If you refuse to do POP...

[JonathanE]

Don't get me wrong, Michael and Taxi are just fantastic. Great company, great people.

I was thinking though lately... For newbies, I think there should be some sort of disclaimer at the beginning. Taxi is super heavily dominated by POP requests, it is above and beyond by far the most requested style of music out there.

Now myself, even though this is the case, I have still had many tracks forwarded for other listings, and the membership has still been very much worth it, even though POP makes me want to pull my hair out and is basically nails on a chalkboard. (And I like music that maybe makes others want to pull their hair out?)

But regardless, I feel like TAXI should be a little more up front with new members when they sign up, and say "Hey, by the way, TAXI listings are mainly dominated by POP requests. If you are unwilling to take these on (for whatever reason), your progress with taxi will likely (statistically speaking) be a lot slower than those who are willing to take on these POP requests."

Of course this is not at all TAXI's fault, they are simply the middle man between the industry and the creators, and they fill the need. But letting people know about the "state of play" at the beginning of their membership would, I think, be a really good "heads up".

What do others think? Do you agree?

[Casey H]

I see lots of listings for other styles, especially in the instrumental cue category (lots of styles) which actually is usually the most financially profitable area. Also "pop" covers a lot of ground for sub-genres. The bottom line, though, is libraries will always be looking most for styles that are most popular as far what young people are listening to today, the Billboard charts, etc. I think Taxi is pretty upfront that learning to create contemporary sounding music is very much a part of success.

Are you doing vocal songs or cues?

My suggestion is take inventory at what you are good at and what you are willing to learn (if at all). Consider collaboration. For example, I can't write contemporary pop (music-wise) for sh*t but I got good at the lyrics side of it and I work with others for the rest. The results have been many TV placements. That's just an example of taking your skills and blending them with someone else's.

Post a link to some of your best tracks here. Maybe people have suggestions.

Happy Holidays and best for the New Year!
Casey

[gitanosoy]

Most of my forwards resulting in library deals and an album are guitar based Latin. world,flamenco genres instrumentals. I think it is good to push yourself to learn or at least try other genres to see where you are at and then sit back and focus on the one you are most skilled at or like to continue to improve.

Although I am a guitar player I am most proud of a Rave track I did which was signed by a library and no guitars were harmed. Taxi is great in pushing me to buy more gear, plugins to try all this genres, also I need someone to blame for this...

Yes I the most popular demands are pop, hip-hop, dramedy...e.t.c...I think it's good to checkout libraries and see what genre they don't have much of in their library and make an offer.

..and yes what Casey said about collaborations.

[JonathanE]

I think Taxi is pretty upfront that learning to create contemporary sounding music is very much a part of success.

Hey thanks for the response! I agree that they are up front generally about the importance of contemporary sound, and you are right that it is about doing what is popular in many ways. I guess what I'm saying is that it would be an interesting (and helpful) to create maybe a pie chart? of what kind of music has been requested throughout the year, what is more popular, and even how that has been evolving over the last few years. That would seem to be helpful in terms of general expectations (although of course nothing is guaranteed and the future can't be known).

General pop and hip hop grates on me so severely that I have skipped so many emails that at some points I want to just unsubscribe from the daily email because it seems so constant, and I wish they could send genre-specific alerts. I agree that opening yourself up to new genres is a really good thing, but it's also good to know what a person loves and which directions they definitely don't want to go in.

My suggestion is take inventory at what you are good at and what you are willing to learn (if at all). Consider collaboration. For example, I can't write contemporary pop (music-wise) for sh*t but I got good at the lyrics side of it and I work with others for the rest. The results have been many TV placements. That's just an example of taking your skills and blending them with someone else's.

That is a really fantastic point and good advice, and I need to collaborate more in general. And definitely a huge congrats to you on that, well done.

Thanks very much for your time, Casey

[JonathanE]

Most of my forwards resulting in library deals and an album are guitar based Latin. world,flamenco genres instrumentals. I think it is good to push yourself to learn or at least try other genres to see where you are at and then sit back and focus on the one you are most skilled at or like to continue to improve.

Although I am a guitar player I am most proud of a Rave track I did which was signed by a library and no guitars were harmed. Taxi is great in pushing me to buy more gear, plugins to try all this genres, also I need someone to blame for this...

Yes I the most popular demands are pop, hip-hop, dramedy...e.t.c...I think it's good to checkout libraries and see what genre they don't have much of in their library and make an offer.

..and yes what Casey said about collaborations.

Hey, congrats on the guitar stuff! very encouraging. And yes, we all need someone to blame to justify all our music purchases, hahaha

Thanks for your thoughts

[cosmicdolphin]

No I don't agree,

I think it's constantly filled with awful Country Music requests which I dislike with a passion and wish the entire loathsome cheesy POS genre could be jettisoned into the bowels of Hades and everytime someone mentioned the word Nashville we were allowed to remotely tazer them to their knees.

But...that's just me Some people like it..apparently

Mark

[Telefunkin]

The way I see it, Taxi listings are a reflection of the wider world beyond and the type of music that TV is demanding. That demand is not driven by Taxi, or libraries, or media composers, they just respond to it and change with it. Consequently, if that's the world we want to be part of then the best we can do is find a way to join in, or accept that our music will have less chance of getting through. That said, the Taxi listings cover quite a diverse range of styles, not just pop or hip hop. There's an opportunity there to learn about and appreciate new genres, and broaden our skills by having a go at new things.

I might just add that even if you're completely turned off by hip hop (I was), that's all the more reason to have a go at it. You might be surprised by how difficult it can be to do well and what you can learn by wrestling with 808s, sub bass and kicks .

[Paulie]

I disagree, sort of.

Listings reflect demand from Taxi's clients. TV shows use a wide variety of music, and to Casey's point, "Pop" is a very broad term. As a classically trained classic jazz saxophone player, I never envisioned that I would make most of my tv money from urban Trap and action/tension instrumental cues. My first movie placement was this year and it was a jazz-influenced string quartet arrangement. I've also had success with dramedy, which often combines light classical elements with hip hop. Taxi regularly has listings for trailers, piano-centric tracks, classic jazz, blues, etc. It is possible to peruse Taxi listings before signing up, I don't think a disclaimer is needed.

I just went through your profile, you have a lot of excellent tracks in a variety of genres. However, all of them fall under pop... you've got rock, country, blues, some other stuff. All of that could be considered "pop" depending on the context.

[JonathanE]

No I don't agree,

I think it's constantly filled with awful Country Music requests which I dislike with a passion and wish the entire loathsome cheesy POS genre could be jettisoned into the bowels of Hades and everytime someone mentioned the word Nashville we were allowed to remotely tazer them to their knees.

But...that's just me Some people like it..apparently

Mark

Well even though I'm not a huge country fan, I'd definitely be up for a duel, it's been a while!

[JonathanE]

The way I see it, Taxi listings are a reflection of the wider world beyond and the type of music that TV is demanding. That demand is not driven by Taxi, or libraries, or media composers, they just respond to it and change with it. Consequently, if that's the world we want to be part of then the best we can do is find a way to join in, or accept that our music will have less chance of getting through. That said, the Taxi listings cover quite a diverse range of styles, not just pop or hip hop. There's an opportunity there to learn about and appreciate new genres, and broaden our skills by having a go at new things.

I might just add that even if you're completely turned off by hip hop (I was), that's all the more reason to have a go at it. You might be surprised by how difficult it can be to do well and what you can learn by wrestling with 808s, sub bass and kicks .

Some good points in there, thank you. Yes, I agree it's a reflection of the world at large and definitely not taxi. And even though it often seems a very small minority, it is precisely the many other genres that still come through to this day that have still definitely made taxi worth it for me.

Very good points, thank you