Ok Ted, Here ya go. I spent about 5 minutes on this. That's 5 too many but here goes. These are taken directly from Taxi's "About Taxi" page. You can go to Taxi.com and find that page. See if you can find ANYTHING on that page, the page these ad blurbs are copied from, about the FACT that only SOME of your submissions will be reviewed. I couldn't find such a thing but maybe you can. For the sake of clarity my own comments, and my own emphasis are in bold.

1. Tips From The Top Guns
But your music needs to be up to the task. And if it's not ready yet, we can help you get it ready. This is the really cool part. Not only do you get to take advantage of TAXI's relationships with many of the biggest fish in the music business, you'll also get helpful, written feedback on your music from our A&R staff.

"Well, not ALL your music, but most of it.

2.The next item is tossed in because the excuse for NOT critiquing all the songs is that some lead times are short and those screeners are already working so HARD as it is. Also the whole tone of the member manual is directed at making you feel like it's really HARD for these guys to process your submission. But is it? Here's what TAXI says about that:

Q: How can TAXI handle all those submissions?
A: Pretty easily. Listening to your music is all we do, and we're extremely well-organized. We have a pool of more than 150 different A&R people. As our membership grows, so does our A&R team. Don't forget, TAXI is in L.A. We have a bottomless supply of highly qualified music industry veterans to choose from.
Well, it's easy or it's not easy depending on what the angle is I guess.

3. Q: Should I wait until my material is totally "finished" before I join TAXI?
A: Because you'll always be creating new music, you'll never really be "finished." Many of our members use TAXI as a sounding board along the way. We help them improve their songs and pitch their best material.

Well, actually we help them improve SOME of their songs and others we just send the rejection slip. You'll figure this out after you join.

4.Where Do You Stand?
Is it difficult for you to go on the road or move to one of the music capitals?
Do you need contacts in the music business?

Can you use a team of objective experts who will give you honest feedback?
Well, when you actually DO get the feedback it'll be honest. You won't get it all the time, but you'll figure this out later for yourself.

5.I received 5 critiques for one song and each one was right on the money. The critiques and this membership are priceless!"
Tammy Endlish -- TAXI Member
If Tammy's luck was anything like mine she had to submit this ONE song TWENTY times to pull in 5 critiques. Your mileage may vary

There ya go Ted. Is this page deceptive? It was for me. Is it fraudulent? I would never make that accusation and I never have made that accusation. It doesn't explicitly say ALL your music will be critiqued or that you'll always receive feeback. It does seem to IMPLY those things as I read the page in it's entirety and THAT is my complaint. Obviously NO ONE would knowingly do business with a fraud and no one would recommend a scam to a friend. But fraud is a legal term with a specific meaning. My personal standards are a tad higher than that. I don't like people who play word games. I don't do business with them and I advise my friends to do likewise. How tough would it be for Mike Laskow to put a Q/A on the "About Taxi" page regarding the frequency of the much touted "feedback"? That IS the page where you'd intuitively expect to learn ABOUT TAXI after all. You say Mike's a good guy, he works hard, his crew works hard. Hey, guess what? I'm a nice guy too. I work hard. We're all nice hard working guys. So maybe when Mike gets a spare minute (when he's not busy offering to fly people in for a pointless tour to see how hard they all work and what nice guys they all are) he could toss a little two line Q/A on the page? Maybe he EXPLICITLY tell folks what they would otherwise have to infer from perusing the listings or through experince. If I were running a business and this compaint were voiced to me I would not bash the complainer, nor would I allow my associates to do so. I'd thank the complainer for pointing out my mistake and I'd fix it. Cause I'm a nice guy. In fact, I'm such a nice guy, and such a hard worker, that I'll make Mr Laskow the following offer: I will accept his invitation to tour TAXI if he will accept my offer of my services, free of charge, as a computer programmer and allow me to edit his "About Taxi" page to include the following Q/A
Q. Will all of my submitted material receive a critique from the screener?
A. No. At times schedules for a particualr listing simply don't allow it. Up to 30% of our listings are simple PASS/FAIL listings so some or all of your submissions might not receive critiques based on which listing you select.

Now I couldn't be fairer than that could I? I'm a senior software developer and I don't work cheaply so this is really a great opportunity for TAXI to clear this up at no cost. I feel certain they'll want to do the right thing. Right?


[This message has been edited by FrankWilliamson (edited 07-05-2002).]

http://www.soundclick.com/frankwilliamson