There are no "do-overs" for music submissions

[Casey H]

Quote:I don't think, at all, that it's impossible to be successful solely through Taxi. Especially for those, like yourself, who are experienced and very talented. I just think it makes the road much narrower if this is the only road your walking. You know.. statistically.That said, I expect to be a Taxi member for life. I'm so much happier with my writing now than I was 3 months ago. And I've met some great people along the way. And that's nothing but good! But we're mature enough to find the value in the failures. (of course, I'd always like a little less value and a few more forwards don't want to get bogged down in too much "value")Personally, I think everyone should be a marketing machine, using every possible avenue to pitch their songs.... That being said, if someone is getting a large volume of TAXI forwards per year (maybe 10-20 or more per year), their music is getting out there for a wide range of opportunity types. If TAXI has forwarded you to a number of decent film/TV music libraries, for example, you are fairly well represented there and Google-ing for more libraries might not be best use of your time.Now, here is a scenario... Let's say you want to pitch film/TV and are not getting a lot of forwards. However, you are committed to making many of the improvements suggested. While you are improving, you might want to seek out some lower paying indie film opportunities to see about building your contacts, bio and credits. It also gives you feedback as to whether or not others out there will take well to your music, albeit with a lower "bar". Similarly, if you are looking to do song pitches, there are many newsletters out there in which new artists post asking for songs for their CD's. Again, you may have some success getting placements which build your resume. These are lower "bar", BUT you never know. A contact and a credit is always of value.Remember I suggest doing these things in parallel to working with TAXI to improve your craft, if you are not getting many forwards. Casey

[mazz]

Quote:. (I'd be interested to know if there's anyone here who became successful SOLELY thru Taxi)I don't think I'm speaking out of turn here when I say that matto has pretty much done this. He's told me so himself. He has working relationships outside of TAXI now but the initial contacts were made via TAXI. MazzPS: Please define successful so I know what your benchmark for success is. To me it is being a full time working composer as matto is.

[clonsberry]

Quote:I don't think I'm speaking out of turn here when I say that matto has pretty much done this. He's told me so himself. He has working relationships outside of TAXI now but the initial contacts were made via TAXI.PS: Please define successful so I know what your benchmark for success is. To me it is being a full time working composer as matto is.Really? Well, that's good to know. (Since tone of voice and body language is lost in forum posts.. just so we're on the same page.. I wasn't challenging the notion that it could be done. It really was a curiosity "I wonder" and not one of those prove it "I wonder"s) But it's cool to know there's at least one. That means the potential for me thru Taxi just went up significantly.Success, as a word, is a pretty broad target. Also as subjective as music. My definition is earning a living at it as well.You know.. the grammy would be a success. Getting into a feature animated movie like the Lion King would be a success. Heck, at this point, getting a forward is a success for me.But.. yeah.. the goal is to pay the bills from writing.

[matto]

Mazz is right,Assuming you would call me "successful" , I did it pretty much solely thru Taxi. I attended a few LASS/NAS songwriter's showcases and two of their "Songwriters Expo's" early on and made one very valuable and ultimately quite lucrative (and still ongoing) connection thru that, but the rest is all directly thru Taxi. And even that one connection wouldn't have happened without Taxi, cause the songs that caught this publisher's attention were written as in response to a Taxi listing and I would've never written them had it not been for that listing and hence Taxi.So it can definitely be done. I think if you only use Taxi it will take you longer than if you pursue every possible avenue and are as proactive and broad in pitching your songs and marketing yourself as possible.And of course, a key thing is to make the most of the contacts and connections you do get, regardless of how you get them.And that includes not berating someone who rejects on of your songs or arguing with them about their reasons for doing so ...so really good advice from Casey here.matto

[davewalton]

Quote:I don't think, at all, that it's impossible to be successful solely through Taxi. Of course it's one of those things that I think "but why limit one's self to only one of many, many avenues of opportunity?". This is probably getting to be an old story to the "old timers" here on the forum but things really started changing after taking the advice from a mentor at my first Taxi Rally, that advice being that I shouldn't hold (or expect to hold) all my eggs in one basket. Use Taxi as ONE of the many things to market one's self, not as the only thing. In addition to picking up a lot of stuff that Taxi doesn't deal with much (film scoring stuff), it really gave me good perspective... all the things that most people think are "Taxi specific" are really just the way things work everywhere. I think if someone said "I've been successful solely though Taxi" I'd think that was pretty impressive but also that they're probably missing out on so many other things.

[hummingbird]

"there are no "do-overs" for music submissions"IMO there is. Perhaps not for the specific opportunity... but for the next similar opp that comes along. So if the feedback (and thank god we get feedback from Taxi or how would we know) is that the song has merit but you... have to get to the hook sooner, or tighten up the lyrics... etc... then you can use that feedback to regroup. (However, let it be said, that if you are not a self-producing songwriter, finding these things out after you've done your demo can be expensive. Always spend $20 or $40 or whatever to get pro feedback on your worktape first). Redo the song in a worktape format, send it in for a custom critique telling them what the last comments were and asking if the song has improved... and then spend the time/money to re-produce the demo. My point being that you can "re-do" the submission, in that sense.I have several songs I have rewritten and revised and re-recorded and resubmitted at least 2 to 5 times. However, I read this comment somewhere and had an "ah... AH!" moment of insight. And that comment was that you could rewrite a good song and make it a better song ... but that doesn't mean it's going to be a hit song. So you really have to figure that out.When I consulted with John BRaheny last year he gave me some great feedback on the 6 songs I was able to play for him. But one of them... he said.... "sorry, this does nothing for me. Sometimes we just write songs to write songs and this is one of those songs." So I put that song aside and spend my energy on other things. Even the pro songwriters like Ralph Murphy write 40 or 50 songs before they find the gold nugget that might be a hit song. I figure if it takes Ralph or Jason or Diane 50 songs to find 1 winner, it will likely take me 100.H

[jewelwing]

Talking about TAXI and making the most of your avenues of opportunity...I think there are more effective and less effective strategies for using TAXI - and those strategies probably differ from person to person. One part of the strategy for everyone using the TAXI system is getting through the screening process to be forwarded. I mostly do instrumentals (just getting back into music with vocals recently). I have found that my tunes that clearly match a TAXI label or genre have a very high forward rate, so I try to use those, when I can, to get through the process and make a connection with the people who placed the listing. Once I have the connection outside TAXI, I can talk with them about other recordings I have that might be useful to them. So, these days, I tend to wait for the listings that seem like they will work best for me.While trying to place individual songs is a little different, I've been working along a similar strategy for making use of the TAXI system: reading the descriptions in the TAXI listings, submitting to some listings as a test (making sure the listings come with critiques), setting aside those songs (for now) that will be hard to place, and concentrating on those that will have a good chance in the TAXI system.Other thoughts on strategies?

[Casey H]

Quote:"there are no "do-overs" for music submissions"IMO there is. Perhaps not for the specific opportunity... but for the next similar opp that comes along. So if the feedback (and thank god we get feedback from Taxi or how would we know) is that the song has merit but you... have to get to the hook sooner, or tighten up the lyrics... etc... then you can use that feedback to regroup. (However, let it be said, that if you are not a self-producing songwriter, finding these things out after you've done your demo can be expensive. Always spend $20 or $40 or whatever to get pro feedback on your worktape first). Redo the song in a worktape format, send it in for a custom critique telling them what the last comments were and asking if the song has improved... and then spend the time/money to re-produce the demo. My point being that you can "re-do" the submission, in that sense.I have several songs I have rewritten and revised and re-recorded and resubmitted at least 2 to 5 times. However, I read this comment somewhere and had an "ah... AH!" moment of insight. And that comment was that you could rewrite a good song and make it a better song ... but that doesn't mean it's going to be a hit song. So you really have to figure that out.When I consulted with John BRaheny last year he gave me some great feedback on the 6 songs I was able to play for him. But one of them... he said.... "sorry, this does nothing for me. Sometimes we just write songs to write songs and this is one of those songs." So I put that song aside and spend my energy on other things. Even the pro songwriters like Ralph Murphy write 40 or 50 songs before they find the gold nugget that might be a hit song. I figure if it takes Ralph or Jason or Diane 50 songs to find 1 winner, it will likely take me 100.HHi VikkiActually what i was saying in my post was that with TAXI, you do have "do-overs" but, in general, in the outside world you don't. Although I was referring to the ability to ask "why" on a rejection, you brought up a great point- you can tweak and re-submit with TAXI. Can you make changes and re-submit when doing this on your own? Well, you can but it is more limited. Many folks won't give you that second listen when you write back and tell them, "I re-mixed and changed this and that"... They've made a mental note about you and/or your song and it's hard to break through that.Kids have it right. They have "do-overs" and can yell "I called it... I'm riding shotgun" and get the front seat. If only as adults we could say "Record deal... I called it!"... Casey

[hummingbird]

Quote:Talking about TAXI and making the most of your avenues of opportunity...I think there are more effective and less effective strategies for using TAXI - and those strategies probably differ from person to person. One part of the strategy for everyone using the TAXI system is getting through the screening process to be forwarded. I mostly do instrumentals (just getting back into music with vocals recently). I have found that my tunes that clearly match a TAXI label or genre have a very high forward rate, so I try to use those, when I can, to get through the process and make a connection with the people who placed the listing. Once I have the connection outside TAXI, I can talk with them about other recordings I have that might be useful to them. So, these days, I tend to wait for the listings that seem like they will work best for me.While trying to place individual songs is a little different, I've been working along a similar strategy for making use of the TAXI system: reading the descriptions in the TAXI listings, submitting to some listings as a test (making sure the listings come with critiques), setting aside those songs (for now) that will be hard to place, and concentrating on those that will have a good chance in the TAXI system.Other thoughts on strategies? I think my strategy is similar to yours. I used to write music/songs and then try to find listings that they would fit. Now I tend to spend most of my time writing music for specific listings (even if I don't get it ready in time to submit). I notice that generally speaking, similar listings do repeat a couple of times a year or so, so once a good piece of music has been created, it's there and ready to submit next time. I like writing to listings because it is both challenging and motivating... like laying the foundation for a body of work I can be proud of.On top of that, music that I have submitted that gets good reviews/forwards is music I can confidently submit outside of Taxi, knowing that it got the nod. So I do submit outside of Taxi but only when I feel the music I am submitting meets industry standards, and Taxi helps me determine that. It's slow going, but I figure in 3 or 4 years I'll have a sizeable catalogue of music working for me.H

[hummingbird]

Quote:Can you make changes and re-submit when doing this on your own? Well, you can but it is more limited. Many folks won't give you that second listen when you write back and tell them, "I re-mixed and changed this and that"... They've made a mental note about you and/or your song and it's hard to break through that. CaseyExactly, so that's why my strategy is to please the Taxi gatekeepers first... and if they approve, then I feel confident in submitting it outside of Taxi. You only get one chance to make a first impression in 99% of cases.