TAXI.com

Hi,
I joined Taxi around April this past year. I have submitted 5 songs to about 4 different listings and all of them were returned. I will say that my critiques have gotten better each time. This made me stop and think about the whole writing, submit and forget process that I have heard around here. For all of the songs that I have submitted to listings, they were ones that I wrote before the listing. I submitted them because I thought that they might have a chance to go through. Also, would it be better to do just either basic guitar/vocal or piano/vocal demos instead of full blown demos? Lots of the music publishers in the songwriter's market book ask for full band production demos. I'm kind of lost about where to go for my future with submitting material to Taxi listings. I'm sure all of you have been here before, what are your thoughts? I apologize if this may seem as a rant but it seems like I can't get past this wall.

Hi Darin ....I'm pretty new here myself (since May)....but I've learned a lot about how things are done around here and it pretty much comes down to this:
1.) mostly everything you submit will either go to a publisher/industry exec/A&R guy...who is looking for songs for artists they represent or wish to pitch to
2.) a publisher looking for TV/Movie songs and instrumentals that will be used for scenes
Both senerios have to pass muster by a Taxi screener who is an authority on the listing...
In either case...the final product has got to be ready to play in the scene, or polished to the standards of industry ears for presentation to an artist....very high standards...
You could submit an extremely marketable song for someone or something but it won't get forwarded if the production is below average....in other words ....we are in competition with people who can produce, not only great writing, but can also deliever it ready to be aired...
With that in mind....if you are able to write to the specifications of a listing, or have one in your catalog that matches it, and are able to meet the "Broadcast Quality"specs....then you will be able to compete....returns can be discouraging I know....but the more you learn whats expected, the closer you will get to getting forwards...There's a way things are done here and you have to be able to do what's expected to get anywhere....but there is so much help and support that keeps you going...on the Piano/vocal question....you can....but the vocal has got to be absolutely perfect killer....and the musical performance has to be remarkable.....you have to know and remember the type of artists and talent we're competing with and rise to that level to be taken seriously....we're competing with the next James Taylor on guitar and the next Elton John on piano....we have to to know our limits and strenghs and work from there...
Personally...I suck at most of this...but I enjoy writing and trying to get better at the production part of it...at the very least...I'm no longer kidding myself or have my head in the clouds....I have Taxi and it's members to thank for that...so I strive to get better and enjoy it along the way......I hope you get more answers Darin and I wish you all the best with your carreer in music.....

Darin, this is a tough one... I've asked myself the same questions many times, I've tried different genres, I try picking out a listing, researching and listening to the A LAs and trying to write something that sounds very, very close. This should be the formula and just keep writing/getting better. I get consistent high marks for production and so forth. Like you, I hear all about the very, very, very high bar for music from TAXI's clientele, although I no longer watch TV, I listen to it and the clear majority of music I hear coming through my sound system is really a lot cheesier sounding than my stuff. In other words, the high bar we hear about doesn't square with what I hear comin' out of the TV. Either way, I still get TONS of returns. One of the last returns I got that included a critique, an orchestral thing, I got the feeling the track was either too good for them(yeah right ), cause the guy gave it extremely high marks and comments or it just wasn't what they were looking for. I can't figure it out but I know that its frustrating and I'll bet everyone on this forum will say the same.

Someone told me, just believe in yourself and keep doing it. Thats what I do.

HTH

I've had a ton of submissions since I joined and just recently started getting a few forwards, and some were signed from those forwards.

I enjoy writing to the listing. First, it beats setting around staring at a blank page wondering about the topic I should write about. Writing to a listing eliminates that. I didn't see if you are a dispatch member or not. Dispatch adds a shorter time frame to the writing... Compose/write/record/submit in generally about 5 days.

Doing that will really get you writing and writing more improves the process and quality of what you write.

On returns that you think are dead on.... the production might be top notch but the style be just a bit off.... it will be returned. I had this happen recently. I wrote for a film listing...YES/NO... the screener actually took the time to write some nice commentary about the song.... ultimately saying that they asked for Alt Rock and my tune was stylistically Ballad Rock. Even though the song was obviously dead on target lyrically, the style was a few clicks off of what was asked for by the producer....

Targeting the listing is an art in itself I have come to believe.

BTW: on a recent listing I submitted 2 songs. One got forwarded one didn't. When the library contacted me, they asked for more music than just the one forwarded song. They ended up listening to, and signing 2 other songs that had been turned down previously by the screeners, one of which was on that very listing. So the screeners don't know the minds of the end users, but you have to get past the screener first.

Best of luck.

I think writing for listings is one of the best ways to get better faster.