Listing Target Questions

[SpaceCreature]

Good afternoon.

My name is Ron and I'm a new Taxi member. I have some questions. I'd never tried to write a classical piece before, but put one together for a cooking show in about a half an hour and threw it at the listing. Needless to say it was returned. Ha! The reviewer said it was creative and had a nice emotive arc, but that he didn't like the orchestra hits and that it was over-quantized. Point taken. I did a couple others the same way. One was a pop minimal instrumental for a commercial; it was returned and the feedback was that it was too monotonous and too short at 1:30.

Question #1: Is there a standard length for each musical genre, and do all successful Taxi members follow this same formula? 2 minutes for a tv cue, and 3-4 minutes for an actual full song? This is really easy to do, it's just not a thing that a guy who writes album rock would know to do.

Then...I decided to throw a few songs from my latest album at a couple rock listings. The reviewers said they liked the creativity, but the songs were returned because one intro was too long, and the others didn't match the reference materials of the listing. So. This brings me to my questions.

Question #2: Do Taxi screeners subscribe to the philosophy, "Don't bore us; get to the chorus."? Also, do those of you who are successfully getting placements compose rock songs that follow the old Beatles Formulas? Easy enough to do. But in your experience, is this the case?

Also, do the submissions need to be exactly like the reference materials in mood and timbre? Does a listing with a referenced Soundgarden track need to sound like Soundgarden song that the band never played?

Question #3:
I am confused by the feedback that I received last night on my song "Skull of the Jester":

The listing was for grunge songs with a Soundgarden reference track for a compilation album.

This is the feedback I received from the screener:
What I like most about this song
Creative & visual song title that will arouse interest in the listener. Duel vocal performance in parts of the song works well.
I think you could improve this song by
Apart form the mix song had no real weaknesses.
I returned or forwarded this song because
Sorry that I cannot forward. Song was not truly on target in regard to style & did not evidence the requested Grunge Rock style & sound that was heard in the noted Artists songs.

The reference material was a Soungarden track. You can hear my song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wshU5_CS4BE

Not sure if I should submit any more songs until I figure this out.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.
~Ron

[MBantle]

Good afternoon.

My name is Ron and I'm a new Taxi member. I have some questions. I'd never tried to write a classical piece before, but put one together for a cooking show in about a half an hour and threw it at the listing. Needless to say it was returned. Ha! The reviewer said it was creative and had a nice emotive arc, but that he didn't like the orchestra hits and that it was over-quantized. Point taken. I did a couple others the same way. One was a pop minimal instrumental for a commercial; it was returned and the feedback was that it was too monotonous and too short at 1:30.

Question #1: Is there a standard length for each musical genre, and do all successful Taxi members follow this same formula? 2 minutes for a tv cue, and 3-4 minutes for an actual full song? This is really easy to do, it's just not a thing that a guy who writes album rock would know to do.

Then...I decided to throw a few songs from my latest album at a couple rock listings. The reviewers said they liked the creativity, but the songs were returned because one intro was too long, and the others didn't match the reference materials of the listing. So. This brings me to my questions.

Question #2: Do Taxi screeners subscribe to the philosophy, "Don't bore us; get to the chorus."? Also, do those of you who are successfully getting placements compose rock songs that follow the old Beatles Formulas? Easy enough to do. But in your experience, is this the case?

Also, do the submissions need to be exactly like the reference materials in mood and timbre? Does a listing with a referenced Soundgarden track need to sound like Soundgarden song that the band never played?

Question #3:
I am confused by the feedback that I received last night on my song "Skull of the Jester":

The listing was for grunge songs with a Soundgarden reference track for a compilation album.

This is the feedback I received from the screener:
What I like most about this song
Creative & visual song title that will arouse interest in the listener. Duel vocal performance in parts of the song works well.
I think you could improve this song by
Apart form the mix song had no real weaknesses.
I returned or forwarded this song because
Sorry that I cannot forward. Song was not truly on target in regard to style & did not evidence the requested Grunge Rock style & sound that was heard in the noted Artists songs.

The reference material was a Soungarden track. You can hear my song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wshU5_CS4BE

Not sure if I should submit any more songs until I figure this out.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.
~Ron

Hi Ron!
Welcome to the Forum!
Question #1: When it comes to instrumentals the required length is mentioned in the listing (I would say the most common ones are 90 seconds or 2 minutes). For songs there usually isn't a strict requirement but I would look at the length of the reference to make sure you're in the ballpark.
Question #2a: It always depends on the requirements of the listing and the references. If all references in a listing are AAA (like 'Amazing Graze' as a quick example) I would not write a song that has a verse, prechorus, chorus and bridge and vice versa.
Question #2b/3: I would recommend that you take a look at https://blog.taxi.com/forward/ It includes previous listings and the tracks that were forwarded. I never had any luck with submitting pre-existing tracks to a Taxi listing and only did that in the beginning a few times (within the Taxi community that approach for good reasons is also referred to as the 'square peg in a round hole' approach... ). Think of it that way: Taxi's client has a very specific requirement and is therefore only looking for material that fits the listing (and nothing else).
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Matt

[SpaceCreature]

Thanks, Matt!
Interesting. That helps a bunch. I can certainly write and record songs that sound like other people; I was just taught not to do that. Sounds like it's best to keep the original songs and recordings that we love to ourselves. It's the exact opposite of what I was taught in school. I was taught to write for myself, be myself musically, and if I like a song enough to listen to it myself, then there are probably others like me out there who will like it as well.
Thanks again.

[SpaceCreature]

Do most Taxi users browse the listings and then write a specific ditty for that specific listing based on the flavor of the reference tracks?

[cosmicdolphin]

I was taught to write for myself

Well this is sync licensing , it's a service industry and you aren't writing for yourself. You need to be writing something that is useful to a TV or Film production company.

Do most Taxi users browse the listings and then write a specific ditty for that specific listing based on the flavor of the reference tracks?

Yes..you need to study them carefully , distill what makes them what they are and then write something with the same vibe. Easier said than done.

Mark