Re: I Think I've Figured out TAXI

[matto]

There are many successful songwriters with publishing deals that are members of Taxi...one thing most successful songwriters recognize is that you can never have too many connections, and you can never work too many angles to get your songs cut.Also...the majority of the most successful songwriters out there (talking about pure songwriters here not artist/writers) are over 35.matto

[Casey H]

Quote: I would bet that 90% of TAXI members are over age 35. I agree with your post, not everyone can go live for the 10+ years in Nashville. TAXI is a good middleman. I take it you're writing country? Cool. That's a great genre that's not too age biased. Site??I don't know the real demographics of TAXI members, TAXI's marketing folks might. I don't think it means squat.First, I need to re-state that I am not a current TAXI member. I was a few years back but didn't renew for reasons that had nothing to do with their service. Regarding the age of members, TAXI's fee of about $300/year serves two purposes. (1) It pays their bills and makes them a profit, which is what all businesses want to do. (2) It has a "Barrier to Entry" effect. The type of people TAXI wants to attract have the disposable income required to be serious about their music and, generally, produce better quality music. It would destroy them if it was too easy for everyone on the planet with a guitar and a mic to submit songs.What does the above have to do with the age of members? Folks with the disposable income tend to be older, for obvious reasons.BTW, I am over 50 and just had a discussion with someone at MTV who is considering using some of my songs on their shows... Hmmmm.... How can that be? MTV's audience is mainly in their teens. Casey

[johnnydean1]

Quote:Quote: I would bet that 90% of TAXI members are over age 35. I agree with your post, not everyone can go live for the 10+ years in Nashville. TAXI is a good middleman. I take it you're writing country? Cool. That's a great genre that's not too age biased. Site??I don't know the real demographics of TAXI members, TAXI's marketing folks might. I don't think it means squat.First, I need to re-state that I am not a current TAXI member. I was a few years back but didn't renew for reasons that had nothing to do with their service. Regarding the age of members, TAXI's fee of about $300/year serves two purposes. (1) It pays their bills and makes them a profit, which is what all businesses want to do. (2) It has a "Barrier to Entry" effect. The type of people TAXI wants to attract have the disposable income required to be serious about their music and, generally, produce better quality music. It would destroy them if it was too easy for everyone on the planet with a guitar and a mic to submit songs.What does the above have to do with the age of members? Folks with the disposable income tend to be older, for obvious reasons.BTW, I am over 50 and just had a discussion with someone at MTV who is considering using some of my songs on their shows... Hmmmm.... How can that be? MTV's audience is mainly in their teens. CaseyCase,maybe MTV want the kids to know what music sounded like when dinosaurs roamed the earth.eg T.Rex!

[johnnydean1]

Quote:Quote:I'm not talking about a rally. I'm talking about the total members in TAXI. Age? Depends on what kind of music you're writing. If it's classical or country, then age would have a benefit. If it's the blonde teen-queen diva, a 45 year old just can't feel the same way emotionally as a 20 something songwriter. Kinda like a middle age white guy in Tarzana, trying to write inner city rap. When he does, it comes across as comical.Or an older woman in her 40's trying to write about teenage boys and teenage love. There ARE exceptions but I wager those old folks trying to be a teenager, have no life.If you do have younger emotions, you haven't matured as a human very well. I'll check out your website. Like you say, music is music, but it depends what your target audience is.I checked out your site. Old Hag Records? Songs like Wilted Heart? I think your voice could cross over, what without the stiff, classical feel, but the material sounds old. But I hear something in there saleable. Maybe it's the earnest vocal? Diff material, update the vocal and it'll happen. Your voice is nice, it just needs some material to go with it. What works in Canada maynot work in Hollywood. Your pic looks good, reminds me of my dearly departed grandma, no really, sweet and kind. not cutting you down, in fact, just the opposite OK. Everyone line up to kill me Are you brain dead ? stupid ? or angry ? you talk like kids are the only idiots buying Ficken records... you're like some music pedophile.Why don't you stop all this " old man taxi " sucks shit, and redirect your energy back into exploitating Shakabrah dreams.RanG Goodness gracious U RanG U tang you are clearly in need of some anger management coaching.I am available at very reasonable rates.

[arkjack]

There's another element of the age thing.... I'm near 50, and there are more than a few times from the last 36 years in music that I've wondered how far I could have gone if......... If I didn't get married, have kids, .....start a business.... go fishing..... gone to Berklee instead of St. Joes..... moved to Nashville when I was young and free..... when you ask "what does age have to do with the ability to make great music...." consider that the producer in the booth making the decisions is probably old enough to be the artist's parent........ I don't assume that its 100% the artist under 25 that is actually making the "cutting edge" music entirely on their own....ArkJack

[gitarrero]

Quote:Yeah, if you're in Switzerland I guess TAXI could be your ride of choice. You're a little far away for having coffee in Sherman Oaks....not trying to start a troll war but it's impossible to write current/contemporary unless you're living in those circles already. Which mean you have to live, breath, and eat where it's happening. When TAXI tells you they want a song in the Kelly Clarkson mold, that song you write is already going to be dated because Clarkson is already blazing new trails and has abandoned that song style. You write a song like Since You've Been Gone, and anyone hearing it will say, oh, that's like 2004 Clarkson......not gonna cut it in 2007.Now with country songs, anything goes. A good country lyric is a good country lyric. The music hasn't changed much in 20-years.aaaeehm... nope, I disagree.yes I do live in Switzerland, and I'm in currently in 4 diffrent MTV shows in the US - and that was besides Taxi, trough my own research.Why shouldn't I be able to write a current sounding song just because I don't live in L.A...?Shure, it's the Mekka for songwriter/producers etc but this doesn't mean you can't make it from any other place.Do you have placements of your own tracks? Don't get me wrong but your postings sound like you're thinking about diffrent scenarios but don't have real experience in the industry - or am I wrong?As I said, this is not against you or your work - I'm just wondering.cheers,Martin

[hummingbird]

Quote:Quote:Based on my attendance at the last two Road Rally's with over 1,000 other musicians, songwriters, producers, etc., I'd say - 90% of Taxi members are under 35; 90% of the industry execs are over 35; and 5% of the under 35s who attend the Rally blow your socks off with their talent. I'm privileged to have heard them before the rest of the world.I think it's blantant ageism to assume that someone over 35 can't write cutting edge. How easy it is to make assumptions based on a number. I've met several professional songwriter's with hits under their belts and they were 90% over 35. Who cares? It's the SONG that counts, not the writer's age.Who is your target audience??As a songwriter or as an artist? As a songwriter my target market is film & tv - that's why I'm a member of Taxi, to learn & grow into that niche. As an artist, I continue to explore my creativity, and that resonates with many folks between the ages of 15 and 70. I am a self-employed artist who makes her living through music. How about you?

[hummingbird]

TAXI:1) songwriters that are not cutting-edge in the industry. Maybe years behind or even in retro/nostalgic modesDefine "cutting edge". Do you mean songwriters who are getting hit songs placed? Or do you mean songwriters who making lucrative deals to write cues for the Oprah show? Certainly there are Taxi members who join as a vehicle to learn about how their music stands up in the industry & get information on how to improve. There are also Taxi members who get placements through their Taxi forwards & get the advances/royalties/wages from that. 2) cutting-edge/happening songwriters are already in the industry and working. They do not need TAXI.Then why on earth would they bother spending the money to be a member of Taxi? When the really of the business is that 1,200 songs are put on hold for one 14-song album, you need all the connections & opportunities you can get. Talent & timing & networking & determination still doesn't get you a cut sometimes. I suggest you read Jason Blume's "Inside Songwriting" for a bird's eye view into the realities of the music business. OTOH, no one is holding a gun to your head. My advice to prospective Taxi members is NOT to join unless their music is commercially viable or unless they have broadcast quality music suitable for film & tv... or unless they want to learn about the marketplace & their place in it.3) exception would be country. Some good songwriters not directly in Nashville or LA would need a service like TAXI. But then again, if the songwriter is really good, he/she is already going to have contacts.How does a really good songwriter begin to get contacts? How do contacts lead to deals? Contacts are only the first step.You can write the hottest hit song and get it put on hold for an artist. Then they call you up - definitely gonna use it. Then call you back - dropped it from the album, the artist's sister brought something in.You can write the hottest hit song and get it put on hold for an artist. Then they call you up - definitely gonna use it. It gets cut. But the album never gets released. Maybe your song was on hold for a year.... and you got nothing to show for it.So, is TAXI for the over-the-hill and the newbie songwriters only?? Just a thought, especially with the TAXI Dispatch emails for retro sounds. Must be a bevy of 60's, 70's, and 80's songwriters out there since they're considered dead-in-the-water industry-wise. These songwriters have no other avenue....I don't understand your thinking. So a music supervisor is looking for a song to play on the radio in a film, and it has to be 70s sounding cause that's when the scene takes place. You submit your piece, they make you a deal, you get your advance/royalties. How is that money, made from songwriting, any less equal in value to the money you'd get from having one track on an album? Songwriting isn't just writing hit songs for current artists. It's writing songs for films, it's writing cues, it's writing instrumentals, it's composing for film, etc. So if I write a bunch of 70s/80s songs & get them placed in films.... how am I "dead in the water"?If TAXI is looking for a certain contemporary song, isn't there ton's of already gifted songwriters in LA, that the TAXI client could select? Many good publishers, with many good songwriters. Why would a certain client ask TAXI for songs???A certain client would ask TAXI to look for a certain contemporary song because they don't have what they want in their cataloque. They want someone, whose ears they trust, to go through all the submissions and pick out the top 5 or 10. Then they only have to spend 5 minutes of their time to listen to something they know is going to be EXACTLY what they are looking for.An already successful songwriter with some hits under his/her belt probably has hundreds of other good songs. Of course, these songwriters are probably already with publishers and therefore, the songs can cost $$. Do clients come to TAXI to find songs that they can get for very low $$?Cost may an issue in terms of the fact that, say, the client wants a song that sounds like such-and-such artist but they don't want to pay the cost of using that artist's recording. I think a client comes to TAXI cause they know they're going to get the top 10 out of 1000 submissions. The type of deal the songwriter can negotiate depends on a) how much the client wants the song and b) what the budget is. Certainly unpublished songwriters are not going to be able to keep their publishing. But you have to start somewhere.

[jchitty]

LOL, so 'middle aged women' (women in their 40s as you put it) can't write cutting edge songs, eh? (at least that's what I think I read, there are so many messages here) Shall I take my knitting needles out right now? Btw, you are SO wrong.

[pogodog]

Quote:Quote:LOL, so 'middle aged women' (women in their 40s as you put it) can't write cutting edge songs, eh? (at least that's what I think I read, there are so many messages here) Shall I take my knitting needles out right now? Btw, you are SO wrong. Well, I ask you humbly to give me an example. Nothing negative or depressing allowed - TFSS - "tortured female singer syndrome" - you know, no whiners or complainers......Diane Warren is one example of a woman songwriter 40 something and successful. Actually one of the more successful writers of recent times, male or female.RanG