Finally Joined Taxi!

[andreh]

Well, I finally took the plunge. It's only taken so long because I've had so much going on (not the least of which was having a new baby girl ), but I'm finally ready and looking forward to submitting some tracks.I read through the terms of service and had a few thoughts/suggestions:1. Apparently submissions aren't critiqued until after a listing expires. Does this not put our submissions at a disadvantage over those received by listers from other sources? It's common knowledge that "temp tracks" are hard to un-sell; I wonder what Taxi's reason is for this?2. Some listings aren't critiqued because such a quick turnaround time is requested by the lister...which makes sense. But couldn't Taxi critique the song even if it's not in enough time to be considered for the current listing?3. It turns out that Dispatch listings DO cost $150/year on top of the $299 initial fee (despite postings to the contrary on this board). This cost doesn't bother me too much, but it really should be made more clear before one joins that not all listings are included in the advertised cost...Taxi is working hard to overcome some bad press outside (and on) these boards, and this is ammunition for the naysayers.BTW, how does Taxi determine which listings to save for dispatch?Anyhoo, thanks for all the feedback you've all shared since I joined the forums a few months ago. Glad to be part of this fun ride!Andre

[davewalton]

Hi Andre,Congratulations on the new baby girl. Quote:1. Apparently submissions aren't critiqued until after a listing expires. Does this not put our submissions at a disadvantage over those received by listers from other sources? It's common knowledge that "temp tracks" are hard to un-sell; I wonder what Taxi's reason is for this?From a business standpoint, I can't imagine doing it any other way. The listing companies are certainly aware that they will be getting Taxi forwards as a group after the listing date expires. The deadlines are usually really long-term so the companies that make these listings aren't in a big hurry (one of my placements from a regular listing came a year after the listing). Besides, our fees would be through the roof to compensate for the postage, manhours and extra CD's if all forwards were sent one-at-a-time as each was processed. Quote:2. Some listings aren't critiqued because such a quick turnaround time is requested by the lister...which makes sense. But couldn't Taxi critique the song even if it's not in enough time to be considered for the current listing?I don't think I understand the question... but that never stopped me from giving an answer before. I certainly would rather have my song forwarded on time with no critique than have it critiqued but too late to be considered for the listing. Actually I've wondered why some listings aren't critiqued. I'd think that if a quick deadline was important that they'd do a Dispatch listing instead of the regular listing. I know one reason is that some of the listings are screened by the company that placed the listing. No critiques there because they're just interested in finding the music. Good for them. Their critiques would probably be horrifying anyway. Quote:3. It turns out that Dispatch listings DO cost $150/year on top of the $299 initial fee (despite postings to the contrary on this board). This cost doesn't bother me too much, but it really should be made more clear before one joins that not all listings are included in the advertised cost...I think it's clear that the Taxi fee is $300 and that Dispatch is $150. Dispatch is a separate service. I believe I read in a post by Matto that it was started years after the regular Taxi service as a separate entity to handle a different set of "need it now" listings, mostly having to do with film/television stuff rather than artist deals. What I disputed in another post was the notion that certain listings are withheld unless you paid extra. That's kind of like saying that Wal-Mart withholds DVD players from people when they buy a TV because a DVD wasn't included in the price of the television. The DVD is just separate and extra. If I open a next-day photo processing place and then later add 1-hour service, I'll have to charge extra for that extra service. I'm not withholding 1-hour service from my next day customers. Anyway, apparently Dispatch was an added item long after Taxi started. It has different deadlines and has additional costs to operate above and beyond the regular Taxi listings. I don't think that Taxi has raised their membership fees ever. They can't add a whole new layer of listings and complexity on top of their original service several years after the fact with no additional costs.Quote:BTW, how does Taxi determine which listings to save for dispatch?They don't "save" listings for Dispatch. It's all about the deadline. Long term = regular listings. Short term = dispatch. Also I don't think I've ever seen an artist listing in Dispatch. Most record companies don't need a hit singer to record and tour by next week, but many music libraries, televisions shows, and films need music like yesterday. BTW, I enjoy reading your music analysis and comments and I've gained a lot of insight from your posts. I'm not buttering you up because I'm sort of giving another view point to your questions here. You sound like you've been around the block a few times and I think you'll do very well. Dave

[edteja]

Andre, Welcome to taxi! And a big welcome to your little girl! Congratulations. The Dispatch thing confused me, until I noticed that some Dispatch listings become regular listings when they can't find what they want by the dispatch timeline. I guess they are in a hurry, but not THAT much of a hurry. I wasn't aware of dispatch when I joined. It was probably in the literature, but I didn't pay attention (enough). But it is a wonderful thing that you can sample it and only join if you see that the listings are what you want. And since it is pro-rated, you can get in later in for less than $150 (I think the idea that they tell you the price on a daily rate is funny, since you can't buy it that way. It might be appropriate if you could sign up for say a month's worth of dis[athc, but the way they do it, it makes me feel I'd be wasting money if I signed up and then went on vacation.)At any rate, best of luck.

[andreh]

Dave & Ed-Thanks to you both for the congratulations...Tera Lynn is a beautiful addition to our lives. I wasn't personally aware of the extra cost for Dispatch; to me, Taxi's advertising strongly implies that we gain access to all available listings for the $299 fee...kind of the opposite of the "Promise small, deliver big" train of thought. However, I still believe Taxi's fees to be fair in the grand scheme of things.It would be cool if we could opt into this service on a daily basis, as Ed suggests, paying only when we see a listing we want to jump on.Is Taxi sending our submissions via CD to its clients? In this day and age I'd expect them to be doing things by email; this is how my other library & advertising contacts accept submissions. I guess there's something to said for a hard copy for listening in the car, at home, etc. (not to mention the dreaded "network is down" conundrum).Dave, my Q#2 was aimed at obtaining critiques for quick-turnaround music AFTER it has been forward (or rejected); that overrides Taxi's current reasoning for not providing critiques on these listings. I'm happy to drop $5 on a submission, but with many people complaining about this [admittedly small] fee, here is an additional opportunity for Taxi to further justify it.I'll try to keep contributing meaningful feedback to the forum...if only I can resist the temptation to post my anti-war anthems and stay out of trouble! Andre

[matto]

Hi Andre,I've been a member since before Dispatch was created and remember its introduction well...which, if I recall correctly, was preceeded by a poll to all then-Taxi members. In the poll they asked us if we'd be willing to pay extra for an add-on service that could accomodate the quick turnaround listing requests Taxi was getting with increasing frequency...the answer was a resounding yes, and thus Dispatch was born (which of course required the hiring of additional staff). Taxi could've just increased the membership fee for everybody to pay for this new division, but instead they made it an optional service since the quick turnaround listings are almost always "film/tv" type listings which typically require broadcast quality submissions...thus mostly cater to a certain type of member.For several years every bi-monthly Taxi listing mentioned the ins and outs of Dispatch, so it was quite obvious that it was an add-on service. I noticed that text is no longer part of the listings sent out or posted.So I guess for newcomers it COULD be confusing, it just never even occured to me since I've been a member for so long. I will bring this to Taxi's attention.As far as how the songs are being sent, it's mostly CD's as I understand it (not 100% sure about broadjam submissions...I shall inquire about this)...email is really not feasible when you're gonna be sending like twenty (or many more) members' submissions at a time, with appropriate contact data, after they have been screened. It would fill up a listing party's inbox in no time and annoy the heck out of them...this apart from the fact that particularly A&R guys do 90% of their listening in their cars.This also explains why critiquing songs after they are forwarded isn't really possible. The listings clearly state whether a given submission will be critiqued or not, so you can decide yourself if you wanna submit to non-critiqued listings.The idea of paying for Dispatch on a daily basis only has been brought up before, as has some kind of monthly membership or payment plan. I've been told that Taxi has decided against these options purely from a business stand point. Some people may remember Tonos, and one of the main reasons they went out of business is that they offered a variety of subscription options and thus found it challenging to do fiscally reliable yearly business plans. Remember the staff that deals with the Dispatch submissions has to be there every day, regardless of whether you decide to sign up for it on a given day or not. If they allowed daily sign ups, it would vastly complicate things for them.matto

[andreh]

Hey Matto-Thanks for the enlightening info; the Dispatch service details seem to make more sense now that you've described how they came about, as does just about everything else you touch on above.However (and forgive me for belaboring the issue), but I'm still not making the connection to why "fast forwards" can't be critiqued. It is good that we're made aware beforehand when a submission won't be critiqued, but it isn't clicking for me why this is even an option. In any case, I'm totally stoked to finally be on-board with you all! Andre

[matto]

Quote:However (and forgive me for belaboring the issue), but I'm still not making the connection to why "fast forwards" can't be critiqued. It is good that we're made aware beforehand when a submission won't be critiqued, but it isn't clicking for me why this is even an option. Okay, I think I'm just not doing a good job explaining it:There are two kinds of listings that usually do not get critiqued: Fast turnaround listings and those where the listing party themselves comes into Taxi to screen the songs.In the first case, there's a tight deadline, and since it takes a lot longer to critique a song than simply to decide whether or not it should be forwarded, there just isn't time to critique the potentially hundreds of songs Taxi may receive for a given listing. So, the submissions get screened on a yes/no basis, and those that are to be forwarded are sent out. At this point Taxi no longer has the CD's that were forwarded, therefore can't critique them after the fact.In the second case, the listing party comes into Taxi's offices to screen the songs. Now Taxi won't let just anybody critique their members songs, no matter what their statue in the industry might be. The screeners that Taxi hires to do the critiques all get training on how to do it properly, how to give constructive criticism, how not to insult the members , basically Taxi tries their best to make sure the critiques are helpful and of high quality. So while anybody who places a listing can come in and screen the submissions themselves, they won't be allowed to do critiques. Thus it has to be a yes/no listing.

[andreh]

Quote:In the first case, there's a tight deadline, and since it takes a lot longer to critique a song than simply to decide whether or not it should be forwarded, there just isn't time to critique the potentially hundreds of songs Taxi may receive for a given listing. So, the submissions get screened on a yes/no basis, and those that are to be forwarded are sent out. At this point Taxi no longer has the CD's that were forwarded, therefore can't critique them after the fact.Ah, that makes sense...kind of embarrassed I hadn't thought of that! Quote:In the second case, the listing party comes into Taxi's offices to screen the songs. Now Taxi won't let just anybody critique their members songs, no matter what their statue in the industry might be. The screeners that Taxi hires to do the critiques all get training on how to do it properly, how to give constructive criticism, how not to insult the members , basically Taxi tries their best to make sure the critiques are helpful and of high quality. So while anybody who places a listing can come in and screen the submissions themselves, they won't be allowed to do critiques. Thus it has to be a yes/no listing.Okay, that makes sense also. New question: Why wouldn't Taxi simply send all the submissions for these postings to the listing party? That party is committing to listening to them all during the screening process anyway, so why would they opt to come to Taxi instead of listening to them at their own location and leisure?Andre (aka Curious George)

[davewalton]

Quote:Okay, that makes sense also. New question: Why wouldn't Taxi simply send all the submissions for these postings to the listing party? That party is committing to listening to them all during the screening process anyway, so why would they opt to come to Taxi instead of listening to them at their own location and leisure?For the local companies that can screen at Taxi, I'd say it's because of the nice listening facilities. If you look at the "Taxi cam" (is it still available?) you'll see a room with a series of cubicles for screening the songs (through headphones). It would be a quiet environment where the submissions could be reviewed with no interruptions.The scenerio you posed does, or at least did happen. A music library owner that picked me up through Taxi told me that he had requested to do what you mention above. He ran several listings for various styles of music and asked Taxi to send him everything that was submitted. In this case, everyone got a forward. However, he said he got something like 5,000 tracks of music and that it took him nearly a year to work his way through it all. My placement came almost a year after I was forwarded. Even if he's exxagerating about the number, it's safe to say he got a LOT of tracks because he also said that he got boxes and boxes of CD's and that he'd never do that again. I'm sure Taxi and the other companies don't want to duplicate that mess any more than they have to. Dave

[matto]

Quote:For the local companies that can screen at Taxi, I'd say it's because of the nice listening facilities. If you look at the "Taxi cam" (is it still available?) you'll see a room with a series of cubicles for screening the songs (through headphones). It would be a quiet environment where the submissions could be reviewed with no interruptions.Exactly, it may be more convenient and efficient to set up an appointment, go into the Taxi offices and spend a few hours screening music in an environment that was set up to do just that, then leave the facilities with just a few CD's that are a perfect fit for what your looking for...rather than having boxes upon boxes delivered to your office, having to find a place to put them, and then having to find the time to go thru them.Quote:The scenerio you posed does, or at least did happen. Yes this type of listing does exist also, it called a "N" listing; that's when all the music gets forwarded to the listing party without any screening on Taxi's part."N" Listings are not very common...for obvious reasons.