Been in Biz for 30 years. Dissapointed in Taxi.

[Casey H]

Yeh Dave thats great when your interests rest in those types of genre.
Now heres the frustration. Recently there's been many calls for instrumental music, which is my passion. If you can say something with your music and provoke a scene a memory, a vision without lyrics, then you deserve to be heard just as much as a reasonably good lyricist. Finally I see listings to which I can contribute. Only to find there's no critique service being offered.

Now there has to be something wrong, when the company you've invested in, offers a sub standard service to musicians who specialise in certain genre of music.

But we've established there IS a critque service offered, only the cost is an issue for you. Calling the company's service sub-standard is unfair IMO.

Here's what I suggest you do. If you lived in the US, I would suggest you give Taxi a call and discuss your concerns. But since you don't, I recommend you drop a PM to admin and TAXIcraig here on this forum and mention you'd like to give Michael feedback as to how you feel about Taxi's service. I'm sure your feeedback will get to him. Not everything posted here gets read or at least not in a timely manner.

You also will accomplish a lot more without throwing out words like “sub-standard” and the personal comments about Michael and how he chooses to spend his money. You catch way more flies with honey.

Best,
Casey

[davewalton]

Now there has to be something wrong, when the company you've invested in, offers a sub standard service to musicians who specialise in certain genre of music.

I don't know... a lot of forum members (including myself) have made and are making a fair amount of money with deals from those "substandard" non-critique listings. Right now I counted 12 film/tv listings that offer critiques, a minority of the film/tv listings to be sure but those along with the rest still total up to 49 critiqued listings.

The forum here is and has been a pretty good place for getting and giving feedback on music tracks prior to submission to listings. I probably have learned as much through that process (which is free of course) as I have through the critiques.

I agree that we'd all like to have as many critiqued listings as possible. But... I don't know of a single place anywhere that I can send my music in for really good opportunities and get a critique back on anything. Nobody does this that I know of. The only "competition" out there are business models that offer no critiques.

So the "standard", it seems, (industry standard) is no critiques. By offering critiques on certain listings, that seems to be above the standard. No critique would be par with the standard. I don't know what "substandard" would be. Maybe listings that don't really exist? There's those companies out there too.

[Nivek]

Deleted..............My music just sucks and I know that now......................Its been confirmed

[davewalton]

Yeh well said Dave. Thats two shots you've taken and hit both times. I'm an idiot and have no right whatsoever in having a different point of view which is what this topic was about.

You're reading an *awful* lot into my posts and quoting none of my words. I never said or implied either one of those things.

I replied to your post that there were currently 49 listings with critiques. That's a fact, not a personal swipe at you. To your comment that Taxi offers a substandard service, I replied that the industry standard is "no critique". That's a fact too. I did agree however that I'd like to see more critiqued listings as well. There's no more to it than that.

[admin]

Kev,

I had cataracts and couldn't read freeway signs any more. The surgery was required, not cosmetic or elective. I can't believe I have to even explain that!

My new TV replaced a 12 year old set and it cost around $300. I hope I'm not living too lavishly, and that you approve of how I spend my hard earned money. Maybe I should I start posting all of my personal expenditures here!

I've posted the reasons for the larger number of Y/N listings in Film/TV before at length. I've also written about it in one of my letters to members. Here's a re-cap:

1) The film/TV world moves MUCH faster than record labels, so in order to be competitive on their much shorter deadlines, oftentimes, we need to do Y/N listings.

2) We've seen an increased number of music supervisors (who are typically on hiatus and building their stash for the next season) and music library owners (typically small, but good companies with good track records) who want to screen their own submissions. The members get heard by the end user, so we don't want to discourage that.

The problem is that those end users are RARELY qualified to do critiques. It's one thing to know what you need or don't need -- it's MUCH harder to explain WHY something doesn't work in musical terms and make cogent suggestions as to how one might go about making it better. We OFFER to let them do full critiques, but invariably, when they try they quickly decide to go back to Y/N listings.

3) Typically, when we get listings from top music supervisors and from the world's leading ad agencies, their timelines are almost always 24-48 hours. Sometimes, we even get 3 or 4 days, but not often. Music is (sadly) often the last thing on their to do list. They don't have the time to let us run a listing for 3 weeks, get 500 submissions, then take a week to screen and critique them all. That's not how the real world in Film/TV, and advertising works.

4) When I started TAXI 20 years ago, it cost $300/year and we had about 30 listings per month. I could go back to running JUST the listings that provide the full critiques if you'd like. We'd only publish about 65 opportunities per month, but it would certainly make our lives a LOT easier and lighten our workload quite a bit. No more screening until 1 am, no more screening on weekends. No more going back and forth with music supervisors late at night, virtually every weekend, and while on virtually every vacation I've taken since starting this company. And before you get bent out of shape that I TAKE vacations, consider that I owned TAXI for 13 years before I could AFFORD to take a full week's vacation.

As to not having a Rally in Europe, Asia, New York, Dallas, Chicago, and any other number of cities that people request we have them in so it's more convenient for them: It would take approx. 400 hotel room nights for staff, mentors, panelists, teachers, etc. that would cost about $170 per night per person, we'd have to ship 9 pallets of supplies to wherever we have it ( I have no idea what that would cost, but I would guess in the thousands of dollars, and the majority of our members are U.S. based, and tend to come from the largest population centers like LA and NY.

I guess most of them appreciate that I personally go on the hook for TENS of thousands of dollars every year to provide a FREE convention, and if we don't get enough sponsors, then I PERSONALLY write a check to cover the shortfall. To date, my biggest shortfall check was around $20,000, and that came right out of the Laskow eye surgery and 22" inch TV fund!

I COULD put on a Rally wherever you live, but I'd have to charge what ALL the other conventions charge: $300-$600 for EACH ticket. I guess after 20 years of NOT increasing the price of a membership, and nearly quadrupling the opportunities I COULD raise the price to $1,200 per year. I could charge $20 per submission. I COULD also split the submission fees with people who run fake listings and provide ZERO feedback like so many of the other companies that claim to be in our category.

And I DO air 50 hour-long episodes of TAXI TV per year to educate our members (and non-members as well) for FREE. That's like a mini-Rally without lifting your butt out of your chair.

Gotta say Kev, I know it's not cool or politically correct for me to ask this, but you're the one who took a public shot at me with your new TV and eye surgery comment. Isn't it hard to go through life wondering if you paid for the car your doctor drives, the house your accountant lives in, the skis your plumber goes down the hill on, the shoes your tree trimmer wears, and so on? I'm still STUNNED that you would even HAVE those thoughts! It must be PAINFULL every time you pay for anything.

In closing, I'd like to leave all readers of this thread with one last thought (which I know I've posted before): The people who are successful with TAXI are using the EXACT same company, responding to the EXACT same batches of listings, and getting heard by EXACTLY the same screeners as the people who aren't successful. The VARIABLES are the music they make, the commitment they have, the attitude they have, and the perseverance they display.

Spend less time and energy worrying about what others have or are doing, and more time following in the footsteps of our members who so generously and openly show you the path. Do what they do, and work as hard as they do, and become successful.

Thanks!
Michael

[Kelil]

Nice post mikey and no I'm not lickin your bum there you really hit the nail on the head every time and take the time out of your busy day to respond to us all on the forums.

I think the Eye thing and the new TV was far below the belt Kev *cringe*

Of course our money pays for a lot that they have, thats the whole point of running a business. If he did this for free he wouldnt have the means by which he could put food on the table. I think taxi's motto should be: ''Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours''.

We Give taxi something, we get something back. If it's not a forward we get back it's always good advice on how to achieve that forward we recieve. What ever money we put into taxi we will always get back in the form of something.

I would love to get those e-mails reminding me to renew my membership as I forget to do those things as easily as I forget my lyrics at times.

Stephen

[mazz]

There's no place at all in this world for someone who thinks differently

I'm glad no one ever told that to Steve Jobs!

[Nivek]

Thanks for your reply Mike and indeed to everyone else who has contributed to my rant.

I just have to point out that the issue regarding Eyes, and Tv's was in response to all the emails I recieved regarding renewal of my membership. I too have been the founder of a sucessful business but can honestly say I didn't badger people into paying up. My first email was 2 months before it was due, and was then followed by several more, some being only 2 days apart. I recieved several more having paid.

[guitaroboe]

Kevin,
I have resisted posting because many of my composer colleagues here and indeed Michael Laskow, have pretty much covered my views on the issue.
I am a successful TAXI member too, with no preferential treatment from the company at all. If after all you have read on this forum you still feel the same way, then no one can convince you otherwise. TAXI offers the same service to all of us-what we accomplish with it, is up to us...
Good luck with all your endeavors!
Adonis

[Casey H]

I apologise for any hurt I may have caused tho I guess your all pretty thick skinned.

My rant was due to the fact that both my wife and myself are convinced that the last 3 submissions cant have even been listened to, having been described as being Too Moody and Too Whimsical.

Even in apology, you continue to hurl insults and accusations. I can assure you that Taxi listens to EVERY submission carefully. So it wasn’t enough for you to attack Michael about how may spend his hard earned money—you had to throw in that you think Taxi is dishonest.

I found you reap what you sew when in business.

Yes you do.

As one of my good friends here says, “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out”…

Casey