not renewing Thanks.

[Paulie]

If you think I'm over-reacting, you can go listen to my stuff. Give me a break. Good bye!

I can totally relate to your frustration. Can you post a link to your music, and perhaps one of the critiques that you disagree with? I've had returns for sad cello stuff before, and some forwards, one return was due to perceived pitch problems. Sorry, but Tina Guo does not play out of tune.

Post a link, let's dig into this some more.

[crashgates]

.

[OwenGrech]

Got feeback from 4 recent submissions. I find the objections to be picune and not real. Not waiting 10 years to get a forward. Good luck guys.
Top it off my sad cello & piano cue which I paid $5 to submit didn't get reviewed and no status like it was never even recognized. Going to follow up with that.
If you think I'm over-reacting, you can go listen to my stuff. Give me a break. Good bye!

Hi Brian,

Well, as the others pointed out, it is tough to respond with not enough context from your end, however these are some things I have personally learned since I joined Taxi (while going through dark times, rejections ect)

1) No one from Taxi (or the music Industry as a whole) is out to get you.
2) A positive attitude and mindset goes a loooooooooooong way.
3) It is less of a matter of how good you are and more of how RIGHT is your music for that particular need. You can be Steve Vai or Deadmau5 but it doesn't matter if that music does not fulfill that particular request.
4) This is a long game plan. If you are waiting 10 years to get a forward you are clearly doing something consistently wrong AND the fact that you are waiting means you are not filling the pipeline with more tracks..... Write - Submit - Forget - Repeat (hopefully applying feedback and improving with every iteration)

Hope it helps
Owen

[bmete]

Sorry to hear you are throwing in the towel after 4 submissions. I guess the question is what avenues will you pursue to reach your goals of TV/ Film placements? Taxi is the best way to get you there.
I'm glad I didn't quite my first year, I went 0 for 39 on my first submissions. So instead of quitting I learned from the critiques, got tougher skin, and marched on. Developed cherished co-writers ( mainly from attending the Rally), which I'm grateful for. Now after learning how to read the listings, putting my 10,000 hours in learning my DAW , I am now delivering high quality, high bar songs to many libraries and getting placements in movies and TV shows across just about all the channels.

Getting returned for small details is a pain, it happens to all of us, Screeners are human and making music is extremely subjective, you just have to roll with it.

Hope what ever decision you make works for you.... If you get to this years Rally, look me up I'll buy you a beer and we can talk.

Best regards,
Bob

[crashgates]

.

[funsongs]

For what it's worth: TIME is not necessarily your enemy or your obstacle.
If the creative and crafting process involved with making music is a passion of yours,
and something you're going to continue to do anyway, as a means of self-expression...
time to do all of that is your opportunity.

My own experience - a song from a CD collaboration that was produced in 2017 - so nearly 5 years after-the-fact,
just days ago was requested for licensing by a record company in Germany. Who knew, right?
(I posted about this fun 'news' here: topic149425.html)

In the meantime - lots of other 'funsongs' projects were created and added to the catalog...
and who knows what's in each or any of their future?
Your mileage may vary.

[3Seas]

I was signed up for a year and in that time I asked one question about Taxi and got a reasonable timely response. I never made a submission.
I didn't do anything with Taxi that year because my day job turned into freelance. Doing fabrication drawings(AutoCAD) for tradeshows, museums, corporate events, etc.

After letting my membership lapse for a time, I signed back up. This time with the intent to be more active. I watched last Monday's Taxi TV and since watched a few more past ones.
Not only do I find them interesting but very reflective in similarities with What I do in CAD and my experience in Community Musical Theater where I was one of the few who got paid ($100 per production [not per show] as a token of appreciation for building sets, changing sets during shows, and additionally onstage extra.)

So with this said.

Musical Talent is a dime a dozen but those who make it, show persistence in pursuit of being involved, stability and reliability, along with improving what they do. Community Musical Theater has no place for maybe show up for mostly unpaid. The show must go on.

In dealing with CAD there is a lot of mundane work that needs to be done and there is also plenty of uniqueness in the CAD work for trade-show, museums, corporate theater, and events.
Its certainly not uncommon for in the process of doing fabrication drawings A CAD person deals with input from clients, designers, company owners, the project managers, and ultimately even the shop or vendor that will be using the fabrication drawings. In my case throw in CNC programming and machine maintenance. And of course meeting deadlines, The shows are set in stone, they must go on.

And with this said,

In consideration of last Monday's Taxi TV topic and a few older and relevant to last Monday's show, doing cues to submit has got to be unbelievably easier than doing CAD work for the industries I worked in. While the payoff for doing cues is relevant to doing community musical theater, only it has a better probability of payoff if you are persistent and have some musical talent or at least a musical ear. In today's world being instrument skilled is not as important as it was in the past, given DAW and virtual instrument technology.

I personally have a hard time grasping music theory and have tried numerous times over 45 years to teach myself. At best I currently have "a clue". Does this stop me from creating musical pieces that are far more complex than doing cues?
No! https://soundcloud.com/user-381042672/q ... her-gallop I'm sure a lot of what is there would be removed and altered in better ramp up and stinger. Would it hurt my ego to do so? No, because, like doing CAD it's not what I want, though I can still do what I want off to the side of what is needed for increasing the probability of getting paid.

So where Am I today? I have yet to make a submission but I also feel I need to get a better grip on cues & genres because that is part of understanding the opportunity targets.

For anyone who's now going to suggest a book or two, I'm currently waiting on the delivery of the three books frequently bought together (according to Amazon):
Writing Production Music for TV: The Road to Success -by Steve Barden
Demystifying The Cue: & Demystifying the Genre: - by Dean Krippaehne

I'm also educating myself on the different types of licensing and organizations such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, SoundExchange, etc.. Because it's part of the getting paid part whether it's work obtained through TAXI or other.

Why Am I doing this when I already earn decent from my CAD work? Probably for the same reason many others do in whatever their decent-paying non-music job is. It's gotta be easier than... and "easier than" is important at the retirement stage where reduced stress and enjoyment are benefits and SS just is not gonna cut it well enough.

So for those dropping out who have made submissions, perhaps you'll have better luck using what you'd spend on submission instead on lottery tickets.

[JonathanEarthenMusic]

Got feeback from 4 recent submissions. I find the objections to be picune and not real. Not waiting 10 years to get a forward. Good luck guys.
Top it off my sad cello & piano cue which I paid $5 to submit didn't get reviewed and no status like it was never even recognized. Going to follow up with that.
If you think I'm over-reacting, you can go listen to my stuff. Give me a break. Good bye!

I submitted to the sad piano and strings one as well! They both got returned... I was surprised... cuz i think what I submitted was really beautiful:

https://www.taxi.com/members/ocDl4_2KTS ... d-strings-

https://www.taxi.com/members/ocDl4_2KTS ... d-strings-


But turns out, it wasn't the right TYPE of sad they were looking for, and also I was too much of an instrumental and not enough of a CUE, you can read my reviews here:

https://www.taxi.com/members/ocDl4_2KTS ... ln6Mv2Wz0g

https://www.taxi.com/members/ocDl4_2KTS ... fCusUDQAXg


It seemed kind of nit picky at first, but it kind of makes more sense to me now. I have also had similar tracks like that forwarded for different sad piano listings that were looking for instrumentals moreso.

So I guess I say all that to say, I agree with most of the others on here, takes a bit sometimes to hear the specific nuances that are being requested in a listing, it's been taking me quite a while.

-Jonathan

[hummingbird]

Took me three years to get my first forward. I wrote music, I sang, I wrote songs, I recorded things (badly). I pitched music to artist listings. I forgot how many returns I had back then, but I was mystified (and angered) by them. Somehow I had the sense (after cooling off (what the heck do they know? this stuff is g.o.l.d.!)) to reread the feedback and try again. I have to say, I learned a *huge* amount from the people on this forum and their patience with my struggle to compose and produce effectively. I finally got my first forward and signed three tracks. Then ten. Then more... so... it's okay if you decide approaching the industry this way doesn't work for you. But if you really want to be a media composer (or artist, or writer, or singer, or actor, etc), then rejection is part of the reality of life.

Once my very talented friend Chris who was an excellent dancer, singer and actor auditioned for a part - they loved him. He went to a call-back. He didn't get the part... the costume was made for someone taller. Such is the life of an artist.

[VanderBoegh]

Posts like these crack me up. People get fed up, refuse to take criticism about their music, refuse to alter their strategy, blame the screeners for not forwarding their music, etc. Then they come here to the forums to complain - grinding their ax one last time before disappearing entirely and not even responding to other comments. Just a mic drop and disappearing act.

Bye Felicia!!

~~Matt