JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Industry Message Forum TAXI vs Broadjam???

Yeah I'm currently living in Wisconsin, currently in Fond du Lac. I'm not affiliated with BroadJam at all. My name is Patrick Chan and I write freelance in my spare time. I'm a journalism grad that can't get work in journalism! I'm currently planning a move to California in an attempt to break into radio. I have a deep love for music, a solid hatred of where things are headed, especially in radio and I just write mostly for fun, sometimes for a little beer money. When I first started that project I wasn't aware that they were down in Madison at all. My familiarity with BroadJam starts and ends with what I could glean from my research. I got the number of employees by calling them and asking. That simple.

I only stopped by this site the once when I found it while looking for references to my original article that I wrote in April 2008.

My research wasn't solely aimed at services, but also in regards to certain 'usability' issues and just a general overview of which sites worked best. Last.fm came out top overall even though it has a different business model entirely. My justification being that they also host 'commercial' music, and it is that music that draws music supervisors. Something that I didn't publish in the article (because it was a little off topic) was that there are so many different ways to be noticed by the industry. If a band isn't playing live, gigging as much as possible and using every promotional tool at their fingertips (selling CD's at shows, etc.) then they may sell some songs or get a spot on a TV show/independent movie/commercial, but it will end there and go no further. These sites represent only one aspect of the industry, and it's sad to say that I was told repeatedly that music is often brought to the attention of music supervisors by way of a friend of a friend. When a buyer is really stumped for cash, she may use royalty free snippets that are available both on and offline. There are a number of sites that use internal and third party contributions. This most certainly involves signing a somewhat exclusive contract and it still doesn't guarantee being placed anywhere. Sad truth is that some industry folk recognize the depth of talent that is out there, but their requirements call for music that is overtly modern and commercial (and unfortunately not very good).

At the end of the day the industry is still hit or miss, and often it's not what you know but some random vibration in the universe that gets a track noticed. You can spend hundreds of dollars with these services and be successful (big maybe), or you can post a phenomenal video on You Tube and be signed for a two album deal.