Cautionary Tale

[Casey H]

Hey BB
If you are making money with your music and happy with where things are, obviously no need to change a thing!

Best of luck!
Casey

[beachbum]

thanks Casey...this may be a bit off topic but this movie wrecks me every time I see it and may help a few here - http://www.hulu.com/before-the-music-dies

I watch it every time I feel lost in this vast wasteland of todays music - Eryka Badu and Dave Matthews sum it up BEAUTIFULLY at the end but the whole movie is a gem of truth - bum

[richardmclaughlin]

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for the thoughtful and insightful replies. I will give Taxi a fair trial before making up my mind...I'll submit to any Americana/Country/Folk listings that come up, (and I will read the listings carefully to avoid the "Bank Commercial" outcome), and I'll try my hand at re-writing my existing songs that might be appropriate to other listings (as several people have suggested), and we'll see what develops.

I have to be frank: a lot of these listings seem to execs searching for songs that mimic existing music...whether because they are afraid to take a chance on anything new, they're afraid of failure, or because they simply don't know what they want, so they ask for more of the same. Of course this is not Taxi's fault; it's a general failure of vision in the entire music industry, which seems to shoot itself in the feet with depressing regularity. On the other hand, you have to play the cards you're dealt, so thanks for all the advice and I'll cross my fingers and hope for a good flop.

Richard

[mojobone]

wellll...thanks for the comments, but I'm not very good at instant songs. Also, my songs tend to be in the "Americana" genre, and my sense of Taxi
so far seems to be the young, edgy, fun-oriented rock/pop genres rule the roost. I'm 66, and it may just be that I won't be able to fit into the fashions of the day. You write what you know, after all.

I've submitted to a couple of the listings that ask for "country" oriented songs, but even those don't really fit my music. There are a bunch of older people in this country, politically minded and with a fair amount of life experience...what do they listen to? Is Taxi attuned to this demographic? Or, to paraphrase Carl Sagan's anecdote, is it "commercials all the way down?"

I suppose I'll just have to wait and see what listings come out in the next few months before I decide that it's all a waste of time. Here's hoping.

Richard

I'm also an Americana artist, and while I'd say maybe 5-15% of Taxi's listings apply directly to what I do, a good 60% of the remainder are in my wheelhouse, as far as what I'm realistically able to produce to a professional standard. You're the first judge of your own material, but you may not be the best; where commercial considerations are paramount, I trust Taxi's ears, and when cash is scarce, the Peer To Peer forum is golden.