TAXI.com

Other than track length, it seems there is a significant gray area for the musical differences between "Instrumental" and "Instrumental Cue" in listings for SOLO PIANO tracks (or likely any solo-instrument track but solo piano is common). Cues get their sound generically by creating a build using increasingly thick orchestration, which solo piano tracks won't really be able to do (unless cheating by using 3+ hands which isn't really "solo piano").

S230404DY vs. S230420TX

"Instrumentals that feature piano as their ONLY instrumentation. Captivating melodies ... dynamic and heartfelt journey...
All submissions should be about 90 seconds to 3 minutes long, give or take."

vs.

"We're searching for Emotional PIANO-BASED Instrumentals (or Cues) ... Keep your instrumentation very simple – solo piano OR one or two instruments in addition to the piano. Your pieces should have one central motif and mood – we are not looking for a score. The emotion needs to be obvious from the start, and remain consistent to the end. ... Please submit well-composed Solo Piano Instrumentals (or Cues) that convey a clear emotion or mood from beginning to end. All submissions should be about 2 to 4 minutes long for Instrumentals and roughly 90 seconds to 2 minutes for Cues, give or take. "


Independent of length, are the below tracks INSTRUMENTALS, or are they INSTRUMENTAL CUES ? What musical differences account for this distinction?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S67lO_kOEK8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PaYq5Pt228

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EWC9-3B8GU


Independent of length, is this solo-piano TAXI-member track considered an INSTRUMENTAL, or an INSTRUMENTAL CUE and why?

https://www.taxi.com/members/2aC3BY4_Sl ... op-22-no-3

Much discussed....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq_c-2M0rKo
difference-between-cue-and-instrumental-t147946.html

Thanks, sure, much discussed, but not well described specifically for a solo instrument track as I mentioned. The distinction of "different song form" between Instrumental and Instrumental Cue is somewhat clear until the listing requires "pieces should have one central motif" which reduces the amount of contrast between song sections in a typical Instrumental. The distinction is more clear with multiple instruments as that description "a cue will build and build" is more obvious.

Using the tracks I posted, I am not sure it is apparent whether those are solo piano Instrumentals, or solo piano Instrumental Cues.

I would even guess that there are forwards of both styles made to a listing requesting only one or the other (for SOLO PIANO requests or for something like SOLO PIANO WITH MINIMAL STRINGS or etc) as the distinction is not able to be made.

According to Taxi HQ, the primary and nearly only difference (for a solo piano listing), between INSTRUMENTAL and INSTRUMENTAL CUE, is length and length only.

The Cue may have additional specific needs like Button-ending but those may be common to Instrumental as well.

superblonde wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 06, 2023 1:20 pm

According to Taxi HQ, the primary and nearly only difference (for a solo piano listing), between INSTRUMENTAL and INSTRUMENTAL CUE, is length and length only.

As ever you're focusing on the wrong thing. It doesn't matter. Just give them great music that they can use. The end user will most likely be a non-musican who doesn't give a crap what you call it.

...and discussed yet again as part of this week's Taxi TV....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3T7D4tp4g8

cosmicdolphin wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 06, 2023 3:35 pm

superblonde wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 06, 2023 1:20 pm

According to Taxi HQ, the primary and nearly only difference (for a solo piano listing), between INSTRUMENTAL and INSTRUMENTAL CUE, is length and length only.

As ever you're focusing on the wrong thing.

+1