For some of these listings, it's hard to know what they actually want

[Len911]

It's NOT some cryptic puzzle. The lottery comparison is very wrong.

Many people do compare Taxi to a lottery, I've seen it countless times. I didn't use 'lottery' as a metaphor, I didn't even use 'lottery'
as a hard simile, I said, "not unlike",lol! I used another "soft" simile, "sort of like",lol, "Where's Waldo". I agree, Taxi listings aren't
a lottery, and aren't a cryptic puzzle, but to some, metaphorically, they seem to be, so rather than dispel their perspective, I chose to entertain that perspective into one that might seem more logical, and arrive at a better understanding.

I probably wouldn't have used the word 'wrong' because of it's moral or religious implication, I might have chosen 'incorrect' instead,
however that's probably being a little nit picky!

[OrionSatori]

I agree that it's necessary to see the complete listing and listen to the a la's. No matter what you hear in the a la's, what is written in the text description is most important. If you're unsure whether you are on target, post the complete listing and a link to your track in P2P, we'll try to help

I would think that if the client is choosing the music examples, those would trump anything said in text. Non-musicians often have a hard time explaining what they're really looking for or hearing, so I would think that if they provide examples, that means more than what they're saying. So, if a client provides song examples that are not orchestral hybrids and they say they want orchestral hybrids, it seems they don't actually want orchestral hybrids, but music that sounds/feels similar to the examples they THINK are hybrids. But the problem is that we don't always know who is choosing the music examples.

[Len911]

I would think that if the client is choosing the music examples, those would trump anything said in text. Non-musicians often have a hard time explaining what they're really looking for or hearing, so I would think that if they provide examples, that means more than what they're saying. So, if a client provides song examples that are not orchestral hybrids and they say they want orchestral hybrids, it seems they don't actually want orchestral hybrids, but music that sounds/feels similar to the examples they THINK are hybrids. But the problem is that we don't always know who is choosing the music examples.

Taxi Tv has been really insightful as to what happens behind the scenes. If a client chose the music and said one thing but meant another, that is where the taxi "text" or explanation is probably most beneficial.

People also have a hard time being objective about their own creations, musician or non-musician. How many episodes have there been a +1 if you would forward, -1 if you wouldn't, and how many times does the chat room disagree with the screeners?

Sometimes math problems are the easiest to solve!

[Casey H]

The reason I lean more on the examples is genre words are used much more all over the board. Words like rock, pop, indie, punk, etc. have different meanings to different people. A great example would be the recent garage rock listing which gave a 60's song by The Kinks as an example. The term "garage rock" wasn't really used much in the 60's. But a well done track that sounded like that Kinks' song would have gotten the nod.

Casey

[Len911]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troggs

The Troggs wiki page lists them as Garage Rock, by contemporary definition I suppose.

[Casey H]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troggs

The Troggs wiki page lists them as Garage Rock, by contemporary definition I suppose.

I edited my post. I didn't recall the term "garage rock" used much in the 60's. Maybe it was. But if someone said "garage rock" in the absence of examples, I don't think I would have thought of The Kinks.

But it was just an example whereby the genre name is used differently by different folks.

[Len911]

I think the term was garage band until that evil Apple computer trademarked the name!

[MattCurious]

The advice I've had from Taxi (I think Head Screener Andy) was that the listing should always trump the references.

The references are there to expand upon things like tone / mood / style etc, but the listing text is the brief. Screeners often refer to the references to illustrate particular points or to make helpful comparisons, but the client's requirement is in the listing.

[Lipskimusic]

For me the most difficult listings are those where they are looking for an instrumental track but they only provide references with vocals. It would be much more helpful if they'd provided at least one reference that is instrumental to get an understanding what they are actually looking for.

[Casey H]

For me the most difficult listings are those where they are looking for an instrumental track but they only provide references with vocals. It would be much more helpful if they'd provided at least one reference that is instrumental to get an understanding what they are actually looking for.

I agree but sometimes there is nothing available out there to use as reference. I'm sure if there was, they would provide those. Most of the time, I can listen well enough under the vocal.