Screeners paid NOT to forward music?

[coachdebra]

OH, CK - I love you! Seriously - the lesson is to do your homework. When I was an actress (in another life time), we were always studying our craft. Always in scene study class, voice class, dance class - classes and more classes. I've never gotten this thing among musicians that don't study their craft. The point you're making is that when you had to work on the song craft, because it wasn't in a genre you had naturally gravitated to. Well, your craft got better. And that improvement will affect and infect all of your music.The moral of the story - never stop learning and growing!For me, it's what makes life interesting!Debra

[cameron]

Great posts y'all... and very inspirational. What I lack in talent I make up for in motivation, so maybe there's hope for me yet!!Cam

[matthoggard]

Anne's list is awesome. Very insightful.The listings themselves are our roadmap. Im learning that they are very specific. What i hear in my songs and think is great, is probaly not what the screeners are going to hear. There is no room for innuendo or assuption. If the listing asks for a la "Johnny Cash" then the song had better sound like "Johnny Cash". Ive found that if they are critiquing my lyrics then there is a great chance that the lyrics are not what the client is looking for. when i decided i was going to write "commercially", I had to put down my "ME" mask and start learning to write what the industry wants and not what I think they want. Im learning the hard way. But I see the light at least. If you have a song that you think is perfect but a screener disagrees then by all means keep pitching that song. There are plenty of ways to get your songs heard. Taxi is just one tool for us.If your submittal doesnt match the listing exactly then dont submit it. I get the feeling that your the "prove it to me" kind of guy. Flame me if Im wrong. Let us hear your music. there are some great composers/writers right here on these forums and they alone might save you the pain of getting a return from a screener who may or may not see things the way you do. Trust me I feel your pain man. I know EXACTLY where you are coming from. I wish i had answers.M~

[wta]

You know Matt it's really kinda funny. To me the screeners are a complex rubix cube and if I can get the math down AND catch the vibe that moves the math cracking the code will be a turkey shoot (some might think a turkey shoot is easy but hitting something running for its life with a 8 gauge is trickier that she looks...). I must admit that the screener's have got some ways of looking at things that make my eyes crossed but, the world will be alot better place when we all just get around to doing things my way (now THATS standup humor!)... wta

[weapon]

wta I would also suggest to really pay attention to the ratings they give you on the critique. For instance every song I have submitted for has been right on target for the listing, but it was my mastering that was lacking. So now I am working on that part of my game, what we need to do to get better is admit our weaknesses, work on them and have them become our strengths. Literally the screeners are doing their job, if we get rejected it just means we haven't done our job or someone did our job better than us. It's the hardest thing to do, turn the microscope on ourselves. I hope this helps.

[wta]

Weapon great point with the rating! I've somehow missed the breakdown on the ratings. Now I will say that I really haven't sat down to write for taxi submissions yet, i've only subimitted works that I wrote for other purposes. From the ratings I HAVE got I really didn't known what a 7/10 or 8/10 ment. Is that good or great or really great? Do the screeners wants 10's in order to submit or is the average a little lower? See what I mean. Could someone post the link to the page on the taxi site or the forum site that breaks this down? That would be a HUGE help... Thanks weapon that was a great help, as for concentrating on my weaknesses I'd likely need counseling to talk me down from the bridge I'd need to jump off of after meditating on all that stuff! Oh and microscopes and biology always made me a bit quezzy... wta

[davewalton]

Oct 9, 2008, 3:20pm, wta wrote: Weapon great point with the rating! I've somehow missed the breakdown on the ratings. Now I will say that I really haven't sat down to write for taxi submissions yet, i've only subimitted works that I wrote for other purposes. From the ratings I HAVE got I really didn't known what a 7/10 or 8/10 ment. Is that good or great or really great? Do the screeners wants 10's in order to submit or is the average a little lower? See what I mean. Could someone post the link to the page on the taxi site or the forum site that breaks this down? That would be a HUGE help...Hitting the specific requirements of the listing is much more important than the numbers but they do work in conjuction with each other. We've seen several posts where the person got all 10's across the board and got a return. Why? Because even the greatest Opera song won't pass for Hip Hop. It may not be that drastic, but if the song doesn't fit the listing the quality won't matter. On the other hand, as Weapon pointed out, hitting the listing with a lack of quality somewhere (mix, production, whatever), gets the track kicked back if it's for a "broadcast quality" listing.I get mostly 7's and 8's and I have a pretty good forward ratio. I use the numbers as a *rough* barometer regarding my music overall but mostly I've paid attention to the comments. They've helped me "focus" in not only on the genre I happen to be shooting for but also on the specifics of the listing. Then hopefully I can use that knowledge for the next one, so on and so forth. It's a slow building process.

[hummingbird]

Oct 9, 2008, 3:20pm, wta wrote: Weapon great point with the rating! I've somehow missed the breakdown on the ratings. Now I will say that I really haven't sat down to write for taxi submissions yet, i've only subimitted works that I wrote for other purposes. From the ratings I HAVE got I really didn't known what a 7/10 or 8/10 ment. Is that good or great or really great? Do the screeners wants 10's in order to submit or is the average a little lower? See what I mean. Could someone post the link to the page on the taxi site or the forum site that breaks this down? That would be a HUGE help... Thanks weapon that was a great help, as for concentrating on my weaknesses I'd likely need counseling to talk me down from the bridge I'd need to jump off of after meditating on all that stuff! Oh and microscopes and biology always made me a bit quezzy... wtaI've had forwards with 7s and 8s. Very few submissions get straight 10s. I did get straight 9s once, and I'm still very proud

[wta]

Dave and Vikki, That really is very helpful to know. I have had no clue what to think of my sevens and eights coupled with being returned so it just means the music needs to be tweeked relating to the comments and maybe more on topic? Thank you VERY much... '-) wta

[aubreyz]

Oct 8, 2008, 9:20pm, wta wrote: You know Matt it's really kinda funny. To me the screeners are a complex rubix cube and if I can get the math down AND catch the vibe that moves the math cracking the code will be a turkey shoot (some might think a turkey shoot is easy but hitting something running for its life with a 8 gauge is trickier that she looks...). I must admit that the screener's have got some ways of looking at things that make my eyes crossed but, the world will be alot better place when we all just get around to doing things my way (now THATS standup humor!)... wtaWTA,I've been kind of MIA in the forum of late, so am just chiming in. Some great points have been made in this thread. I can understand your frustration with the "rubik's cube" of screening. Even though, after 2 years of the process, I have a pretty good forward ration now-- it still can sometimes seem like a crap shoot. Keep in mind, I run a studio for a living, and have been writing and producing for more years than I'd like to add up -- and it was and still is a learning process.One of the biggest factors for me, and maybe this will help you, is to understand that the screener is just a proxy for the actual listing party or client. It's the clients that determine what music is being looked for. So instead of "trying to get past the screeners" I try to focus on who the listing party is, and what do they want. More about that in a sec, but first about the screeners.Of course, there are several things that won't get you past a screener -- many have been listed. Although we can all think of hit songs that broke the rules, the fact is that there are some basic "rules" of songwriting that a big percentage of successful songs follow. Most every popular songwriting course or book focuses on those things. Taking an analogy, if you were trying out for a university tennis team, would you show how well you could juggle 14 tennis balls or try to show how you could ace a serve and had solid fundamental skills and knowledge of the game. In a lot of ways, it's easier to be a non-conformist and play without a net, but those who can do magical things within the confines of the rules are the ones who shine. As I understand your objective to use the tools you have to produce commercial stuff, my advise would be to pay strict attention to the rules of hook, huge choruses and song structure and then allow the "muse" to do magical things within those confines. A solid, well structured song has a much better chance because it shows that you know what you are doing and can do it well. Success may afford you the freedom to stretch your eclectic wings, but your best foot in the door chance will come by playing within the lines.Back to the clients, a record label looking for artists will have different needs than a music library looking for songs. A big help is to try to put yourself in the client's place. What kinds of songs are getting music library placements? Right now, just about every prime time network drama will have at least one singer/songwriter cut in it. What lyric topics are being used? How vague or how detailed are they? The same thing applies with label gigs -- what's selling? What are the songwriting trends of hits? What are the lyric topics, structure, etc. I tend to write vague, artsy lyrics but the current trend is for very literal, not so clever lyrics. The list could go on and on, but i think the better place to start looking for answers is not "a list of things screeners won't forward" but rather a list of what kinds of things their clients are actually using now. It's an evolving list. I constantly am analyzing the markets I'm trying to reach-- looking for trends. There's no magic list for that, but the information is everywhere - tv, radio, commercials, film, sporting events, etc.IMHO, that's the key. Know thy market. The screener's job is to give their clients material that they can use in their particular markets.I will say this, my focus over the past couple of years has been to figure out how to get more eclectic, artsy stuff past the screeners. I've done pretty well at that, but now realize that the kind of material that I produce the most is used very little in the current market. So my focus is changing, as the market evolves.Hope that helps and welcome aboard. This Taxi ride can be all you make it. There's not a "how to" read between the lines of listings and screeners, but knowing the market, asking questions, and getting feedback from those who are successful are indispensable tools in figuring it out.And for the record, back in the day I could solve the real Rubik's cube in less than 50 seconds. Aub