Another Peculiar Return ala Craig Morgan

[GEOKOS]

Well thats fine you can say you don't want to defend taxi but sure seems like you do .. As for my grammer an typing you can make fun if you want but it dont make your fight right cr7string you cant justify anything that is being said is wrong anyway just like the others you try and change the subject of what it is .. As far as you saying talent dont make you a great composer and all the jazz well thats just insane rants from nowhere and totaly off the subject of what the people here have been talking about . and its about what we are paying for and thats the facts jack so quit trying to change the subject to my grammer and worthless other stuff

[GEOKOS]

@crsting As for thinking outside the box hummm where we would be if people didn .....let me think ? would you have power in your house would you have this box thats lets you talk with people all over the world ...I think not stay shut inside your ego man thats where it belongs

[rnrmachine]

OK... just to defend my honor as a composer and musician. I hate to pull out the big artillery like this but here's a contemporary minimalist piano piece that I wrote a few years ago, performed live in my hometown...

http://www.DaveWaltonMusic.com/MyMusic/C.mp3

ROFLMAO that was funny.

I want to add in... if anyone is still reading this thread...

Taxi can only be as honest and professional as the people it employs, like ANY company. Do I believe that Micheal truly put this together with the intention of making a fine, reputable company that not only he can do something he loves, but make a living on it as well? HELL YES I believe this. Do I feel that the screening has gone down hill?.. sadly, hell yes, I do. Could the direction of Taxi be changing from a labor of love to a labor of greed? That is ALWAYS a possibility, with ANY company and we can only trust the prior is the truth and not the latter. Granted, Taxi will take money from a anyone willing to pay... the owner of a monkey beating on a bucket with spoons can join Taxi he'll just never get forwarded. The scary thing would be.. if the critique told him to try different spoons... ROFLMAO just kidding.

Tracy, getting a return on that song is no reason to quit on Taxi... or give up on Taxi. They provide a service and they (the higher up folks) agreed that your song wasn't something they would want to forward and thus, stand behind. That critique you received?!? IS however, a VERY GOOD reason to quit.. I know, I am not stupid either and anyone telling you different is NOT paying proper attention to how sorry that critique was. Taxi critiques are suppose to HELP YOU achieve a higher level of professionalism. That critique did NONE of that. All it did was reinforce your belief that the song is fine as is, but you just need to wait. Horrible advice imho. Your song NEEDS a well developed hook. It is too typical of open mic night music.. imho. I am sorry but I really believe that is the truth. I wish I could give it (a hook) to you.. but I am struggling too. /shrug

Sometimes a rejection can be like someone dumping a COLD bucket of water on you, while you are in a deep sleep having an AMAZING dream. It's a wretched thing to wake up to.

ALSO... Everyone really needs to keep in mind... IF you are writing a song for someone else... it had better be F++Kin' good. There is NO WAY I would sing, I know most of you wouldn't either, someones song that isn't any better then my own album fillers, that I already recorded and don't have to PAY SOMEONE royalties on. IF I am going to pay you, and take it on as my "New Hit"... IT HAD BETTER BE AWESOME!!! This IS the song that is going to get people to listen to MY OWN music, it really needs to be a commercially, unique hit. Genre crossing if possible!!!

Everyone has a reputation to uphold and sending out less then "top notch" on a "top notch" listing only makes everyone look bad. I told Taxi once on the phone... "Don't send me into the Olympics if I am only going to embarrass myself, and you in the process." Sure, I said it with a lump in my throat.. NO ONE wants to feel they are not "top notch".... I listened back, a few times, to a cover song I really felt strongly about and disagreed with Taxi, that it wasn't good enough to be at least forwarded and let the client decide. The more I listen as my "connection" to the song/performance wears off and I can be more objective. I have to agree, the song was NOT a "top notch" mix/master and the vocal performance was not up to snuff either. Maybe you should try to get forwards in listings not labeled "top notch" first.. I guess... I don't know what to do honestly.. I have had NO direct success with Taxi yet although the OLD critiques I received from them were extremely helpful. There is also some decent info in my recent ones.. coupled with BS but still.. decent. You take the good with the bad and try to recognize the difference.

Rob

[matto]

Dear Geokos,

You seem to be implying that taxi is a scam or questioning whether it works. Understanable, there are a lot of scams out there, especially ones targeted at hapless musicians.

But, let me just give you my opinion on Taxi, one that is based on things I have seen with my own eyes, and on facts I have experienced throughout my membership and career.


1- In my opinion Taxi is not a scam.

I have been to their offices several times, I have seen how everything is set up, how the screening process works, how the screeners are trained etc.
I've seen the listing bins and the company names on them. Many big names I recognize, and you would too.
I know that Taxi has a money back guarantee and I have seen them honor it many times, whenever a member was unhappy with the service or thought it wasn't a good fit for them.
I have also been to many Road Rallies and have met many of the screeners personally (no I don't know their numbers ). I've had in depth conversations with some of them and have found them to be intelligent, highly qualified and passionate individuals who care about music, the taxi members, and the job they are doing as screeners.
Once I was even invited (along with several other Taxi members) to go to the Taxi offices to "screen the screeners", i.e. review a large number of Taxi critique and give the screeners grades on how helpful and prefessional their critiques were. I know that at least 2 screeners were subsequently fired because their critiques did not meet the required standard.

In my humble opinion, a company that was a scam would not go to all of these lengths, hire so many qualified people and spend all of this time and money to constantly improve the service they offer. They would simply take the membership's money and be done with it.
Instead I came to the conclsuion that Taxi does everything they can to offer their members the best service possible. That being said, just like the rest of us the Taxi staff and screeners are mere humans and occasionally mistakes happen. When they do, you'll read about them on this forum. You usually won't read about the thousand of great critiques where everything worked exactly as it's supposed to.

Again, all of this is based on first hand observations I have made with my own eyes.


2- In my experience Taxi works.

I can only speak for myself here, but I spent a little time this evening crunching some numbers. I have been a Taxi member for some ten years now. If I add up all the money I have spent on Taxi over the last 10 years (membership dues, submission fees, Road Rally attendence expenses [the Rally itself is free but I've stayed at the hotel the last few years]), and I add all the income I've made as a direct result of Taxi (from companies that Taxi hooked me up with) over those same 10 years, I find that I made around 40 dollars in Taxi related income for every dollar I spent on Taxi. I'm only counting money I made directly thru companies that Taxi hooked me up with, not other ones that I was able to hook up with on my own thanks to things I learned as a result of my Taxi membership. If I counted those as well my return would be even more impressive.
Of course this is averaged over 10 years, as with any business venture one might engage in, in the beginning you'll spend more than you make; the normal rules of investing in one's business and career apply in the music business as they would in any other business.

Now I don't know what kind of return you've been getting on the money you have invested in your music, however I find a 40 fold return on my investment, over ten years, to be very satisfying.
Mostly as a result of my Taxi membership, I now write songs and compose music as a full-time job and I make a very nice living at it. I write music all day every day, I work from home, don't have to commute...in a way, that by itself is priceless as they say in those Mastercard commericals.
My music can be heard on TV just about every day, has been placed on just about every major broadcast and cable network and in over 10 major motion pictures.

So as you can see, Taxi has worked for me. And over the years I've met a good number of people for whom it has worked as well. Some have even done significantly better than myself. None of this is hearsay or specualtion or third hand information off of some website, it's all first hand personal experience.

So if you wanna call me a sucker for believing in Taxi, please go right ahead, but realize I'm a very happy sucker...a sucker all the way to the bank as it were...
The truth is I don't have to believe in Taxi, I get royalty checks every quarter that prove to me it works.

So these are my facts.

If you have actual, first hand facts that prove or indicate that Taxi is a scam or does not work, please present them in a clear, legible and organized way so we can have an intelligent grown up discussion.

I'm certainly open to that.

Please realize however that if you post headache inducing incoherent one sentence rants based on third degree hearsay from people you have never even met or talked to, then everybody reading this thread will just dismiss you as a clueless bitter troll.

I certainly hope that's not who you are.

Best,

Matt

[GEOKOS]

No I am not a troll and as I said in another post I did not call it a scam I was saying theres many ways it could be . As for the screeners screwing up on thier job their should be someone screening them as a fall back checker just incase that happens . But if you go by the book which everyone seems to do so it clearly states qualified screeners will be screening your work . So in my opinion the screener who screened Tbar simply was not qualified now was he? Just as the two you just said was fired .. I believe cr7string said every one has had issiues with screeners in the past .... SO my question is how does that fit in with what the book says ..Are they all really qualified ?. Now they may be all different reasons or problems with why they got fired or why everyone has had problems with them .The thing I am questioning is say you or I send in a song and the same thing happens . Personaly I ;ve seen a few posts and it makes me think well these screeners must just be goofing off on the job ie the guy who got returned cause they wanted to know what kind of wall he was reffering to I qoute they said " give us more visual aspects "...now that could mean alot of things but I think the line quote " I can hear you in these walls " pretty much explians what the person is saying . it could be wrong but it very well could be that maybe just maybe that screener was in a bad mood and just decided to say forget today I hate my wife I hate my life I hate this song oh well hey dummie what kinda wall are you talking about hear ...get the point
onto my second note

Regaudless if You may or may not have been to taxi again I dont know you so these are things we the people reading dont know you could even work for taxi but yet we dont know that for sure now before everyone defending the faith gets in a uproar this is not writen in anger haha these are things I am stating from one screeners point of view dont take it to heart haha as said before there should be somekind of fall back checker . You double check your work before handing it in don't you ? You double check the lugs on a tire you may have just changed don't you ? You may even ask a freinds point of view on a song you are submiting so why should this be any different ? AFter all they are the ones getting paid to do it .Sure I know your answer it would cost them money . But I am sure they have it they rake in money hand over fist off a few listings

AS for being a ranting loser
My thoughts was these questions before signing up . You pay 200 dollars for a year you pay five dollars a song sometimes 15 on one listing depending on what you got ready or want to do .. what if maybe you get one forward and to be honest I came into this expecting no forwards .And still dont expect anything . But what if and this is my toughts before I even signed up and started reading the posts mind you what if they sign you up take your 200 and what ever you pay to submit and let it build up just to line their pockets for that year . ANother bit of honesty I did submit a few and a few I got what I expected only cause I wanted to see what they said and how they rated it . It was sent in for a listing that wasnt of the genre for that purpose.

The second thing that got me thinking is I know someone who was part of taxi not long ago and who is a pretty well known guy had some big hits in the 70"s toured all over the world in a band, recently done some big tv sponsered stuff had a deal with a major network
and it took him just about till the end of his year to get a forward .


And just to be fair you gotta admit when you see people posting stuff about their stupid feed back it makes you wonder. regaudless if what they say is 99% true or not but I dont think they would post it where someone would call them out on it ..Now with all good intentions you said you been to taxi a few times in some peoples minds that could be a harmless visit or could mean you work for them ie "could" the key word here
the other thing that makes people think that is its only a select few who jump in and try to bash one persons or a few persons thoughts on this subject here.

Back to the screeners yes people do make mistakes everyone does but we are supossed to be paying for the best screeners so this dont happen yet again it states in the rule book the best is what you get but clearly it isnt if eveyone has had problems with them
Now you'll prob say not all of them and I agree prob not all of the members have but I imagine a good bit has .

As for scams yes there are alot I get emails every day from companys saying they will submit my music to a&r people for a low fee of 195
My moto has always been in this buisness if it cost you money then its usually is a scam But I figured what the heck I am bored I got some free money and decided to give it a try .


As for this community of musicians that rant and rave when someone speaks their mind about the things that seem to be happenig here at taxi who get all huffy puffy and try to throw ego's out with it well that just shows alot of silly nonsense in my opinion.
As for it being a scam that still remains to be seen every ones so ready to bash people and defend txi's honor rather then try to think of ways to resovle the bad parts about it peace out

[Casey H]

Geokos
Obviously no one is going to change or open up your mind about anything. Assuming you are in your first year, you should ask Taxi for a refund. Why stew about this? Get your money back and move on.

Since it appears English is not your first language (I mean that nicely and with total respect), if you need help writing your letter requesting a refund, I will help you with the grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. This is a sincere offer. Just drop me a PM.

I'd much rather see you get your refund than see you go on with suspicions that there is anything dishonest going on with Taxi.

Best of luck
Casey

[mazz]

As for scams yes there are alot I get emails every day from companys saying they will submit my music to a&r people for a low fee of 195
My moto has always been in this buisness if it cost you money then its usually is a scam But I figured what the heck I am bored I got some free money and decided to give it a try .

So I'm curious: If you joined TAXI just because you were bored, what made you decide to join TAXI and not one of the other "scams" out there?

I guess I'm also curious because just throwing money around because you're bored doesn't seem like what someone who is really serious about their career would do. I would think a serious composer would do their research on the company before plunking down their money, even if it was free and just laying around (we should all have that problem). Personally, I'm too busy writing music for libraries and publishers I met via TAXI to be bored.

Did you just throw that line out there or did you truly just decide to join TAXI on a whim?

[eliotpister1]

GEOKOS, get over yourself. Your song isn't that good. Those of us that have been kicking around the forums for a long time can spot a disgruntled beginner like yourself from a mile away. The people you're taking on in this thread are all serious career-musicians that understand the importance of taking criticism gracefully and moving on gracefully (and LEARNING from the criticism - not attacking it.). Get your refund, and move on. When you're ready, truly READY to make a living from your music, come back and we'll start over again.

The folks like Dave, Matt and Mazz have a lot of success under their belts that you can learn from to become better. Right now you're just in bridge-burning mode and doing yourself a great disservice by prattling on and on. Time to let it go.

Take care, and please stop cluttering up the Boards with all this ignorant nonsense. If you decide to stay aboard, let's hook up at the Rally. I'll buy you a beer and talk you down from the ledge. Taxi's a great organization, imho.

With respect,

Eliot.

[Eric Bolvin]

The screening process is frustrating. IMO, the screeners are listening from a negative viewpoint. Although Mr. Laskow says that they want to forward us, it doesn't seem so.
The screeners are listening for that one negative to return you. One negative erases all the positives. With all the good points the screener made, it should have benn a forward.
These are the hardest kind of rejects to take. When the screener's opinion gets in the way of good music getting it's due.
The screener is supposed to find music that is relevent to the pitch, not decide for the company what music will sell or not. IMO, this screener and submission should be reviewed by the staff.

On a similar note, I was mixing with a friend and we were thinking that the best music ever made wasn't perfect. Music doesn't have to be perfect.

Eb

[GEOKOS]

yet again you all resort to bashing rather then responding to help make the problem better .... My music I hold dear to my heart as for why I joined I did it cause a family member asked me I personaly never joined in hopes of getting the big time like many other people I write for myself and my family I went beyond my personal believes for someone else just to soothe the defending massives question ... But as I said again you people would rather bash the people that are stating things that may be wrong with taxi rather then saying hey you know what that guy could be wrong posting a disgruntled note to taxi but what if that person isnt ..my goodness theres so many of them I am sure they would make alot of this up .. And I do believe the taxi review station is a section where you can post about your review rather you loved it hated it or just dam right mad about it... SO being that I posted The taxi screener and you ..Guess what I knew who would be the first responders to it the good ole defenders of the faith ...Thats right Dave walton, Mazz ,and a few others ...You guys seem to be so hell bent on proving to the world that its not a scam you actually make it out to be a scam by jamming it down peoples throats . I love how it always gets turned around making it a disgruntled rejection letter why someone posts something negative about taxi . Or the bashing of ones music or personal views haha gotta love the good ol U.S.A and the people who live in it ..Now have I smacked a joke at anyones music or made comments back that wasnt directed as a insult to me A few but I never threw my ego out there judging someone elses music or theory about how they do things . Your so hell bent on changing a persons view rather then banning together and asking taxi to change the way things are done and thats not standing behind what you believe is it ? thats hiding to me I believe it should change up alittle which is why your snide comments to me dont work


all I see is post spreading fear to people saying taxi reviews this site and you shouldn say anything bad about it cause you may noy get a forward well do you think the other people who posted a problem that they thought was a problem had not thought of that before they posted what they posted mybe they posted in light that taxi would read it and say hey maybe theres some things we should change some things ..


P.s I dont proof read or fix typos so read at your own risk