Return after Return...

[bobpepek]

Hi everyone, My name is Bob Pepek, I'm a singer/songwriter from CT. Like anyone else, I live paycheck to paycheck, work a 40 hour a week job, and am doing everything I can to push my music, that I believe so much in. With such faith in my music, I turned to Taxi. I know signing up for Taxi was not going to guarantee me a signed contract, nor was it a guarantee that it would open any new doors for me. However, I've been getting a bit discouraged lately with the constant returns. I understand that these A&R reps aren't willing to risk their 6-figure incomes on "chance", I get it. But I really feel they are being a little TOO selective. Now please dont pick me for being "bitter" or "uptight" for not being forwarded, I'm just concerned, however (as a hypothetical example), these screeners ask for something similar to Coldplay, now I believe my music shares a similar "style", however its not close enough to target. Am I needed to develop a british accent, and match up vocal pitch and tones to be considered? On top of that, the Dispatch opportunities are few and far between (at no fault of Taxi's, but dont sync up with my style for consideration). On the monitary side, like I said, I live paycheck to paycheck, so paying the yearly fee was a dip into the wallet, then I signed up for Taxi Dispatch, and I now have 12 consecutive returns under my belt(@ $5 a submission... [$60]). Thats a near $600 as of right now, and I'm only 2 months into this membership, its a bit discouraging. The 5 songs I have uploaded were all professionally recorded at a very well known studio, every returned critique has emphasized that. Every song is a track of my EP that I just released this past January. Just about every critique I've had has mentioned how I have good hooks and good marketability, etc... If all this is so, why am I getting return after return? I'm batting .000 right now, 0 for 12. Can anyone instill faith in me that there's light at the end of the tunnel, and not just an empty wallet?? Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you all. If any of you have the free moment, I'd like to hear what some people have to think of my music. Sincerely,Bob Pepek');// -->gotmuddzr2@yahoo.comhttp://www.myspace.com/bobpepek

[Casey H]

Hi BobI really enjoyed your music. Good stuff! I think Steve hit it on the head-- it's about targeting. A lot of times, new members tend to over-submit- a bit of shotgunning. If you chose your submissions more carefully, avoiding where your music is too far from the a la's, your forward ratio will be much better. (I know-- can't get worse, LOL)... It's not a reflection on the quality of your music.Often, film/TV music libraries will run listings looking for a wider selection of styles. You may want to keep an eye out for those. I agree with Steve that your music leans a little more pop or singer-songwriter.Best of luck! Casey

[matto]

Sept 14, 2009, 10:50am, bobpepek wrote:I question if that one phrase of mine "Lets go, lets see, just what this world has got for we", was the only thing that tainted the song for the screener. Would I have been forwarded had it not been for that line...Obviously I can't say if that line was the ONLY thing that kept the song from being forwarded (having listened to the song and considering the very high bar of the listing I doubt it), but I would agree that line would keep the song from being forwarded or cut. An established artist may get away with the occasional forced line in the songs they are writing themselves, but you won't if you're trying to get them to cut your song. That's just the way it is.As far as the dilemma of fixing songs that you have already spent a lot of money on...it's a mistake to spend money on something before the writing is polished, but if it makes you feel any better that's a mistake probably every single one of us has made. I certainly made it some 12 (or is it 13? ) years ago when I first joined Taxi. You may find as I did that the real value of the critiques is that they will help you write better songs in the future...FWIW I retired my first batch of songs (that I joined Taxi to pitch) in less than a half year since I realized they were just not gonna cut it... I had spent a good amount of money on them but thank god didn't make the mistake of pressing any CD's.Then again your music is better than mine was 12 years ago so hopefully you'll fare a bit better than I did back then... At the very least you can sell the CD's, and you should be able to get some of your music licensed to tv/film opportunities since the production values are really high...You'll also find that for film and tv, less scrutiny is placed on the lyrics (which in my humble opinion are your songs' Achilles Heel).HTH,matto

[wings]

BTW, Bob - I'm flying out to Groton, New London, CT today, then back to Caldwell, NJ. ~wings~

[matto]

Bob,why not take your 3 best new songs (for the new album), record a simple guitar vocal demo of each, and send them in to some Taxi custom critiques. Really ask them for feedback on lyrics melody etc...tell them you're trying to iron out any flaws in the writing before going in the studio to produce the tracks. If you are as brave as many around here you can even put them up in peer to peer.Once you have received lots of feedback, and evaluated it and integrated what you felt was suitable into your songs, THEN spend the money to go in the studio and have those songs recorded.Also, in this day and age I would reconsider cutting a whole album, it seems the industry as a whole is more and more singles driven, and unless you have enough fans who will buy the album to at least pay for the whole production and manufacturing process, working in 3 song increments would actually be beneficial on almost every level...Just some thoughts...matto

[ragani]

Hi Bob, Boy, I sure understand your feelings. There are so many reasons for returns, and it may have very little to do with your production quality (which appears to be a good one-- even noted by the screeners). I too had great production values in our music (which was already pressed as a CD before I joined TAXI), but not one song was picked up from a forward (or return, for that matter). If you're coming to the Rally this year, you will enjoy sitting through some of the panel reviews of member's music-- that was a real eye-opener for me the first year I went. And after sitting through the panels at several Rally events, I also saw that producers, artists, and our screeners are actually hungry for good songs, songs that they can pitch. I also learned that (as slideboardouts commented), pitching in the genre of the artist requesting the song is helpful (if not essential)-- though I also learned that while a female artist will sometimes pick up a male vocal song, it rarely works the other way around. Sept 14, 2009, 11:54am, matto wrote:FWIW I retired my first batch of songs (that I joined Taxi to pitch) in less than a half year since I realized they were just not gonna cut it... I had spent a good amount of money on them but thank god didn't make the mistake of pressing any CD's.Well I had spent good money to produce my first album, but I also realized we had a fan base that would support it (and they did), but when it came to submitting the songs to TAXI, well, the style and genre wasn't a perfect fit for any listings, and I too retired my songs after 6 months of realizing that I needed to go at the task a little differently, even for film/tv. If you've got master copies, and fans to support your music, pressing a CD might be worth it, though if you're just starting without a strong fan base, I would highly recommend getting the tracks into CDBaby.com's digital distribution program. Then people can still buy your music on iTunes, etc., but you won't have the cost of pressing the CD's, and no merch sitting around the house. (And as an aside-- we've been making a lot more on digital sales lately over actual album sales, even though we still sell plenty of albums when we tour.)All the best to you-- hope to see you at the Rally!!Cheers,Raags

[wings]

Hey Bob - I was at Groten and am back already. Just had to drop someone off. ~wings~

[bobpepek]

Sept 15, 2009, 10:24am, matto wrote:Bob,why not take your 3 best new songs (for the new album), record a simple guitar vocal demo of each, and send them in to some Taxi custom critiques. Really ask them for feedback on lyrics melody etc...tell them you're trying to iron out any flaws in the writing before going in the studio to produce the tracks. If you are as brave as many around here you can even put them up in peer to peer.Once you have received lots of feedback, and evaluated it and integrated what you felt was suitable into your songs, THEN spend the money to go in the studio and have those songs recorded.mattoI know we plan starting the new album on October 5th-8th, laying down drums. I completely agree that cutting a full legnth doesnt justify the costs, but yet a LOT of these listings call for "full length CDs", yatta yatta yatta. But the 5th through the 8th is simply for cutting drums for all the tracks but we're gonna tackle like 3 songs at a time.Bob