Lack of Film and TV Listings with Critiques

[beachbum88]

Hi all,

I am a total newbie in music making, so I thought that I'd try to submit to Film and TV listings since they are supposed to be "easier" (in terms of obtaining success in forwards) than the Record and Publisher listings. However, after going through the Nov 1st listings, I noticed that of the 41-or so Film and TV listings, there are only around 4 listings which will be critiqued by Taxi. The rest (90 percent) are only Yes/No listings. I tried to submit to a few Yes/No listings before and decided that I should try to submit to the listings with critiques to get an idea of what I need to improve. What gives?? Some of these deadlines are in December, so Taxi would have plenty of time to screen and give critiques. Are they just short of screeners for film and TV?

Thank you for any insight that you can offer!

Lori

[kclements]

Hi Lori -

Welcome to the forums and Taxi. I am fairly new to taxi as well, and am currently attending my first Road Rally. This question has come up a number of times and I am still not sure why some listings have Y/N and others are critiqued. Maybe someone with more experience can say more.

But I will tell you that this forum and particularly the peer to peer section is most helpful in these situations. If you are thinking of submitting for a listing that is Y/N, post your track(s) to the P2P section first and get some feedback from the members here. All of the people I have met - both on the forums and now in person here in LA - are super helpful and willing to go to great lengths to give advice.

I have learned a ton by asking around here.

hth

kc

[beachbum88]

Thank you for your reply KC! I appreciate it. How was the road rally? I wish that I could have attended.

[llama]

Hey Lori,

How I've heard it is that the listings that are just y/n need a faster turn around time to get to the client then the ones that offer critiques. It takes longer to go through a submission and add a critique then to do the y/n thing. I remember Michael explaining that Taxi has the option to take the listing, realizing that there will not be enough time to give a full critique or to not take the listing at all. So having the y/n option in these cases is a good idea so we get the most ops possible. Even though the timeline may be out there it probably depends on anticipated volume too I would think. Obviously less people will submit to an Armenian electronica listing then an americana listing. Also as kc says the peer2peer section is a great resource to use before you submit. HTH.

Derek.

[mojobone]

I think a Y/N listing might also be one where a large volume of submissions is expected.

[rnrmachine]

Hi Lori,

I can only guess as to why some are critiqued and others are not. So I will try and give you my insight on the matter with my personal experience.

Some are obvious why not because the provider is screening the songs personally and Taxi screeners don't touch them. But the other ones may be like Mojo said... too many submissions expected, sounds logical to me. It could also be, they try to pick and choose what they will screen according to how much back log they have needing to be critiqued. When you submit it says 10-30 days.. over 90% of my submissions take 30 days. So I would think it safe to say they keep themselves very busy with how many they critique. I am sure they know how many they can do a month and try to keep it in that ball park every month. I am just speculating here as well... so don't take me as gospel. hehe

I share in your frustration with the amount of returns. I find Taxi to be the most difficult to find success with and it makes me even more determined... but I can let go of the chew toy if I have too. HAHA

I have 2 songs now that Taxi returned and they have been used by another place and other songs that are currently being "shopped around". That doesn't make me angry with Taxi or think less of the other place I have found success through. I just feel like it is what it is and try to better myself. We all need to be realistic in that, Taxi wants to keep up a certain rapport with their clients (people who list) as well as continue to help us, their paying customers who submit, to better ourselves. They, Taxi, can't make us both happy UNLESS we as writers, musicians, engineers, producers, etc... better ourselves through any and all avenues that we can. That means using peer to peer on the forum here.. BUT take the opinions for what they are. Just opinions... IF they seem more like fact, such as too much low end in a mix then try to determine them as fact. It's up to us to become BS sniffers and sift out the good advice from the indifferent advice, to the completely bad advice. Also, don't get mad at someone if they are blatantly honest. I am not talking mean here, I am just talking no beating around the bush when they tell you what they think is wrong. A lot of people visit the forum, try to help as they look for help and don't have the time to beat around the bush. SO they just come right out and say it. Take that as honest, caring, constructive criticism... That is what I have seen it to be here and what I do when I listen and give my advice/opinion.

If you can't afford to do many or any custom critiques then try to submit to a listing that may not be "on target" for the listing. But the song needs to be the same genre. That way that screener will be the proper screener to listen to your song and you can get a critique for $5. It will not be as good as a custom critique.. I think... I have never had a custom critique done so I can't speak for their validity or the depth of the review. With the questions they ask when you go to submit a custom critique, going by that, I would say they are MUCH more in depth and helpful.

What Derek said sounds completely logical as well.

Sorry for the large reply but I felt all should be said so I left it, Good Luck in ALL you do!!!

Rob

[Hookjaw Brown]

I have found that the guidance provided on P2P and the $20 critiques to be invaluable in refining my ideas and improving my song writing skills. I am now getting a few forwards through Taxi and our live performances are getting much better crowd response.

It is a Slow process but learning to write well is very gratifying in the end. The Y/N listings are a quick feedback system, much in the same vein as live performance. There seems to be a tipping point where your submissions start getting accepted - then you can consider yourself successful.

[admin]

Hi all,
As with everything, there are always exceptions, but generally speaking the reasons for not doing full critiques on some listings are:
1) The turn around time necessary to get the selected music back in the hands of the industry person is short.

2) The listing party has elected to screen the music him or herself. We obviously like those situations as you're getting heard by the end user. But because they rarely have the chops to write critiques with the detail and recommendations our regular screeners know how to do, we let them do it on a yes/no basis.

3) Even though the listing might have a decent length of turn time, we might get it the day the most recent batch went out, so time gets burnt waiting for the next update to go out on the 1st or 15th. I SUSPECT that TAXI 2.0 (which is finally on schedule and looking great) will address that issue in 2.1 or 2.2 with us moving to a system in which you will get the listings within hours of us getting them, and on a one-off basis. ONE of the reasons we've been running many of the advertising listings as one-offs is to "practice," and to identify problems before we move to a one-off system. Let me stress that the one-off thing is not etched in stone, but I think it's likely.

We don't make listings Y/N based on anticipated volume of submissions.

Hope this helps,
Michael

[fret17]

Hi all,
As with everything, there are always exceptions, but generally speaking the reasons for not doing full critiques on some listings are:
1) The turn around time necessary to get the selected music back in the hands of the industry person is short.

2) The listing party has elected to screen the music him or herself. We obviously like those situations as you're getting heard by the end user. But because they rarely have the chops to write critiques with the detail and recommendations our regular screeners know how to do, we let them do it on a yes/no basis.

3) Even though the listing might have a decent length of turn time, we might get it the day the most recent batch went out, so time gets burnt waiting for the next update to go out on the 1st or 15th. I SUSPECT that TAXI 2.0 (which is finally on schedule and looking great) will address that issue in 2.1 or 2.2 with us moving to a system in which you will get the listings within hours of us getting them, and on a one-off basis. ONE of the reasons we've been running many of the advertising listings as one-offs is to "practice," and to identify problems before we move to a one-off system. Let me stress that the one-off thing is not etched in stone, but I think it's likely.

We don't make listings Y/N based on anticipated volume of submissions.

Hope this helps,
Michael

So then, in the Y/N case where,The listing party has elected to screen the music him or herself, "they" are the ones who are checking the boxes for vocals,music, recording, etc.??