General questions/comments about Listings

[feloniuspunk]

Let's look at a current a listing:

New Listing We’ve reached the half-way point in our CHRISTMAS COMPILATION SERIES and we’ve been blown away by some of your amazing covers. This week, we want to hear YOUR **ORIGINAL** CHRISTMAS SONGS for a Special Collection were sending to FILM & TV MUSIC SUPERVISORS and our friends in ADVERTISING. ALL GENRES and TEMPOS will be considered. Overall, we want SONGS that are UPBEAT and POSITIVE. However, BALLADS and SLOWER TEMPO SONGS can be SWEET, REFLECTIVE or NOSTALGIC. Please do not submit bleak, dark or depressing songs, as there is very little licensing potential for those. Lyrically, we’re looking for SONGS and CHRISTMAS, WINTER, etc. (Save your NEW YEARS, HANNUKAH and KWANZAA SONGS for the time being.) ALL SONGS will be evaluated in the context of placement in FILM, TV and COMMERCIALS. We will consider YOUR JOYFUL ORIGINAL RELIGIOUS or DEVOTIONAL SONGS, but keep in mind that the more religious they are, the more they may be outside the realm of mainstream projects. We’re looking for MEMORABLE MELODIES, STRONG LYRICAL IMAGERY, and SONGS THAT EVOKE THE FEELINGS OF THE SEASON. Please DO NOT incorporate the LYRICS or MELODY of any other CHRISTMAS SONG in YOURS. You MUST give us something UNIQUE (like a beautiful snowflake) that we cant find somewhere else. Your approach to your THEME should be FRESH and ORIGINAL. Remember, we’re trying to get your SONG in CURRENT TV, FILM and COMMERCIAL projects so it has to sound like it belongs in a CONTEMPORARY PROJECT. Make sure that your SONG has EMOTIONAL AUTHENTICITY. The most important thing to us is that your PERFORMANCES are STRONG and EXPRESSIVE, and your VOCAL/INSTRUMENTATION are AUTHENTIC. It’s IMPORTANT that your SONG sounds like an ARTIST/BAND and NOT like a production music library track. MALE or FEMALE vocals are BOTH okay, as well as INSTRUMENTALS. Broadcast Quality is needed (excellent home recordings are fine). You must own or control 100% of the Master rights. NO sample of other songs can be used in your recording. Once they see this listing, the companies that desperately try to imitate TAXI are probably going to run similar listings. WE ask that you allow us to pitch your cover semi-exclusively for 2 years. (You’d be free to pitch and license it on your own without running it through other companies and catalogs.) If you ARE chosen for this COMPILATION, your music will be shared with REAL HOLLYWOOD MUSIC SUPERVISORS. Please submit one to three VERSIONS online. All submissions will be screened on a YES/NO BASIS. NO FULL CRITIQUES FROM TAXI. Submissions must be received no late than 9:30AM (PDT), Tuesday, August 7, 2012. TAXI #U120807CH

Is there any way you can add a little ‘key-word’ search engine near the top of the listings page? It’s not difficult and only requires a few lines of code to implement. That’s one simple but huge improvement Taxi could make that would save a lot of time by allowing a ‘quick’ search of all the listings for potential submissions using our own key words.

In the listing for original Christmas songs above, it eventually says that ‘INSTRUMENTALS are okay too’. However, that crucial little tidbit of information is buried near the end of the listing. Could you place important information like that in the first few lines of a listing?

Can we submit instrumental-only versions of tunes that have lyrics to listings for vocals? Vocal listings often cite a particular lyrical theme or element the requestor is looking for. My lyrics will sometimes have what is asked for, but the listing won’t specify if instrumental versions of songs with such lyrics are submissible.

I know we’re talking about two types of vocal listings here. Some listings are for material that someone else, an aspiring young star, will sing. Other listings are for songs with words that are turn-key in the sense that the requestor doesn’t care who is singing the song, as long as it fits what they need for a particular mood, spot in a movie, commercial, etc. I’d like a little clarification on that.

[davewalton]

Nick? Is that you? Wow... good to see you again!

Is there any way you can add a little ‘key-word’ search engine near the top of the listings page? It’s not difficult and only requires a few lines of code to implement. That’s one simple but huge improvement Taxi could make that would save a lot of time by allowing a ‘quick’ search of all the listings for potential submissions using our own key words.

In the listing for original Christmas songs above, it eventually says that ‘INSTRUMENTALS are okay too’. However, that crucial little tidbit of information is buried near the end of the listing. Could you place important information like that in the first few lines of a listing?

Can we submit instrumental-only versions of tunes that have lyrics to listings for vocals? Vocal listings often cite a particular lyrical theme or element the requestor is looking for. My lyrics will sometimes have what is asked for, but the listing won’t specify if instrumental versions of songs with such lyrics are submissible.

I know we’re talking about two types of vocal listings here. Some listings are for material that someone else, an aspiring young star, will sing. Other listings are for songs with words that are turn-key in the sense that the requestor doesn’t care who is singing the song, as long as it fits what they need for a particular mood, spot in a movie, commercial, etc. I’d like a little clarification on that.

Well, just as a little way to welcome you back to the forum, we'll just say "No... there's no way to do any of those things".

The keyword thing is really for Taxi. They're working on a super-duper updated version of Taxi.com so maybe that's one of the new features but I have no idea.

The important info placement in the listing, well, I'd say that *all* of the information in any listing is important. It pays to read the whole listing.

On the lyrics for instrumental stuff, you *could* submit that but it would get kicked back. 100% of the vocal listing submissions will have vocals in the track so that's what you're "competing" against. A killer vocal leaves little to the imagination and knocking them out with a musical/vocal punch between the eyes is really what they're looking for. When I say "they" I mean the listing companies and therefore they screeners will screen that way. At a Taxi Rally if you asked an A&R panel that question they'd probably say "Really? You wouldn't take the time to record a vocal?" and then they'd probably say they wouldn't take the time to listen. They're all extremely busy and extremely picky because they gets *lots* of really good music with everything that's supposed to be there.

Anyway, good to see you again. Throw a link to some cool jazz or whatever you've been doing lately. Would love to hear something. Always enjoyed it.

Catch you later,

Dave

[andygabrys]

hey Nick,

I think its not so elegant as a keyword search on the website, but downloading the pdf version and opening in Preview on the mac presents a text search option, where you can type instrumental or dub-step or whatever.

Probably Adobe Reader also works the same whether on Mac or PC. the important thing is that the listing PDF is searchable. its not just a graphic.

good luck.

[feloniuspunk]

Hey, I like the pdf version idea for doing keyword searches - Great Idea, Thanks!

What have I been up to? Let's see, it has been a while. I did take a little break from Taxi for a while by letting my membership lapse. However I did keep receiving and reading all the new listings the entire time. I gradually grew madder and madder with myself over time though for not keeping my yearly dues up. Whenever I came across a listing that was a perfect match for one of my tunes, I would kick myself for not being able to submit to it. Live and learn.

I'm actually getting ready to go back in the studio in mid-September to do some more recording. I've collected enough ideas for at least 1 or 2 more CD's. Something that will be different though, my first 2 CD's were all about being ‘legit’ musically speaking. Every tune from my first 2 CD’s has a professional lead sheet with the melody and chords, phrasing, correct musical notation, etc. On top of that, I spent a lot of time with arrangements, writing separate charts for the Bb horns, etc.

In that regard, Piece Offering and Rounding the Bend were both done more 'old school'. I deliberately (and vainly) wanted to make sure that each tune was Real-Book ready; something that could easily be played at a gig, TV studio bands or movie orchestras, should the need ever arise. As a reading musician myself, nothing pisses me off more than playing on sideman gigs with inept or disorganized band leaders having either illegible or no charts at all. As a small consolation, the only way that has paid off so far is when I book gigs as the leader and need good, quick and ready charts of my originals for my sidemen. More lessons learned.

This upcoming musical adventure will however be quite different in comparison. There won’t be any charts at all, or if there are, at most they will be very sketchy, just laying down ideas for a melody or bass line idea. That’s part A of the project.

Part B is to rerecord most, if not all of my original originals (redundant?). I’m also going to record vocal versions of my tunes with lyrics. Ta-Da!

Besides those musical updates, I’ve been doing a lot of home improvement type stuff, like putting in an extra upstairs bathroom. And, I have even become quite proficient at installing crown molding, cutting the compound miters myself. Those of you who have ever tried to install crown molding yourself can appreciate the pride I take in that. Our son and daughter-in-law are expecting soon. It’s good to be back.

So, prepare yourselves for some real competition once vocal versions of my tunes are ready! Mwah-hah-hah (maniacal laughter)


“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."