JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum TAXI

B St. John,

You're kidding right? You got your membership refunded, you also got consideration for the songs you sent in and some feedback (which is not what the 5 dollars is charged for by the way) and even though TAXI lost money on you (it costs about 7-8 bucks on average per song screened) plus the free subscription you got to Recording Magazine plus whatever materials you got and the ability (if you had chosen) to attend the TAXI Road Rally for free, that STILL isn't enough? Really?

If your music didn't get forwarded, do you suspect there is ANY chance at all that it wasn't appropriate for the listing? Is that even a credible possibility in your mind?

Think of it this way. There are 2 possibilities.

1. Your music is totally appropriate, hit quality and would absolutely deserve to be forwarded and would have become a major success for you if it had been.

If that is true, and for some reason TAXI intentionally did not forward your music, they lose out big time on the success story and also from the company looking for the material who wants appropriate material. So what possible reason would that scenario ever happen? Everyone would lose on that, including TAXI.

2. The music wasn't appropriate for the listing, wasn't good enough to be forwarded or wasn't as good as the other submissions that were forwarded.

If that is the case (which logic suggest is far more likely) then TAXI performed the service exactly as you asked them to, and yet after refunding your member fee, they STILL lost money on you. And according to your statement, that isn't enough for you.

So, I ask, how exactly would you do it better? If a company provides this screening/filtering service and makes an honest judgement call that a particular song isn't suited, (which is exactly what they are paid to do), should they they be forced to lose money every time they make the correct decision?

Remember, you are free to send your music to anyone directly any time. But we all know that 99.999999% of the time, unsolicited music goes directly in the trash no matter how good it is. So TAXI provides a filter system that labels use to conserve their time. These labels WANT hits and great songs. They WANT TAXI to send them only the things that meet their exact criteria and when they do, they actually WANT to hear them. TAXI wants to please both their members and the labels they are providing the service for. The only way to do that is to only forward material that meets the criteria. If you wrote a song that was fantastic and deserving and perfectly suited for a specific listing, would you want 5000 other songs which were terrible, unsuited and inappropriate to be forwarded along with your deserving song to the label? Do you think the label would listen to all of them?

So how would you do it better? If this is a case where you were in disagreement with their assessment of your music, then fine. You got your money back, they lost money and everyone moves on. Perhaps you'll find someone who feels more positively about your music. Or perhaps you'll learn that your music isn't as good as you hoped it was. But either way, you've come out ahead and TAXI hasn't. If you are suggesting that TAXI isn't doing it right, please tell us a better system to do it? I bet not only TAXI but TONOS, Universal (Inside Sessions) and many others would love to know a better way to provide this type of service.

I receive about 50 CD's a week from members of all levels. At Awards submission time, that goes up to sometimes 500 in a day. I listen to 100% of these CD's. I also look at the press info sent along. I can't tell you how many times I find long lists of claims of how amazing the music but when I play it is in the bottom 10% of all the music we get. I also get submissions from people who are the opposite. Who have no idea how good their stuff is. The point is that artists are usually the WORST judges of the quality of their own material, or how appropriate it is for use somewhere. Often the most rude and demanding artists we come across, who inflate the value/quality of their music the most turn out to be the ones with the very least amount of talent.

I got a pro press kit, professionally produced CD cover/art, a long artist bio and letterhead from a supposed record label touting a particular artist and their level of professionalism. Everyone seemed to top notch in every regard. There were some quotes from people I had never heard of, but all of them raved about the music.

I placed the music in the CD player, and what I got was something recorded with the automated background tracks of a very cheap, child level casio keyboard, with someone playing single notes above the pre-programmed back ground music, out of time and out of key of the chords and rhythm playing in the background, and who then moaned Contemporary Christian type lyrics badly over the mess of music. To date, it is the very worst thing I have ever heard, and that is saying a lot.

This same individual sent follow up letters asking why we (a free organization) hadn't helped get them their deserved record deal and that as a professional, they had spent a lot of valuable time putting together this package and expected more immediate major label results after sending it to us. Lest you think this person was simply pulling our leg, let me assure you he wasn't.

The bottom line is that this person not only didn't have the talent to produce something of artistic and commercial value to the mainstream, but they were very well spoken and professional in all the superficial ways that made them seem credible until you listened to the music. And this same person had already complained to us how they had been unfairly treated by several industry people who were holding their music back and taking advantage of them when their stuff deserved major success.

The sad thing is that this person, though the extreme example, is not alone. There are many degrees of this same thing that goes on out there.

Very few songs written and recorded even by extremely successful and talented writers and artists ever strike that magic that takes it to mainstream or even niche success. The best anyone can do is work at their craft, develop their style and do the best they can. In that process, if your music leans towards commercially appealing, you can use some of the many tools out there to try and supplement your odds of success. TAXI is one very specific tool people can use gain targeted access to a opportunity. They can't help a weak song find success. No one can. They can't help a great song that is not appropriate find success with someone looking for something different. No one can. But, if a song is suited and of sufficient quality, they can get that song to the person making the decision who WANTS to hear the song. That's a very usable tool for many writers and artists. For less than the cost of a plane ticket 1 time to a major music center, you can use this tool to gain targeted access to labels and publishers and professionals that dozens or even hundreds of trips to music cities would never allow you to do. But whether you have met with the label in person, or you use TAXI to gain your access point, the song still has to cut it for that exact listing and need. If you have a better system to do this, please share it with everyone. We'd love to find new and better ways and new and better tools to achieve success for deserving songs and work by our members. But if this is just a case where you don't like the answer when you ask someone a question about your music (i.e. is this suitable for the listing which you are screening for) then no one can help you there.

One last analogy.. if you bought a car and they offered a money back guarentee to you if you didn't like the car and you drove it for a few months and found you didn't like it, and they gave you the cost you paid for the car back, would you also expect that they would give you back the money for the gas you used while driving it? Would that be reasonable?

Nothing can be ideal for everyone. There is no service, no company, no product that everyone will love and useful. It is impossible. But when a company goes as far as TAXI does to give money back, even if they have performed their job 100% correctly, I can't see where someone can find fault with them. How would you do it better?

Brian