Listing Y06062980 results

[spariam]

Quote:Available annonymous screener profiles may be a good start. Lets make the system tranparent...it would only benifit everyone.Cheers,ChipTaxi's A&R Team (partial list), past & present, is on the Taxi web site.https://www.taxi.com/aandr.htmlI'll say one thing, I've gotten very insightful critiques again and again...especially on some of the Irish stuff I've done. One reviewer was VERY knowledgeable on finer points of traditional Irish music...not something I've ever really gotten before. Very impressive.So far out of 25 submissions or so, I'm batting about 85% on forwards, with two placements (one listing, two songs)...and I've only been a member for about five months.

[matto]

Quote:Matto...do you have a web site I can go to and listen to samples of your music? http://taxi.proboards27.com/index.cgi?a ... uote:After re-reading the posts I think I should in the least clarify my "credentials" for lack of a better term. Since I am unfairly being portayed as an amateaur.I have had a deal with A&M records in Canada, Sony records in Japan and Redlight records in the US with a great deal of airplay in Canada. I have also had videos on Much Music (man they are funny to watch now...LOL) and have toured and played thousands of live shows across Canada and the US. I continue to play live shows in Canada and I am looking forward to shopping my new CD and touring on that project. That being said...In the process of obtaining those deals I have had an extensive amount of interaction with various A&R reps from many major labels. I certainly never meant to portray you as an amateur, I was just going by the questions you asked. And actually those questions seem even more surprising now...but maybe the music industry in Canada is a kinder gentler affair, where A&R people call you to say they are not interested and enjoy follow-up calls...I'm not being facetious I truly don't know. But I know that's not the way it is down here.Quote:Is there a reason why the current screeners could not have an annonymous profile listing their credentials and what listings they are assigned to critique and what genre of music they specialize in? I honestly don't feel this is unreasonable to ask. Particularily on vague listings like the one I mention previously (Green Day/Kelly Clarkson). If I knew the screener had a history in rock more so than pop I may have submiited something for the listing.Doug already gave you the link to the screeners' profiles. The reason they don't have bios with the screeners' numbers is that it would be pretty easy to figure out a screeners name that way, using the internet and some basic cross referencing. And unfortunately there are some crazy people out there (even among the Taxi membership)... ...so it's unfortunately necessary to protect these people's identities.The reasons why they don't list which screener is going to screen which listing are logistical: At the time the listing is placed they don't know who's gonna screen it as this obviously depends on screener availability and number of submissions. For the more "popular" listings (such as pretty much any "modern pop/rock" one) there are usually several screeners to handle all the submissions, so there is really no way of knowing ahead of time which screener will end up listening to your particular submission.Hope this helps.matto

[bc]

Hi Chip,BC here; I can commiserate with you vis-à-vis the screening process issue. 3 years with TAXI and here’s my story:TAXI’s marketing model has contributed to more than a few ticked off posts (by me ) on this board. When one has played and paid their dues successfully for many years, including a record deal and touring with major acts and artists, it’s a hard pill to swallow to have some (percieved) has-been, or maybe never-been, in a cubicle reject their work. BUT…and this is the crux of the issue; there is a monumental difference between writing and performing your music with your act, for your audience, versus competing with world class songwriters for tiny slice of the pie. My band (North Wind) had our 15 minutes of fame; shared the marquee with a who’s who of rock and roll, blues and country rock; we played our songs for literally hundreds of thousands of frenzied fans. We wrote some killer concert jams; but during those days, I never really studied the “art” of songwriting. I could pen mystical lyrics, tight grooves, and the crowds would rave. The transition from playing my stuff to my crowd; to pitching to top artists in today’s highly competitive environment, has been tough. Small mistakes made by screeners would set me off – and there have been some gaffs with screeners, but they’ve few and far between. And to that end, I have had to take a deep breath and accept that the TAXI screeners, as a cadre, (quirks and mistakes notwithstanding) have forced me kicking and screaming into the realization that songwriting, at the top level, is way more that just muse and music. These days (thanks to cogent reviews) I count the syllables in each verse line -- never did that before TAXI. Now my songs are more user friendly, easier to sing along with. I now realize that each word in a verse line needs to be a diamond; string the diamonds together in a sentence where the last diamond (word) perfectly sets up the first diamond of the next line. And so on… Now I make sure that my verses flow; that I have a pre chorus that lifts and sets up my soaring chorus’ My songwriting has improved exponentially, not so much in content, as in clarity of the visual imagery. Tossing my ego in the corner has been hard. I must thank the screeners for their patience with my impatience while I painfully came to the realization that I had a long way to go to create a professionally crafted song that a big time country/pop artist might cut. Now I co write, collaborate and speak the language of a professional songwriter. Lately I’m hangin’ with some great writers in Nash’vas. They respect my input. That my friend is priceless. Lastly, forwards to film and TV listings have resulted in contracts that I would have never received had it not been for TAXI. Icing on the cake for this great lakes boy Best,bc

[davewalton]

Quote:And to that end, I have had to take a deep breath and accept that the TAXI screeners, as a cadre, (quirks and mistakes notwithstanding) have forced me kicking and screaming into the realization that songwriting, at the top level, is way more that just muse and music. Good point. The screener situation is really a self-correcting mechanism, something I don't really have to worry about. If the screeners are consistantly bad for us, they'll be consistantly bad for Taxi's clients, and as a result of that they won't be screeners very long.I'm sure that Capitol Records, Disney, Miramax, etc, did their homework on the screeners before commiting to doing any Taxi listings. If those screeners are good enough for them, they're way good enough for me.