TAXI RALLY IN NASHVILLE -please use this thread

[sgs4u]

Jesse, you're right. Vermeer, I apologize. And now you all know my not-so-secret, secret. Quote:Steve, you are a wonderful songwriter--and you know I mean that--but you are only a self-proclaimed cop and we call those vigilantes or rogues, my good man, even when they mean well. A good cop is sure a crime has been committed before he bashes a citizen over the head and slaps the cuffs on. A man clears his throat and you accuse him of preparing to spit on the sidewalk.Well, sir, if you are going to--presto-- become a self-proclaimed cop, I am just going to become a self-proclaimed judge. This one is thrown out of court. The man cleared his throat, he didn't spit. Next case please!

[hookstownbrown]

Okay, now that the air is clear... Who should we get to call Michael and tell him he should move his family and business to Nashville?Me? Uhhh... I can't. My phone just broke... It'll be broke for awhile. I think I'll have a Molson... Yes Molson... A doggone righteous brew from the Great White North...

[hookstownbrown]

Quote:...It takes tremendous know-how and persuasiveness to bring it all together......I just don't see what the advantage would be for Taxi. They already seem to have pretty good lines of communication established with Nashville.On a serious note...Sorry bud, I have to disagree with your comments.First of all, if any company has the know-how to pull off an event like this, it is Taxi. No question.Secondly, Michael does indeed have strong connections in Nashville, but Taxi, as an A&R service, has relatively few success stories originating from Music Row.As I've said before. If you have no constant, physical presence in Nashville, you have little chance of success on any level. It's a cold, hard fact of the culture there.Someone once said, "If you want to catch fish, you have to go to the lake."I am always aware that by constantly harping on this issue, I'm probably not making many friends within the Taxi organization. However, I didn't join Taxi to kiss up to the Taxi family. I joined Taxi to make a career of songwriting within the genre that I've been chosen to write.As a songwriter, I get frustrated and I rant. Sometimes I get irritated with those who are afraid to speak their minds --> for fear of upsetting "The gods"...When I'm frustrated and struggling, I make waves, stir things up... When I make career progress, I celebrate.It's how I deal with this business.Business... Not to re-float a dry-docked boat, but I was once a successful businessman and then a business consultant, until I chose to leave the profession. When I voiced my opinion, people listened, they learned and they earned... Customer service, marketing... I spoke my mind and got results.After some songwriting success, I recently told one of my co-writers that I should probably 'shut my mouth' because it may be hurting my career. She advised me to kill that thought and continue being me... I believe she is right on. I'll continue my ways... At least until I get the big #1 hit... Then I'll ease off... Maybe... Hehheh!PS: Even though I still keep my cheesy Broadjam website, they still suck!

[hummingbird]

Quote:Hook, don't the companies in Nashville listen to the stuff Taxi forwards to them? Explain how Taxi would use its presence in Nashville to get more cuts for its members. I am not so good at such an exercise, so I need help seeing it. The thing we get told all the time is to make it in Nashville, you have to live there (as Hook explains above). Therefore, it seems to me that Taxi offices being in Nashville will not assist Taxi members who don't live in Nashville, because they still won't be living there to make connections. But we Dots all have one wee connection in Nashville...her name is Jimi and she is hot hot hot H'Bird

[hummingbird]

Quote:Wait... Did I miss something, Vikki? From what I understand, Jimi doesn't work for Taxi anymore. Am I the last to know a contrary fact?I am really confused here... She is having the typical tough time making her own roads on the row...Is that a fact? I wonder... No, I was just saying that I (we) know one person in Nashville, hee hee. (Well, actually, two - because a student of mine moved there this Fall.) Not that that means anything, cause I'm not there to make those connections in person that you talked about.That's my point, really. Even if Michael pulled up stakes and moved the Taxi head office to Nashville, how would that help any of us who don't live in Nashville? We still won't live there, be there, to create the network/establish the connections.But in any case I gave up writing country for Goth

[hookstownbrown]

What I'm trying to say in all of this is that the people who matter in Nashville would listen to our forwards with a lot more interest...If Taxi had a permanent presence there... If Taxi were a part of the community... If the screeners and staff hung out there, ect. Snowball effect.

[jchitty]

Quote:That's a very valid question, horacejesse. By all means, the Taxi forwards get listenend to.But to really understand Music Row -- I'm assuming you haven't worked the pavement along 16th Ave. S -- you would have to go there. It's a total institution unlike any other.I'm sharing this info with you after numerous visits - some longer than a month at a time - and numerous conversations with those who are living, working, succeeding and struggling on Music Row.Friendship and personal aquaintance is the motor that drives the machine in Nashville. If you've ever heard the term, "Entitlement system", well Nashville is the epitome of that notion. I don't mean that in a negative way. I mean that as a realistic fact.If you live there and hang around the right places, sooner or later, you will meet the people who can help with your career. With any luck, you might become friends with some of those people and they might, in turn, introduce you to other movers and shakers, and so on. You live there for awhile, blend in with the culture, folks want to get to know you more and folks start talking about you -- It's really like a very small town...Once I was having lunch at a deli and one of my favorite songwriters - Tony Lane - was sitting in the next booth. We struck up a casual conversation, ate our food and then said goodbye. It was cool, but I left there thinking I might meet him again in a year, or two? If I lived in Nashville, I could go back there a week later and over many weeks, possibly make a friend? The Music Row culture is all about personal relationships, personal trust and favors to friends. Songwriters who are adept at their craft want to write with others who they trust are on the same level. But, they also want to write with someone who has the same interests... Someone they click with... Fishing, hunting, gardening and whatnot...I've been introduced to quite a few hit songwriters in Nashville, but only once. I know where they eat lunch. If I was a constant fixture, I might even get to know those folks better.So to bring in the analogy and answer your main question, the friendship thing extends to music companies, too. The constant presence means everything. It's a marketing strategy that major corporations wrap their arms around.To become successful in a closed market, you must become a part of the market. You must assimilate and perpetuate the values, traditions and mechanics of that market, rather than try to change the motor.It's an unfortunate fact for those of us who have the ability, but can't, for so many reasons, move to Nashville. So here I go, determined to prove everybody wrong. I am going to break into Music Row and further my career living five hundred miles away!I love a challenge! Hehheh!!!I'm glad you made this post, Hook. But it also has me concerned. While affable, I am not necessarily the backslapping, gregarious type. While a hard worker and a person who can make friends, I wonder how hard it would be to gain access to an exclusive club of writers. I think most people are like that.....I'm not saying I'm the type who can't network, I can....but to reach the upper echelons in Nashville? It's disconcerting to me that not only do I have to write that 'amazingly perfect' song, but that I also have to be a politician.....and it worries me about the state of country music. Remember, this is only a hypothetical situation, I have no illusions that I'd get a hit song on the radio...the odds are more in favor of me winning a lottery. Some of the best country music was created by people who didn't necessarily fit the 'norm' of what Nashville is. Will we all just get processed Cheese Whiz on the radio 'coz friends are granting favors for friends whose music is not so great? BTW, I live three hours from Nashville, maybe two and a half hours if I drive over 70, hehe. (I live in B'ham, Alabama) I'm thinking about joining (won't mention the name) a well known organization and going to some workshops there. They have a chapter here, but I'm thinking Nashville would be the better venue.Signed,Sometimes Shrinking Violet and Shy Person

[hummingbird]

Quote:Vikki,You actually know another "DOT" in Nashville----ME!!!OMG!! That's what "TN" means?

[sgs4u]

Is this you being sarcastic? I like it Quote:So the premise is that Forwards from Taxi are not "seriously" listened to by the people who receive them in Nashville because ML doesn't have an office there. And because, rather than listening to the music, the listing party checks the address of all Forwarded writers & declines to listen to anything that doesn't come from someone who lives in "TN". Just want to get this clear in my mind.

[hummingbird]

From Michael Laskow:Ok guys,Here's the skinny. I get calls from people every week suggesting I build a TAXI office in their town, but I have to say that Nashville is the only town I've ever considered doing it in.That said, if I DID build an office there, I would likely get calls from Urban people asking why I don't build an office in Atlanta What our members don't know is that at times, we've hired pluggers in Nashville at my own expense (thousands per year), and they have been charged with hand delivering music on the Row. One plugger (highly connected and well respected) worked for us for nearly two years, with no substantial results.On our own, and through regular TAXI listings, we've had songs put on hold by major label artists on several occasions. None of them got cut, but if you know anything about the REAL Country music biz, you know that a hold rarely means a cut, but it DOES mean that you're getting heard and considered by the REAL guys/gals.So… I quickly figured out that the BEST way to get cuts for TAXI members was to start running listings from PUBLISHERS on the Row, which would geometrically increase the number of possibilities for our members.In fact, the two cuts (both went to Number One) we've had in Nashville have been through publishers that found the songs/writers through TAXI.Another thing most members don't know is that I'm really well connected in Nashville, and hopefully, without sounding immodest, there are very FEW people I can't get to on the Row. I typically go to Nashville several times a year to maintain my relationships, and hang out with and/or golf with my friends from the Row several times a year on top of that.Trust me when I tell you that when we come across something AMAZING that bubbles up through the screeners, it gets into the right hands in Nashville, listing or not!Problem is, when members hear that, they come out of the woodwork, insisting that THEY have something amazing. Please trust me when I tell you that LOTS of things like that (my trips, personal hand delivery and pluggers) take place during the course of business at TAXI, and not just in the Country genre.I spend thousands of dollars and tons of time doing things behind the scenes to push deals for writers and artists EVERY year, but stay mute about it. Even if I weren't passionate about what we do here, I'd be an idiot to NOT do everything I can to make deals happen. That's how we grow the company.Also want to interject that I recently had a discussion on this VERY topic with some buddies from Nashville. And although they all know several/many great pluggers, they could barely name a cut that came through one that was indie, and not directly connected/working for a publisher.Hence, my decision to not open a Nashville office or hire yet another plugger. Seems to make more sense to get our members' music into the hands of PUBLISHERS who really stand to benefit MOST from getting cuts and therefore more motivated. Most pluggers work on weekly/monthly payment, and maybe a spiff, not co-ownership of the copyright.Truthfully, you can never be absolutely sure that your plugger IS getting your music heard. There are reputable pluggers and those who are not. And NO plugger is going to ruin his/her rep by carrying your tunes in just because they're getting paid by you.That's the belief, but it's not reality. They simply can't stake their reputation on a song that's not the REAL deal.I'll never say “never” to either idea, but for the moment, the publishers seem to be the best shot for our members. We still run listings for A&R peeps at the labels too, and semi-recently had a song seriously in the running for Rascal Flatts, but it didn't pan out.ALL that said, anybody who IS on the Row would tell you the BEST way to get a cut is to make the relationships yourself (with people on the Row). But you need to be at LEAST as good as the VERY best before those relationships will pan out. Jimi's web page is a textbook for ALL of this info!!! http://jimiheath.com/And finally, here are the first two paragraphs of our About page and brochure:The Best Way To Get SignedIf you're trying to land a record deal, nothing works better than hitting the road, playing hundreds of gigs, and selling thousands of CDs from the trunk of your car.If you're a songwriter, moving to Los Angeles, New York, or Nashville and "paying your dues" is often the best way to go.*****************************************Pretty much says it all. Go write more songs! And Hooks (and everybody else who has had this thought), if you think that we've got the time to scan the board for statements we don't like and then go to our screeners and tell them to treat you less fairly than ANY other member, then you don't know much about me or the company I run.I'm too busy with REAL work, and I'm not that kind of person.We've got you guys covered in more ways than you know. So just go concentrate on writing great songs. THAT'S what WE need from you Thanks,MichaelA picture is worth a thousand words. ML fishing with James Dean Hicks (hit songwriter), Ralph Murphy (V.P. ASCAP Nashville), and Craig Wiseman (hit songwriter/publisher)See photo here