find and use from the public VS what they find and use from running listings with TAXI is 10:1. Yes, with that company, you're chances of being signed via a TAXI Forward is TEN TIMES better Here are some stats/placements for the company being discussed in this thread:DRAMAFriends (NBC)Dream On (HBO)Coach (ABC)Cheers (ABC)Monday Night Football (ABC)World Championship Wrestling (TBS) -- One of our members made over $15,000 on one cut in our libraryThis Week In Baseball (ABC)Golf on TNT (TNT)Inside the NBA (FOX)Days Of Our Lives (NBC)Best of Beverly Hills 90210 (FOX)All My Children (ABC)General Hospital (ABC)Lois & Clark (ABC)One Life To Live (ABC)The Oprah Winfrey Show (ABC)PROMOSGood Morning, America (NBC)Nightline (ABC)World News Tonight (ABC)20/20 (ABC)Lifestyles Of the Rich and Famous (NBC)The Tonight Show (NBC)As the Internet and the music industry in general continue to change, new ways of doing business pop up nearly every day. We want you to know that we research the companies long and hard before we run listings for them. In nearly 17 years, and more than 900 companies, we've only had two cases where the company turned out to be lame, even AFTER we checked them out.When we encounter companies like the one being questioned on this thread, we often want to turn them away rather than take heat from our members. It's impossible for us to include all this background in every listing we run.We have to decide if it's better to bring these opportunities to our members or pass them up and avoid issues and threads such as this. Your voices have been heard, and we will no longer run listings from any new companies that accept music on their sites. Even though the 10:1 signing ratio for our members is pretty enticing, having our reputation questioned for trying to do the best thing for our members is no longer worth it.Thanks for your opinions!Erin, Michael & Craig

[deantaylor]

Maybe this is a dumb question. Maybe I am missing something obvious, but ... ............. why not just name the company in the listing? That way you know exactly who you are submitting to and you can research them. And you know if you already have deals with them.It sounds like some members already 'know' this by the 'codes' in the listing. But new members or those who don't have time to desipher the codes do not have this advantage.Is it the companies that wants to be anonymous? Surely not all companies want to be anonymous. On other sites similar to taxi, all the companies/libraries are named and a website is given for them.Dean

[Casey H]

Dec 17, 2008, 5:32pm, deantaylor wrote:Maybe this is a dumb question. Maybe I am missing something obvious, but ... ............. why not just name the company in the listing? The whole model is based on blind listings to protect the listing parties. If their names were in the leads, they would get inundated with emails and phone calls about submissions. Also, the listings are available to anyone whether they are members or not (they can only submit if a member, of course)... So they'd be publishing the names of these companies to everyone.I do wonder why, in a situation as with this company, they can't simply put a sentence in the listing to the effect, "Although this company does take submissions on-line, they give strong preference to taxi forwards for their bigger clients"... Casey

[billg]

If everyone does their homework they can learn the names of the companies, they are not operating undercover and they plead for submissions on their website. If we submit directly they will still get the same songs they would've received through Taxi and we still have the same opportunities with them we would have had if we had submitted "blind" through Taxi.I say a big THANKS to Taxi! it makes me feel better to know that I'm not paying for something that I can get for free.

[mazz]

Regardless of whether one agrees with the business model of TAXI or the company in question, the gist of TAXI's letter is that: A forward to this company puts your music ahead of music submitted via their regular website and it sounds like it will get pitched to the clientele ahead of the "publicly" submitted music.So what that tells me is that, sure, you could join this company and submit to their website along with everyone else with a copy of GarageBand and a CD burner, but an introduction via TAXI (and one company offers a free membership if forwarded via TAXI), puts you ahead of the game because your music is seen to be a cut above that submitted by the unwashed masses.That's how I read TAXI's reply, anyway.Mazz