Why so many "NO CRITIQUES FROM TAXI"?

[h2000]

Quote:The most obvious difference is that the Taxi stuff is treated as "solicited" by the listing party since it has been screened. The tipsheet stuff isn't.That's a good distinction. Quote:Also the good tipsheets are about twice the money compared to Taxi, and offer no extras True, but also factor in the extra TAXI submission fees per song.Do you have any experience with other tip sheets?Quote:I don't know what happened in your case but it's really rare that so many listing would be Y/N. I submit to a variety of listings and at least half of them (not counting Dispatch of course) are screened.I thought it was not normal since it is often mentioned as a benefit. I only recently realized it and was a bit surprised. Now, it's time for my renewal, so of course now I start to think about it, ya know?Thanks for the thoughts...good insight

[davewalton]

Quote:Now, it's time for my renewal, so of course now I start to think about it, ya know?Oh absolutely. I actually relate to this very much. Initially when I joined Taxi in early 2004, I tried to get the most out of my membership fee by always submitting three songs to as many listings as I could - orchestral, electronica, jazz - listings for libraries and artists alike. After a year I looked back and realized I had spent a bundle of dough on $5 submission fees. In spite of the fact that I had received a LOT of helpful critiques, (some critiques literally changed my musical life) I decided let my membership lapse.A couple of months after my membership lapsed, I got a deal with a Taxi forwarded music library where my music had been forwarded a year prior to that. I didn't waste much time renewing my Taxi membership. Today, rather than using a shotgun approach, I'm much more selective about which listings I submit to. I'm also not compelled to always submit three songs to each listing. That kind of "management" has really helped to keep the costs down and has given me the most bang for my buck. I think that Taxi works much better for the "home studio" person that can crank out broadcast quality tunes from their spare bedroom at any point in time with a limited amount of expense. That kind of flexibility really makes a big difference when trying to respond to the huge variety of listings that show up every two weeks. Taxi or no Taxi, that's a good thing to work towards anyway. The more self-sufficient (and still retaining quality) the better. Hope that helps,Dave

[jay10music]

Dear Readers of the Boards,I've answered this question many times over the years, and thought Chris Baptiste did a bang up job with his answer, but I'd like to add some information to his thoughts.#1 When I started TAXI in 1992, we averaged 20 listings per month, and the cost of joining TAXI was $299.95 per year. Nearly 15 years later, the cost is the SAME, but we NOW average 100 listings per month. A 500% INCREASE in opportunity, yet the cost remains the same.#2 We've measured the number of no-critique listings several times in years past, and the averages have been at LEAST 70% of the listings have had critiques, 30% not. I can make the ratio 100% critiqued if you'd like, and make those 400 opportunities per year go away. Not actually making a threat here, but trying to demonstrate that we've always fallen off the fence in favor of providing the MOST opportunities we can for our members. If that's been a bad decision, please let us know. It would be much easier and cheaper for us to not run them #3 Do you really think that the people who are on the receiving end of the thousands of unsolicited submissions they get from tip sheets (that don't pre-screen, which I believe is ALL of them) are THRILLED when all thousands of unsolicited CDs hit their doorstep? “Oh looky here!!! I just got 3,452 CDs (this week) of mostly music I can't use from people I don't know, because some greedy person is selling my contact information to thousands of people I don't know. I can hardly wait to go through them one by one, looking for that needle in the haystack! Boy, am I lucky or what?!!”The truth is that tip sheets were originally started for and sent to professional publishers and professional songwriters, they were closely guarded and not sold to the public. Eventually, some people figured out that they could make a few hundred grand a year by selling that information to people who were hungry to have it, and they didn't really give two Sh*!s if the companies got inundated with material they would toss or if the songs from people like you got thrown in the garbage before they were opened.#4 The reason people get deals through TAXI is because the music is targeted AND screened. I spent $986,000 last year paying the screeners who listen to your music. If they didn't do critiques, I could have kept the majority of that for myself - REALLY nice raise The reason I choose to spend that huge sum of money on giving you critiques is that I'd rather invest in the long term. The better we help you become, the more often you will succeed. The more you succeed, the more successful TAXI becomes in accomplishing its mission, and the probability of longevity for the company is increased. We ALL benefit - win, win, win.We haven't raised the submission fee in nearly 15 years, and it's not really a profit center for us. We spend about what we take in. Some years we make money on it, other years, we lose. The no-critique listings DO balance out the expense, but that's not why we run them. Chris's answer above, explains it well. But to sum it up again, we'd rather give you 400 more opportunities per year and take some heat for not offering you 100% of the listings as critiqued. If we've got the actual music supervisors and end users wanting to screen their own stuff at our office, but they can't take the time or don't have the skills to write critiques, should we pass on those incredibly direct opportunities for you?If a company needs something so fast that it wouldn't work to critique it, should we take a pass on those opportunities for you too?If a company is looking for Sheep Herding Music for a monastery in Tibet, and it's impossible to critique that genre, should we take a pass on that opportunity for you?We really DO understand the value of the critiques. That's why I've always chosen to provide them rather than take the easy and MUCH more profitable path of just running ALL listings as pass/fail, yes/no. BTW, we do offer Custom Critiques, which are critiques that are independent of the listings and more involved. #5 Several of you pointed out percentages that were high for what you CHOSE to submit to, and somebody coming to this thread might easily misconstrue that to mean that 80% of all of TAXI's listings don't have critiques attached to them. Not true, and just wanted to point that out.#6 There is a really good reason we don't offer critiques AFTER the fact for quick turn situations. It would DRAMATICALLY raise the cost of screening because we'd have to do it ONCE to meet the listing deadline, and a SECOND time to do the critiques. And the second time would take longer than the first because we'd be generating the critiques. We'd be happy to do that, but do you really want to pay at least $10 per submission? I've been guessing the answer is “no” all these years, but maybe I'm not as “in touch” with our members as I think I am. The Y listings seem to create a balance in costs that enable us to avoid increasing sub fees to $10 per song (after 15 years) while simultaneously giving you 400 more (often more direct) opportunities per year. Seems to work out nicely for everybody. Thanks for reading my Sunday morning, too much coffee rant Time to go do stuff with my wife and kids, gotta go.Michael

[gitarrero]

Hi Michael,thanks for explaining the details; I think this is understandable for everyone, and no one would like to pass on oppurtunities or want to pay a higher submission fee.cheers,Martin

[arkjack]

Just want to say Michael that I really appreciate your committment to the members and holding the line on costs while making every possible opportunity available. One of the reasons I joined and rejoined is that you are sincere about wanting us to succeed. And your committment to the members has also earned and maintained the respect of the industry users who make the listings. Q. When the executives from the Y/N listings come in and listen and get a feel for how you do your screenings and critiques do the eventually give you more leeway on subsequent listings and let you do the screeings and critiques with longer leadtimes....? In other words, down the road do opportunities with those customers convert to critiqued.?.ArkJack