The General Dilemma?

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Picardster
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The General Dilemma?

Post by Picardster » Fri Sep 24, 2021 1:22 am

Hi Fellow Passengers,

just got listing results for 5 tracks I submitted to listing S210824WS
TRADITIONAL-Sounding WORLD MUSIC SONGS in a FOREIGN LANGUAGE (no English) with Male or Female Vocals are needed by a well-known Indie Label.

First of all, cheers to screener 374 who forwarded one track!

The other 4 were returned.
Reason for 3 returns was the missing link to a specific region which was asked for.
One return was with regard to a dated sounding pad. Since that tune was produced +5 years ago, that is acceptable.

Frankly, I cannot relate to the reasons for which 3 songs were returned - the missing link to a region - whereas a fourth song, which, imho, has the same distance or closeness to my region, was forwarded.

For your reference, here is the playlist that includes all 5 songs. Would be interesting if any of you can find out what the forward was and which songs miss the regionality :D

Playlist of my tracks for listing S210824WS

In the past weeks and months I already pondered the question, how much the chances of getting forwards decreases with rising number of members - and consequently rising number of submissions.

Don't get me wrong, the Taxi business model still is a chance for aspiring musicians to get deals. No accusations involved.

I guess it is also in the nature of business that customers asks for a selection of a defined number of tracks to be forwarded. And if 10 tracks are asked for and 100 are submitted, your chance of getting a forward is 10%. If 1K tracks are submitted, there is just 1% chance left.

The screener himself has his job and the difficult task to sort out this 1% - or more or less- and I have no doubt that he or she will listen to a huge bunch of good tracks. And sort out just a tiny percentage of the good ones which he regards as best-fitting. Tough job, imho.

With rising membership and submission-numbers the dilemma increases!

And, just in case, you are like me and cannot define the three tracks with missing link to my region this would strengthen my impression.

My tracks (all together) regularly generate monthly 7 figure stream counts in the stores, so they shouldn't be too far away from marketability. But that doesn't show here in my listing results in an appropriate way, which makes me reflect, whether or not this is the right place for me.

I've discovered myself questioning each listing and each track before I submit and ask myself, what the next reason for a return could be with regard to this particular listing and song. And consequently I submit less and less. And still the reasons for returns surprise me. Sometimes I do understand them and learn from them. But most of the times I don't really :-/

I keep track of each and every submission with each comment and each screener to learn. And I have to say, some critique points are consistent.
And, to avoid misunderstandings, I do appreciate your work, screeners. I'm sure you do your very best!

What I'm not so sure of is the fact, if we are in a business opportunity or in a lottery.....just my 5 cents. :-)

Sorry for the long rant. Looking forward to your thoughts.

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Re: The General Dilemma?

Post by Zaychi » Fri Sep 24, 2021 2:04 am

Ooh, a quiz! Always nice. My guesses:
Der Andere Mann was forwarded, it has a "Berlin twenties" sound
Ich ruf nicht an was rejected because of pads

Your theory about percentages is not the official TAXI policy; they SAY they'll forward everything that's good enough, no matter how many tracks are. But this must be not completely true, the overall bar over the years MUST have been raised. And if clients specify a maximum number in their order (out of our sight), I doubt if they would go across that.

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Re: The General Dilemma?

Post by Picardster » Fri Sep 24, 2021 2:25 am

Cheers for your comment, Jur.

I hope yo don't mind me not disclosing the result yet, but I'll do it :D

Re: number of forwards - would you say anything different if you were Taxi? ;-)

Have a great day
Cheerio/Stefan
Last edited by Picardster on Fri Sep 24, 2021 3:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The General Dilemma?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Fri Sep 24, 2021 3:05 am

Hey Stefan

Some nice tracks there, I have no idea which ones sound most traditional for your region but if I was an editor I would go for Hey Du. I just think it's the best track and the sort of thing I would go for if I wanted a world music track in a Tv show. It's a more upbeat and positive vibe which is often what gets used.
Picardster wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 1:22 am
What I'm not so sure of is the fact, if we are in a business opportunity or in a lottery.....just my 5 cents. :-)
It's a bit of both really. Although you can stack the odds in your favour.

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Re: The General Dilemma?

Post by Picardster » Fri Sep 24, 2021 3:12 am

cosmicdolphin wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 3:05 am

It's a bit of both really. Although you can stack the odds in your favour.
Really good point :-)

BTW: real traditional music for this region would be something like that :D :D :D

Cheers Cosmicdolphin

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Re: The General Dilemma?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Fri Sep 24, 2021 11:03 am

Picardster wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 3:12 am
BTW: real traditional music for this region would be something like that :D :D :D
All about the perception...what the audience expects is not reality I guess

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Re: The General Dilemma?

Post by darkbluerooms » Fri Sep 24, 2021 3:35 pm

I've never seen a lottery that is also a good business opportunity. It might actually be worse than a lottery, because it ISN'T random. It's based on the expertise of an outside party that you have no information about.

You're making good work. Be proud of it and keep pushing. Taxi is just one of many avenues that may lead to greater success down the line. Regardless of the outcome, you will still have the good work to fall back on.

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Re: The General Dilemma?

Post by Picardster » Sat Sep 25, 2021 12:34 am

darkbluerooms wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 3:35 pm

You're making good work. Be proud of it and keep pushing. Taxi is just one of many avenues that may lead to greater success down the line. Regardless of the outcome, you will still have the good work to fall back on.
Cheers Darblueroom!
Music is my job, my passion, my path. And -most likely as we all - I'm striving to get better and better..... :)
Cheerio/Stefan

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Re: The General Dilemma?

Post by Telefunkin » Sat Sep 25, 2021 2:37 am

darkbluerooms wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 3:35 pm
It might actually be worse than a lottery, because it ISN'T random. It's based on the expertise of an outside party that you have no information about.
No, its not random. In submitting YOUR track that YOU created you've printed your own ticket.

BTW, if you want information about the screeners and their expertise......
https://www.taxi.com/aandr/
We might not agree with or like their decisions but on checking through those cv's its hard to deny that they ought to know better than we do (otherwise we'd be on the list too).
Graham (UK). Still composing a little faster than decomposing, and 100% HI.

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Re: The General Dilemma?

Post by Picardster » Sat Sep 25, 2021 3:02 am

Telefunkin wrote:
Sat Sep 25, 2021 2:37 am
darkbluerooms wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 3:35 pm


BTW, if you want information about the screeners and their expertise......
https://www.taxi.com/aandr/
We might not agree with or like their decisions but on checking through those cv's its hard to deny that they ought to know better than we do (otherwise we'd be on the list too).
Word!!!!!!!

I didn't deny their expertise. Not at all and never!

I'm just questioning if there is that general dilemma with that numbers game :-)
Cheerio/Stefan

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