Road Rally and Taxi Submission Recomendations

[Luvgamble]

First off, the reason I rejoined TAXI is that the Road Rally was awesome. Below are a few suggestions to improve it and the submission process.
Rally Comments
• Open Mic -- People waited in line for almost 2 hours to sign up. Why not have everyone put their name on a slip of paper in a bowl and have it drawn randomly. You could print up the list if you think that’s important or just announce the next 3 artists so that people can get ready.
• Rooms were way too cold
• It would be cool to have meeting rooms for different genres of music. If I write country music, it would be nice to have a place where I could easily meet others wanting to co-write. Or have an open mic night room for different genres.

Submission Recommendations
I think one of the reasons new people get so frustrated by their submissions not getting forwarded is that their expectations don’t fit with reality.
I think it would be a great service, for new people especially, for Taxi to do the following:
1. Review songs to see if they are submittable for anything. In other words, if TAXI won’t submit a song for virtually anything, tell the member it’s not ready yet.
2. When reviewing the song, have a checklist that says I would submit this song for the following types of listings. That way, you take the guesswork out for the new person.
3. If you wanted to get real slick, you could have an autosubmit check box. If TAXI tells me that they like the song and that it is submittable for X,Y and Z, then submit away without me having to look at the listing as long as I checked the box autosubmit.
4. To save us time and aggravation, when writing a listing, put the most limiting factor first. I don’t want to read a whole listing, get excited, and then find out at the end that I need to be Canadian.

The Rally was great. I learned so much. Thanks for an incredible learning opportunity

[TheWildManChris2000]

They used to do it that way, in fact, in the Grand Ballroom. Everyone could put their name in the box @ anytime, and they drew names out @ random.

Also, mentor lunches were MUCH, much better in 2004 and before.

They served buffet-style lunch AND DINNER, both downstairs and upstairs, and you did not have to buy a ticket to sit in and listen to the mentors. The music biz truly was open for 3 days! There were also more mentors, and it was so much less stuffy than it is with everyone crammed into that small room upstairs.

I've been to all the Road Rallies since 2001, and I have seen MANY great, even HAUNTING memories, but things change, and nothing perfect lasts forever, so we must adapt sometimes.

Other than that I TOTALLY plan to be at the 2013 Road Rally, and all the ones after that, until I die.

[admin]

First off, the reason I rejoined TAXI is that the Road Rally was awesome. Below are a few suggestions to improve it and the submission process.
Rally Comments
• Open Mic -- People waited in line for almost 2 hours to sign up. Why not have everyone put their name on a slip of paper in a bowl and have it drawn randomly. You could print up the list if you think that’s important or just announce the next 3 artists so that people can get ready.

We used to do EXACTLY that, but people would put their names in the box, then leave the room, go have a drink, and come back later and get ticked off when they heard we called their name and they weren't there. More often than not, the person calling the names would have to call 5 to 10 names just to find somebody who was in the room. It was also heartbreaking to see people sit there waiting for hours, and not getting called. We had a second open mic that used the system we now use in both rooms, and people liked that system much better, so we made both rooms like that.

• Rooms were way too cold

We know that's a problem. Sometimes the ballroom has 1,000 people in it and it gets warm. The next panel has 500 people in it, so it gets cold from less body heat. We call the hotel staff (we're not allowed to adjust it because of union rules), and by the time they get there to adjust the temp, the panel is over, the next one begins with 1,000 people in it, and it heats up again. Ughh!

• It would be cool to have meeting rooms for different genres of music. If I write country music, it would be nice to have a place where I could easily meet others wanting to co-write. Or have an open mic night room for different genres.

The problem is there are too many genres. If we did a Rock room, Country room, Pop room, etc. where do we draw the line? Do we omit Folk, or EDM, or Acid Jazz, or, or, or, or.... you get the idea. Somebody, or a LOT of somebodies will feel cheated if their genre doesn't get its own room or open mic.

Submission Recommendations
I think one of the reasons new people get so frustrated by their submissions not getting forwarded is that their expectations don’t fit with reality.
I think it would be a great service, for new people especially, for Taxi to do the following:
1. Review songs to see if they are submittable for anything. In other words, if TAXI won’t submit a song for virtually anything, tell the member it’s not ready yet.

We already DO that. It's called a Custom Critique, and not nearly enough members take advantage of it.

2. When reviewing the song, have a checklist that says I would submit this song for the following types of listings. That way, you take the guesswork out for the new person.

If we tell somebody their song is a great Country song, and they submit it for a Country listing and it doesn't get a forward, they'd get mad. Why didn't it get a forward if it was a great Country song? Because it wasn't a great Country song for Faith Hill. The devil is in the details. You can have the best Country song ever written, but if it doesn't fit what THAT artist requested in that listing, it can't get forwarded.

3. If you wanted to get real slick, you could have an autosubmit check box. If TAXI tells me that they like the song and that it is submittable for X,Y and Z, then submit away without me having to look at the listing as long as I checked the box autosubmit.

We've thought about that idea a number of times, but what if TAXI auto submits it, and it doesn't get a forward for reasons similar to the Faith Hill example given above? We'd be accused of trying to pinch members for their $5 submission fees via auto submit.

4. To save us time and aggravation, when writing a listing, put the most limiting factor first. I don’t want to read a whole listing, get excited, and then find out at the end that I need to be Canadian.

Instances where geography or a "limiting factor" that's not musical in nature are pretty rare. On a musical level, it's pretty hard to say what is the most limiting factor. I'm not sure there even IS one in many cases. I just looked in a cook book (not kidding) to see if they mentioned different baking times for each cake due to different altitudes at the top or bottom of the recipe. Answer is... NEITHER the top or bottom.

The Rally was great. I learned so much. Thanks for an incredible learning opportunity

You are very welcome! And thank you for the suggestions. Many of the best aspects of TAXI have come from member suggestions over the last 21 years. The problem is that I don't have enough time in my life to browse all the forums to find them, and repeat many of the same answers over and over because many of the suggestions have been made in various places, buried in threads, and have been made in different years.

We DO listen and take ideas into staff meetings. It's best to email us so we've got all the suggestions in one place, and I don't have to repeat answers on the forum.

Thanks again, and really glad you enjoyed the Rally so much!
Michael