Inconsistancy?

[ebjazz]

Hi everyone; I submitted "Sea Of Leaves" ( you can hear it on my Taxi page in the sig) to this listing:

S091117NA
ETHEREAL/NEW AGE SONGS AND INSTRUMENTALS a la the wide variety of Enya, Kitaro, Loreena McKennitt, etc., needed by the Music Director of a Production Library that distributes music compilations for Fitness Training. This specific request is for a Yoga compilation so songs must be slow to mid-tempo. The compensation for usage of your music is 15% royalties on all sales as well as international exposure. They sold CDs in over 34 countries last year and are currently in the process of creating a streaming radio station that will be featured on iTunes radio and broadcast commercially to thousands of gym locations around the world. Broadcast quality is needed (great home recordings are fine). Please submit one to three songs and/or instrumentals online or per CD, include lyrics (if applicable). All submissions will be screened and critiqued by TAXI and must be no later than Tuesday, November 17, 2009. TAXI #S091117NA

Got the forward all 7's & 8's with these comments:

The New Age style associated with Kitaro is well represented in this piece, which also includes worldbeat textures to help create an ethereal atmosphere.
Hello Eric,
Your abundant composing skills and production talents shine through in this presentation, even without including your signature trumpet sound. This piece should provide a solid underscore to the client's yoga fitness CD. Good work and good luck!
Overall production values and musicianship were broadcast quality.
"Sea Of Leaves" fulfills the client's request for ethereal New Age music and moves FORWARD.

Then I submitted for this listing:

Y100105NA
NEW AGE INSTRUMENTALS in the range from Yanni to Kitaro to Andreas Vollenweider, etc., are wanted by a West Coast-based Music Library whose clients include Xbox, Microsoft, Visa, Clorox, Instrumental presentation must be top-notch! They offer a standard non-exclusive, 50/50 deal and they don't acquire your song's copyright. Songs must be broadcast quality (great sounding home recordings are OK). You must control the publishing and master rights to your songs - no samples that require clearance, please. Please submit one to three instrumentals online or per CD. All submissions will be screened on a YES/NO BASIS - NO CRITIQUES FROM TAXI - and must be received no later than Tuesday, January 5, 2009. TAXI #Y100105NA

And the result was a return with this checked:
Stylistically Off Target
Music

Interesting thing is the critiques were both from the SAME screener #302.
Just wondering what everyone thought of this?

[davewalton]

A couple of things come to mind...

The "Yoga CD"... I would expect that the most *useful* music would be music very similar to what you submitted... very calming, very ethereal... non-melodic as far as a distinct melody that could be hummed later. And so your submission would be very useful for that... therefore the well-deserved forward. The second listing... I would expect that the most useful music for that would be much less ethereal, more "song like" with a more defined structure and melody and something that would be more uptempo. Of course those "ala" artists have a wide range of material... I think that a submission that paralleled their more uptempo tracks would be what this listing wanted.

BTW... listings are written by the listing client (or through a process where Taxi tries to get the information out of them the best they can). So the fact that all of my speculation wasn't part of the listing... it's a common thing to have to try to meet the needs of decision makers through vague requests. Not a Taxi thing... just a bizarre reality of the way it is many times. A lot of those decision makers aren't musicians and they may only be familiar with a few Enya tracks (the uptempo ones). So they say "Enya" thinking that we'll all know what they're wanting. Of course we know that "Enya" can mean lots of things and then it's a matter of trying to "read their mind". An art form for sure as much as the process of creating music!

HTH,

Dave

[mazz]

Hi Eric! How's things?

The screeners are bound by the listings, and the same screener probably will rate the same song differently depending on the listing in front of them. And they may react in an even different direction if your music came on in the background at the gym or spa or whatever. It's becoming clearer and clearer to me that there's no empirical "7" or "8" out there in the world, it's all relative to something, and in this case, it's relative to the listing.

Another way to look at it is: Think about your favorite piece of music from Kind of Blue. Imagine listening to it with your headphones on and your eyes closed and really focused. Now imagine if it comes on in a movie scene with a bunch of sound effects over it. It's almost like a completely different piece of music, and it serves a completely different function depending on the setting and the situation. But the underlying piece is still the same.

Almost everyone has had a similar experience, even with pieces that are already signed to a library. I've had pieces that have been played on TV returned for composer listings. Does that mean the piece sucks? Maybe it sucked for the listing but it didn't suck enough to stop the producers of the show from picking it, because it fit what they were looking for.

It doesn't make much sense, and that's pretty much the reality, and we'll go crazy trying to find a pattern and make sense of it. All we can control is the quality of the music we produce.

Good tunes!!!

Mazz

[Casey H]

Hi eb
The 2nd listing with the return was a Y/N while the first was an "S" listing with a review. So you can't really compare apples and oranges as to the screener's response--- even the same screener.

On a Y/N listing, the check-box info of why it wasn't forwarded can be read a lot of different ways, especially by us since we have so much vested in it.

"Stylistically Off Target" and "Music" means the style didn't match the listing requirements and the main reason for that was the music. If this was an "S" listing, you might have gotten "This is an excellent track, just not on target for what this listing asked for" or something along those lines as well as high marks in the 7-9 region.

I just had a great example of this. I submitted a track for an Indie/Alt Rock Instrumental "S" listing-- the one Japanese Princess and others here had forwards for. I got all 9's and big kudos on the work. However, it was not enough like the a la's in the listing and was returned. (I wasn't surprised- it was a 'stretch' submission).

If that had been a Y/N listing, it very well could have come back rejected with "Stylistically Off Target" and "Music" and the fact that the work in general was very good could have been well obscured.

Now IF this had involved two "S" listings with the same screener and the comments about the quality of the composition and recording were vastly different (filtering for the difference in listing requirements), that might be worth a call or email to Taxi. Not the case here from what I see...

Best!
Casey

[Len911]

Inconsistant. Human. We all make mistakes, and I think in this instance it probably was. Unless the screeners have further insight into the listing than the info we get, I don't see how it could be anything other than a simple mistake.

[Casey H]

Inconsistant. Human. We all make mistakes, and I think in this instance it probably was. Unless the screeners have further insight into the listing than the info we get, I don't see how it could be anything other than a simple mistake.

Hi Len
I agree that everyone is human and mistakes do happen, people have bad days, etc. In this case, I hope my above explanation of the S vs. Y/N listing type shed light on the fact that it's not necessarily inconsistent at all.

Best
casey