Just a Question ...

[DavidDiaz]

Im still debating joining TAXI or not, it all seems great, guess im just a bit skeptical. Can any of you give me some advice or maybe some real life stories ect. thx alot

David Diaz
arcarecords@yahoo.com

[DavidDiaz]

bump

[kclements]

Welcome to the forum.

I would suggest you take some time and read any number of posts in the success forum as well as the general, biz and p2p sections. We have all struggled with the decision you're talking about and there have been some great discussions posted.

Here's a good one:http://forums.taxi.com/topic29814.html but there are many more

Take a look around and you may find what you are looking for.

kc

[Len911]

David, it would probably help to know what your goals and expectations are, and then if Taxi is the right vehicle for you or not. For example, if you said you were 52 years old and wanted to become a rock star and get a major label recording contract, I'd say you'd probably be disappointed, and through no fault of Taxi. If you have reasonable expectations about the music business, or should I say, realistic expectations about the business, I don't think you'd be quite as skeptical. Recently I've been doing a little reading about what it costs to produce a Broadway musical, ~ $10 MILLION, and it sometimes takes 5-10 years in production before opening night, and many times they don't even survive much beyond opening night, certainly not reasonable, and I'm not sure it's even realistic,maybe insane!lol!


Here is a link to the weekly ustream videos, they might do something for you to help with your decision:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15665335

[ernstinen]

Hola, Fuego! I'll second the opinion that you must have reachable goals before attempting to join Taxi. A recording contract? Very unlikely, unless you're 20, have a fantastic voice, and are beautiful.

Writing great songs or instrumental music? Go for it. If you have a decent studio and creative ideas, there's no where to go but up.

As one of my favorite sportscasters in L.A. once said, "What do you have to lose? Think about it. If you fail, you will at least have learned something. If you don't try, you'll remain at square one. But if you succeed, you'll never regret making that leap."

Personally, I join and have some success, then let my membership lapse, and then rejoin when I realize I need to move forward. I guess I don't have quite the constant "fuego" that some members do here, but it DOES work if you are persistent and have talent.

My 2 cents,

Ern

[admin]

Hi David,

As you would expect, we get asked that question here at the office every day of the year. Our staff is taught to "never sell a membership that shouldn't be sold" the day they first come to work here. What that means is that if somebody is a hopeless dreamer with unrealistic expectations, TAXI probably won't be a good fit for them. We don't want to take their money and have them regret that they joined.

If you look at our Success Stories thread: http://forums.taxi.com/taxi-success-stories-f7.html

you'll see that our members regularly sign lots of deals and get lots of placements. I think the VAST majority of them are film and TV deals and placements. I humbly submit that most of those people—actually most musicians in TOTAL—didn't even know there was a market for Indie musicians' music in Film and TV before TAXI opened its doors in 1992. We began running listings for production music libraries and music supervisors from the get go, back when the only way to get one of those placements was if you knew somebody working on a show or a movie.

The rest of the industry has followed our lead and there are now many TAXI copycats out there. The big difference of course is that we are the only company that pre-screens the music. If you were on the buyer's end, would you rather listen to thousands of UNfiltered songs/tracks per month or a select handful that have been carefully filtered?

We don't profess to perform miracles, but every word we print on paper or on the web is true and we deliver what we promise. There will be times you'll be pissed off at us for not forwarding your material, but if you post the song, the listing and the critique on our peer to peer forum, you'll find that inevitably, your fellows members will side with the screeners at TAXI.

So what does that tell you? That we are really careful in what we do, and on the money far more often than not. And while you may find that you don't get forwarded as often as you think you should, what we hear over and over again is that TAXI helps you become a professional. Ask ALL of the people on the Success Stories thread and they will probably all tell you that they had never been heard by ANY REAL company in the music business, let alone ever sign a deal or get paid for their music prior to joining TAXI.

If you're willing to take constructive critiques to heart (which is hard!), target your music to what the industry is ASKING for, strive to get better every time you write and record, and most of all, understand that NOTHING will produce instant results and patience and persistence is a big part of finding success, then you might be ready for TAXI.

If you think that you've created your own NEW genre of music and that the industry should recognize your genius and come around to your way of thinking, then TAXI won't be a good fit for you.

You should also look at this thread: http://forums.taxi.com/topic21279.html

Patience and persistence are really the keys to the kingdom.

I think the reason you're not getting a lot of responses to your inquiry is that even though a relatively small percentage of our total membership uses this forum (seems that only the best and brightest do!), the folks who ARE here have answered this question a hundred times.

If you've got a good list of contacts and can spend lots of focused time contacting them with a really professional, short pitch and can QUICKLY describe your music and how it solves a problem for them, you might not need TAXI. If you're like most people who don't have the time or the skills yet, then TAXI can be a really good asset for you because we vet the companies we work with and give them back only the music that they need right now and is really, really good.

Fellow forumites, feel free to chime in here so David can hear it from the horses' mouths, and not just from the guy who started the company

Hope this helps,
Michael

P.S. One last thought. Virtually every one of our successful members will tell you that to the man or woman, they all regret "watching" TAXI for years before they finally joined. I think what they regret most is that they could have begun their journey to earning money doing what they loved a lot sooner if they'd be doers and not watchers. Better late than never!

[Hookjaw Brown]

@Michael

I think that you also mention the you screen the music buyers for the Taxi members and send out "Real" requests for music.

[Casey H]

David
One thing you can do is get on Taxi's email list for the twice a month listings. You can do that without joining- you just can't submit unless you are a member. Look over the listings for a few cycles carefully and see how the music you create might fit. Go to their website and there is a place to sign up for the listings.

Do you have a website where we can hear some samples of your music?

I can tell you Taxi is an honest and legitimate company. It's not for everyone, but it's all very much on the up and up. And the annual Road Rally convention in LA is worth every penny of the membership.

Best of luck!
Casey

[kclements]

P.S. One last thought. Virtually every one of our successful members will tell you that to the man or woman, they all regret "watching" TAXI for years before they finally joined. I think what they regret most is that they could have begun their journey to earning money doing what they loved a lot sooner if they'd be doers and not watchers. Better late than never!

I don't think that I count as successful yet, but this describes me to a tee. I thought about joining Taxi for years before taking the plunge. I wish now I hadn't waited so long. But, like you said Michael, better late than never.

There's a lot of great advice here - I would say if anything here resonates with you - go for it.

Cheers -
kc