how are you guys doing about all these "opportunities"?

[bassmothership]

I've been checking Taxi "opportunities" for a while... stuff like: the music directors is looking for " somehing like Ed Sheeran but not cheesy? WTF? Isn't Ed Sheeran cheesy enough? I'm really not getting all this?

Anyway, I knew from beginning that this Taxi thing is about commercial music but still, I'm curious....

how are you guys managing working to supplying music to these people?

I'm just in need of some wisdom here. Really.

Diego

[ochaim]

I totally understand where you’re coming from. It sounds contradictory.

The way I like to approach it is imagining what could possibly satifsy the seeming contradiction. Frequently its taking the parts, the conceptual barebones, of an ed sheeran track and changing imagine what you could add or change to make it cool, using your example.

It’s about being creative within the parameters of the listing/brief, regardless of how you personally feel about the reference tracks.

I guess thats a major change in mindset too. It’s not about how you feel about the music being requested. It’s about whether you want to apply for the job or not. By switching your mindset this way you tend not to respond with sentiments like “isnt ed sheeran cheesey enough?”. You just get to work.

It took me a while to switch my mindset. But I think once I did, it really opened up my workflow by being more familiar bjective about the listings and getting hung up on those contradictions.

Hope that makes sense.

[kathia]

yes, i get what you are saying here too - a shift in mindset helps when you've got something you like doing or you've done a certain way and then you start to see/hear how tv/film music works in the best case scenarios. and then in my case, i'm going through that same mindset adjusting, i've been with Taxi a year and a few months, i think you're in good shape discovering this earlier on - so when i started to really get the differences about film/tv music, the challenge to produce it got more interesting, interestingly:) instead of sort of closing down the aperture, it reopens with a more precise
picture, and the bottom line instinct is to step or jump or fly into it:)
because the opportunities really are excellent and it's exciting and rewarding to get in on it.

[nwade90]

I'm a recent join-ee (is that a word?) and, just shy of two months, learned to ignore the Flavor of the Month requests. Odds are good that, at this point in my voyage, that particular library won't have much to offer me and vice-versa. Then along comes a library asking for Post-Punk and it gives me hope that I will get to indulge my subversive side on occasion. Find the opps that speak to where you're at *right now*; that doesn't exclude the possibility of giving popular cheese a try down the road (even if it makes you throw up in your mouth a bit while you do it ), but note the styles of music that you excel at and know those libraries--or something similar--will probably be showing up again.

[Oatleybake]

Hi guys,

I may be wrong but I'm reading that sort of listing as modern cheesy is ok if done well like Ed Sheeran but please don't give us 70's or 80's cheesy. It won't fly.

Most taxi listings are mainstream within the genre and most members including myself are not cool and young so listings are constantly reminding people to keep current with their submissions!

Oatleybake

[bassmothership]

Aside these contradictions, I've been learning some pretty good current music since I started checking the listings, so I'm grateful to that. Taxi can also be a means to stay current and learning new music.

I wanna be open to changes and be flexible, but most of all, I want to have fun doing this. I even changed my daw to FL Studio to aid in leaving the old ways behind and staying more current.

I'm glad to hear from you guys. Thank you so much for your insights.

Diego

[Kolstad]

Clients are not always music experts, so they choose something available to use as a temporary song or track in their film pre-production. They may pick something like an Ed Sheeran tune, and then cut the film to the beat and tempo of that song. A lot of film/tv productions are low budget, so they can’t afford the license fee for a Sheeran song, if even possible, but they already have used it as a music example that works with the rhythm they cut their pre-production, so they need something similar, that they can afford, so they can finish up. So, its not always so much a copycat job, as it is to provide something that could be on a similar style/playlist (think Spotify) with a tempo and a beat, similar to their temporary track, that works with the film.

Just to say, its about providing something that can work for the clients in their productions. Music is often the last thing in tv/film productions, so it comes in when everything else is done, thats why the references are quite specific, because they need something to fit right into what they already have. In that case, the references are helpful in order to create something that has a chance to become useful.