Dear Sirs
Now that I have come to the end of my second annual membership of Taxi, I would like to share with you a story.
Many years ago two men got together and decided to establish an organisation to promote the work of songwriters in general. The one guy was Bob and the other Bill.
They established a system whereby the entertainment industry presented them with their requirements and they forwarded these requirements to their members (songwriters) on a regular basis. Bob and Bill would then charge these members a nominal fee for each submission and evaluate whether these submissions were worthy or suitable to send on to the industry in each specific case.
Over time business boomed for Bob and Bill. Many submissions were sent for every industry request but very few were forwarded to the industry because Bob and Bill, who now had a panel of judging “experts” working with them, were very strict about which submissions they forwarded.
This of course didn’t affect business for Bob & Bill because, of course, they received their submission fee for every song anyway. And annual membership fees from every member.
And they started to grow rich.
But slowly Bill started to become restless about this system because he had heard, and turned away, so many brilliant songs simply because they didn’t suit the very specific industry needs for which they were submitted. So he approached his partner Bob with his concerns. But Bob just brushed him aside by reminding him of how much money they were making.
Time went by and one day Bill was alone in the office when he received a song called “Yesterday” by a young British composer. He was so moved by the quality of the song that he actually wept quietly in his office. But during the selection meeting the next day the song was rejected on the grounds of not being suitable for the listing. Bill left the meeting with a heavy heart.
It wasn’t long after that when a song called “American Pie” came in from a local writer. Bill immediately recognised it for what it was; a sure-fire hit. But, once again it was rejected as not being suitable for the customer’s requirements.
By this stage Bill was at his wits end and decided to talk to his partner again about the possibility of a more inclusive system. And once again Bob, fat and happy and living the high life, reminded him of “the bottom line”.
But Bill had had enough. He told Bob that his conscience could not stand it anymore and that he was leaving to go out on his own with an idea for a more equitable
system.
He duly established a similar business called Perfect Pitch which also represented songwriters, but operated on a broader basis. He too entertained industry listings and evaluated submissions for these listings, but he went one step further. Instead of rejecting obviously high quality songs on the basis of them not being suitable for one, narrow listing, he kept the very best of the submitted songs and created a premium, categorised library for the entire industry to access. In order for the industry to access this “treasure chest” of great original songs the industry players had to be paying members of Perfect Pitch and he charged the selected composers an annual fee for having their songs in the library. In this way he generated income on a few different levels. But more importantly, never again did he have to turn away songs that were obvious gems.
In time Bill’s business boomed and it wasn’t long before all of Bob’s members moved over to Perfect Pitch. Sadly, Bob eventually had to close his business, but Bill was kind enough to give him a job at Perfect Pitch.
Over the years Perfect Pitch gathered and launched some of the greatest original songs of all time and gave exceptional songwriters a genuine platform on which to prosper.
This story is obviously a parable and may be better served by the following analogy.
What you guys at Taxi are doing is pouring diamonds into a funnel, the spout of which only allows passage of ONE particular diamond. So the rest get thrown away.
Why are you doing this? Simple. Because you make money from each diamond that is placed in the funnel.
But consider this. What if one of the diamonds that didn’t fit the funnel’s spout was “American Pie”, “Yesterday” or “Simply the Best”?
With your system, those classic songs would possibly never be heard again.
Would it not be better to select the best of the diamonds and store them for general industry players to sift through? It makes perfect logical sense.
But no, you won’t do this because you would lose your “cash cow”.
Think about it.
I am one of South Africa’s most successful songwriters and I sign off from TAXI for the final time full of doubts and scepticism. I am sorry.
Nevertheless, I wish you well.
Yours sincerely
DON CLARKE
Monkeyshine Music
Underberg
South Africa
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I respect that everyone either likes, dislikes, forwards or returns, fits or doesn't fit. I don't control that and neither would I want to, because I have my own preferences as well. On the other hand, if this is a business advice post, pardon me, because I really don't like business,lol, I had one and failed, so I'm certainly not in a position to give any advice!!
