JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum TAXI

Von,

I am aware that TAXI didn't get you those deals. You missed my entire point. You said that TAXI doesn't work with anyone who is willing to consider stuff outside the mainstream. But TAXI works with both companies you got placements with.. so they DO work with companies of all types, including those who will consider stuff from outside the mainstream. But at the risk of stating the obvious, the industry, for the most part, wants mainstream and that's what they are willing to pay for. If TAXI gives them something DON'T want.. everyone loses.. TAXI, the company who wasted their time and the writer/artist who submitted and got no where and all the others who missed the chance because they tried to push something out of a fit for what was asked for.

TAXI is simply 1 tool of many many many tools that active artists/writers should be using. Networking, Education and the aggressive use of every tool out there should be part of arsenal that people are using. I think a big problem is that many artists choose 1 thing (TAXI or another company/organization) and think that 1 thing alone will bring success. It usually doesn't. You have to do all of it simultaneously and relentlessly, all while writing and recording and performing better music all the time. TAXI nor any other company or service is not an end all be all for anything. It's like trying to fix an entire engine with a single hand tool. No matter how good that tool is, it has specific and limited purpose and use. It's great for it's intended purpose, but won't fix your transmission or in this case your career alone.

I do agree with the premise that if you aren't interested in writing accessible music that might appeal to the widest audience in your genre (whether it's Jazz or Rock or Country or Childrens or Klezmer) it's always going to be a lot tougher to get the industry system to stop it's machine like repititious behavior and notice. But if you're making truly ground breaking new music (as opposed to polished mainstream) people WILL notice and they WILL be interested. The problem is that a large number of artists/writers seriously overestimate the appeal of their own music. But that's a topic for another time.

Brian