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jpage
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Lists

Post by jpage » Tue May 23, 2017 3:38 pm

Anyway to get the list of the 10 Big Mistakes from last nights show?

Bob Mair is always a good listen. He has useful advice and gives great insights.

Thanks for letting us listen.

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Re: Lists

Post by funsongs » Tue May 23, 2017 5:04 pm

U might try calling the Taxi office, and see if they've assembled one in writing.
If that doesn't work, and you cain't get no - no, no, no - Satisfaction -
you may have to resort to the archive version of the show on either You Tube, or TAXI TV on the Taxi homepage menu under COMMUNITY.
Hope that helps.
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Re: Lists

Post by admin » Wed May 24, 2017 1:37 pm

10 Biggest Mistakes Show Notes

5.22.17 ML

To all who read this: These are my NOTES, not an article! They might be a little sloppy or hard to understand. I wasn't trying to get an "A" on my notes... only on the interview ;-)


• Talk about time, or lack thereof, how busy library owners are and what they do all day. Tagging, uploading, pitching, paperwork, tracking income, writing checks, PRO registrations, prepping for dashbox, soundminer, and whatever else. Mastering?

• How much does hand-holding impede Bob’s (or anybody’s) ability to pitch? Musicians often only see their immediate needs or questions, and although the library owners would love to be awesomely wonderful people and answer questions about all things music business related, for every minute they’re doing that, they’re missing out on a minute that should be used for pitching to make the composers income!

• How many pitch-related emails or phone calls do you make in a typical, average day?

The Biggest Mistakes!

Mistake: The follow up! TAXI has sent a member’s music to you. You ask them for additional stuff, and then “the follow ups” begin! Do follow-ups ever convince you to sign something or somebody? Do follow-ups ever make you feel like wish you’d never met that person?

Mistake: Do not attempt to reach out to a TV production company (or network) to follow up on a piece of music that you know was used in a show. For instance, a writer we know saw that one of his tracks had been used in a show, so he reached out to the network requesting a copy of the episode footage that his track appeared in. This hurts our relationship with the network or production.

Mistake: Do not badger publishers about whether or not they sent your track to a TV show, film or production.

Mistake: Do not badger publishers about payment. Most will pay only twice a year….it can take up to 90 days after the airing for the payment to even be sent to us.

Mistake: Badgering a library when they pass on something of yours. “Dude, I can’t believe you’re not taking this! My music is in 5 other libraries and I’ve had dozens of placements…” Libraries invest their time and effort in signing music they think they can make money with. They often pass on great music. Just because something is great, doesn’t mean it’s a high probability income-earing song or track. They invest their time and effort in signing music that will be requested most frequently.

Mistake: Posting comments or complaints about a music library, a music supervisor, a person in the industry, or any related company on Facebook, twitter, the TAXI Forum, etc. is a big mistake! Once those things are out there, they can easily be pointed out, forwarded, or spread to people in the music or TV/Film community.

Mistake: Trading or exchanging contacts or relationships with other musicians to gain access to companies you don’t have a relationship with. Even though you might like the person and have had no bad interactions with them, you don’t know how they’ll interact with your valuable contact or that the music they send won’t be a waste of the person or company’s time. And while you might not think you’re creating competition for yourself because you and the person you refer do different genres, they’ll also refer other composers down the road who very well may do the same genres as you. Explain the geometric aspect over time.

Mistake: TAXI runs a music search for your company. We find X number of songs or tracks and send them to you. You reach out to a member about something you’d like to sign. And even though our listing said, “you need to own or control the copyright and the master,” the member you’ve reached out to says, “Oh, sorry, my co-writer won’t let me sign that to an exclusive publishing deal.” Does that get under the skin of publishers? Why would this person even submit when the TAXI listing clearly says EXCLUSIVE at least TWICE in the body of the listing???

Mistake: Do not submit any piece of music without having the writer splits resolved, if applicable. If you ARE submitting on behalf of yourself and co-writers, be sure that your co-writers are on board with the deal that any given Publisher is offering BEFORE you pitch!

Related: On that note, ensure that any co-writers do not have publishing deals with major publishers (i.e. BMG, etc).

Mistake: Don’t ask what a publisher needs only to constantly deliver other things and say, “Well, I know you were asking for that, but I wrote this and I thought I’d see if it works for you.”

Mistake: When you reach out to our members—or any of the writers who are in your catalog—and you ask them to send you music, how much do you love it when they send an MP3, a folder of MP3s or WAV files attached to an email?

Related: How much do you love it when you ask what else they have in their catalog that you might be interested in, and they send you 24 soundcloud links?

Related: What are the preferred ways to send?

Mistake: Composers and writers not responding to industry people when they contact you. If we forward your music to Bob or any other entity in the music business, and they reach out to you, don’t ignore them or NOT respond! Ask Bob to what extent that affects his feelings about wanting to work with that writer or composer. ML – Tell the story about the guy who didn’t respond because he was afraid he’d get ripped off because he’s heard so many stories about how everybody in the music industry just wants to screw you.

Mistake: What’s the biggest mistake regarding samples? “Submitting music with un-cleared samples in your music and failing to notify the person you’ve submitted them to.”

Mistake: Assuming that just because you have music in other libraries or catalogs that your music is good enough or right enough to be in EVERY catalog.

Mistake: Ask him about using samples of your name: Quoting him... “If you are a Hip Hop producer, please don’t put an awful sample of your name through out your tracks…it’s obnoxious and you sound like an idiot. It kills the potential for anything that even might sound hip.”

Mistake: The “I can do everything mistake.” If he (or any company) connects with you and asks to hear more of your music, sending 50 pieces of music from all genres and saying you can “do anything” is a mistake. Focus on what you can do best and target your submissions based on your strengths. If you send too much music, we get bogged down trying to get through all of it.

Mistake: If you’ve been asked to send additional material by a company you’ve begun a relationship with, not tagging your files with metadata is a mistake. Publishers receive hundreds of submissions a week, which we cannot immediately listen to. If we download a song and pull it up a week later and there’s no metadata or contact information embedded in the song file, or the music is in a folder marked WeTransfer, we can’t get in touch with you. I’ve had submissions where the folder is labeled with our company name and that’s all the info I’ve got…oye!

Mistake: Sending mass emails without personalization: "if you can’t bother to do a few minutes of basic research on a company and personalize the email, why should we bother giving your music a few minutes?"

Mistake: Don’t submit your music to a TAXI listing for an exclusive Publisher if you’re looking for a licensing agency or a non-exclusive deal. It wastes everyone’s time.

Mistake: Submitting your music to a TAXI listing, getting forwarded, only to pull it back when someone expresses interest.

Mistake: "Asking a Publisher what kind of music they’re being asked for, because ALL kinds of music are asked for every day of the week. If a Publisher says they need Hip Hop, and you say “I don’t do Hip Hop,” you’ve just wasted their time."

Mistake: Not understanding that publishing deals for Film and TV are different from pub deals for “record” projects. It’s common, almost a given in many, if not most cases, that the publisher will get 100% in a film/TV deal. Newbies often reach out their friend who’s a real estate atty. who took some music law courses in school, and they tell them, “You should never give up 100% of your publishing.” While that might be good advice for songs you’d pitch to major label artists, in film/TV, 100% is the norm. Don’t pitch you’re a+ stuff for records to film/TV deals, then decline to sign because the song has real possibilities in the record business.

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Re: Lists

Post by jpage » Wed May 24, 2017 4:18 pm

Thank you for posting, you really do provide great services (above and beyond)!

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Re: Lists

Post by brrrse » Wed May 24, 2017 4:23 pm

Thanks, Michael. This will make a great "read-along" guide for rewatching the show on Youtube. I dunno who's like me, but part of the appeal of the live show is the chat. I try to go back at a more productive time for me and watch the replay. Thank you for all you do!!
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Re: Lists

Post by admin » Wed May 24, 2017 5:20 pm

Thanks, happy to help. BTW, many of these ideas for topics came from Bob, himself. He actually asked me if we could do a show covering these topics. Like many other publishers, they work long, hard hours, and they don't like spending their precious time on things they shouldn't have to because people aren't wise to the ways of the industry.

The industry has changed a lot over the years. Without patting TAXI on the back too loudly, prior to TAXI introducing the concept of connecting indie artists, songwriters, and composers with industry professionals, there was an assumption that everybody the industry pros worked with already had a certain level of industry knowledge.

Because TAXI routinely connects talented musicians who may only have the musical aspects firmly within their grasp, we are always working hard to educate our members so they have the business side in their grasp as well. It matters quit e bit! There are a lot of talented musicians out there. Those who act most professionally will almost always have an edge, IMHO.

When you invest in a TAXI membership, you're getting much more than access to opportunities. Personally (and yes, I'm biased, lol), I think $300 a year is a steal for what our members get. It really bothers me when I see people post, " I didn't make my $300 back in my first year, so I didn't renew." Short-sighted and probably not destined for success in my experience.

Ughhh.

Michael

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Re: Lists

Post by annayarbrough » Wed May 24, 2017 7:00 pm

admin wrote:When you invest in a TAXI membership, you're getting much more than access to opportunities. Personally (and yes, I'm biased, lol), I think $300 a year is a steal for what our members get. It really bothers me when I see people post, " I didn't make my $300 back in my first year, so I didn't renew." Short-sighted and probably not destined for success in my experience.

Ughhh.

Michael
Taxi TV and the forums alone are well worth the $300... never mind the countless pitching opportunities, relationships, and the rally. Those people are silly :twisted:
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Re: Lists

Post by VanderBoegh » Fri May 26, 2017 2:58 pm

Personally (and yes, I'm biased, lol), I think $300 a year is a steal for what our members get.
It's the steal of the century, Michael. Seriously! I've attended the ASCAP Expo in the past ($450), and it is vastly inferior to the Road Rally - which you give us with the price of our $300 membership. The ASCAP Expo is $150 per day, for hit-or-miss panels and classes... A TAXI membership is less than a buck a day, and comes with all sorts of goodies, with the Road Rally being the crown jewel. I'll always credit TAXI for giving me the tools and education to make a career out of this. How many other companies can say that?!?! Certainly not any of the knock-off's that stole your business model and are now just cashing in on hapless musicians who are naive enough to think that a free service will make them rich and famous.

TAXI for the win!

Okay, this sounds like a commercial... I'll stop now. But, from a personal - and very selfish reason - I almost like that so many people hedge their bets on the other websites and companies... as less people who know the business means less competition for me, hahahahahahaha.

~~Matt

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Re: Lists

Post by Len911 » Fri May 26, 2017 4:31 pm

Maybe it should be a chapter in a book called, "Manners and Protocol". Maybe it is,lol! Before I quit buying them years ago, it seemed most books about business were about aggressive pursuit, negotiating, squeeky wheel gets the grease, art of the... well you get the picture, wolf on wall street,lol! Maybe they still are, maybe that's partially the reason people act the way they do?
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