A true story

[mazz]

Another aspect of this has to do with TAXI's vetting of listing companies.

Here's the page that shows the basic requirements to run listings with TAXI. Of course there's always flaky people in the business, but the folks that match these criteria didn't get there by being flaky!!

http://www.taxi.com/only.html


I think that this is a good learning experience that shows that some level of trust has to be present on both sides of the equation. That being said, there really are way more of us than there are of them, and when they hold the cards, they can set the requirements as they wish. I don't think any of this was unreasonable, there was just an implication by the publisher that the composer understood that by uploading they weren't bound by a contract, the uploads were just for evaluation purposes. If the library ended up wanting the pieces, they were conveniently already on their server in the preferred formatting, hence the requirements up front.

[composer27]

Ok so as the poser of this thread all ready knows I got the SAME exact email on the same day... and let me say in no way am I accusing any client of Taxi of anything... BUT the bottom line question is for those on this board, or anyone from TAXI...

Is it "normal" to hand over your full Quality WAV files to someone you have not even spoken to without any type of protection, even a half page NDA in writing?

This client seemed annoyed at even asking these questions, which as you can imagine would lead anyone to think twice...

Again, I am not saying different styles and attitudes don't exist, but can you help a newbie to TAXI and the TAXI world out and tell me would you/have you handed over Full qualit WAV files without anything in writing?

Regards,
Bon

Regardless of any other aspects of what happened here, it IS common for libraries to have people upload full quality wav files for submissions with contract to follow if there is interest. A number of libraries I've encountered use upload of .wav to an FTP site as part of the submission process.

The phrase "HAND OVER" bothers me here. It implies suspicion that the other party is out there to steal someone's music. Honestly, if you are worried that folks are out to steal your music you may as well give up this business. It's very rare that anyone, especially reputable music libraries and publishers, steal music. You will always be submitting your music for folks to consider in one form or another. What about CD submissions? They are usually full quality tracks too. There was a time when all submissions were done by mailing CDs... a great many still are.

Casey

Casey; thanks for the thoughts, I am from philly myself "born and raised" ... moved to Cali 10 years ago...

So let me ask one more rookie question then... how do you know if someone is reputable?
These are great thoughts thank you!
-b

[composer27]

Another aspect of this has to do with TAXI's vetting of listing companies.

Here's the page that shows the basic requirements to run listings with TAXI. Of course there's always flaky people in the business, but the folks that match these criteria didn't get there by being flaky!!

http://www.taxi.com/only.html


I think that this is a good learning experience that shows that some level of trust has to be present on both sides of the equation. That being said, there really are way more of us than there are of them, and when they hold the cards, they can set the requirements as they wish. I don't think any of this was unreasonable, there was just an implication by the publisher that the composer understood that by uploading they weren't bound by a contract, the uploads were just for evaluation purposes. If the library ended up wanting the pieces, they were conveniently already on their server in the preferred formatting, hence the requirements up front.

Well put Mazz.. I think I get what you are saying.

[mojobone]

There's also this added plus to the equation: your music's on their database server, pre-formatted and categorized according to their system. Even if they pass it by for a given project, it's unlikely to be deleted. The submission was solicited, somebody's gonna hear it and may remember it for some future project; kinda like the old days, when a CD could sit in a pile for months or years before being discovered, but a hard drive's better, because your contact info is part of the file's metadata, right?

[composer27]

There's also this added plus to the equation: your music's on their database server, pre-formatted and categorized according to their system. Even if they pass it by for a given project, it's unlikely to be deleted. The submission was solicited, somebody's gonna hear it and may remember it for some future project; kinda like the old days, when a CD could sit in a pile for months or years before being discovered, but a hard drive's better, because your contact info is part of the file's metadata, right?

Mojo!! Great point, and question, do you actually know the answer to that.. I was wondering the same thing!
Retitled is just a file name correct? Or can a library take your full quality WAV file and redigitize info?

[mojobone]

I'm pretty sure that can be different for each library, but they also have to keep track of the track's original name. There are several ways they could do that; the easiest is to rename the file with both titles and a catalog number. (they'd have to open at least one other program to change any of the metadata, but some libraries use database software that can generate metadata of its own, though I think that attaches to an alias of the file rather than the file itself. (might depend on which sort of database software they're using)