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The Trouble With TAXI
As many of you are working a day job like myself, you probably have little to no extra money to spend on getting signed to a record label. However, getting signed could allegedly make your life easier, so you decide to approach an organization like TAXI, which promises to shop your music to the labels and to TV and movie producers for you. I've got two words: DON'T BOTHER.
TAXI: Are they corrupt?
It is not because TAXI is full of corrupt souls lusting to stiff honest musicians out of their hard-earned money, though I would be lying if I said that I didn't think that they were a bit shark-like. The TAXI people are actually pretty cool. It's their system that is very inefficient, and in the end, TAXI is a merely a very expensive lottery.
When you join TAXI, you are expected to send physical CDs to separate "listings". Even though TAXI costs about $400 dollars to join, each CD you submit requires a five dollar "listing fee". You submit a song, or two, or three to a TAXI listing. The staff listen to your song all of one time and then decide whether or not to forward to the label posting the listing through them. This is where the odds get really bad: about one out of every ten listings you will submit may or may not result in a forward. So you are spending $50 dollars for every one chance of being forwarded, (not to mention the $400 annual fee for being a TAXI member, remember?). Sure, you'll receive some shabbily worded reviews blandly praising your voice, style, and uniqueness, yet you will never get real information why your music is not forwarded. One of TAXI's ways of skating is by claiming that the submission is "inappropriate for the listing", yet it is near impossible to send the right thing when the listing itself contains precious little information about what the company actually wants from you.
A sample listing:
You see this listing (which I invented myself based on real listings when I was a TAXI member):
TAXI LISTING #001
Indie label in New York looking for finished CD's of Rock/Rap music a la Usher, Outkast, etc. Music should have a real rock edge (electric guitars, real drums, etc.) Must be willing to tour. Interested in quality, finished-product, radio ready production for placement in films and TV. Please submit 2 to 3 songs on CD only. Photo and bio required. Include lyric sheets. Enclose SASE if you want a reply. Must be received no later than Aug 3, 200-.
You have a sound that is constantly compared to Outkast with a 70's edge. Your sound is very indie and has been received extremely well on your own website as well as with your local group of fans. So you send your home recorded CD to this listing after you have paid the $400. You have to send $10 as well with the CD, for the 2 songs you are submitting. Also, you have remembered to enclose not just an SASE but a critique request and RETURN CD MAILER with full postage on it. It's a good thing you remembered all this stuff too, for a reason I'll go into later.
Seems a little painful, considering that we're in a computer age where an MP3 can reach an email in milleseconds.
Anyway, you receive your CD back within 6 weeks. There is no letter explaining it, but it is obvious that the CD was REJECTED. Now, why wasn't it forwarded? How on earth are you supposed to get your CD to a label if TAXI doesn't ever forward your CD? Wasn't the style of music appropriate for the listing?
Here's the answer: Look at the listing again. Do they ever say anything specific about what they want? No. It is no wonder that every Rock/Rap CD in America and beyond gets sent to this listing. It is incredibly vague. Most bands are obviously willing to tour if financed. Real guitars and drums are an obvious choice if you can get them. If the labels don't give TAXI specific information about what they want, what the heck can TAXI possibly do with the information?
Here is what I would consider a specific listing:
FAKE TAXI LISTING by Queenie
Hybrid Rock/rap band similar to Usher and Outkast crossed with Rush wanted with MALE frontman. Songs submitted should be constructed in traditional Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Verse/Bridge/Chorus format with bridges featuring skilled electric guitar or electric bass soloists. Drums should be acoustic, no drum machines accepted. Overall sound should reference prog-rock era heavy metal such as Rush and Queen but have a rapper as frontman. Controversial lyrics acceptable. Production quality should be high, no demos, only finished product. Submit 2 songs on CD, include photo and bio, lyric sheets.
Oh, and if you sound like this, please send me your CD too because I'm very curious!
Now that is not something everyone would send a song to, is it? Consider the logic though: TAXI will make a lot less money on my second listing. No women will submit CDs. Also, it is easy to see that sometimes it is very effective to tell people what will NOT be accepted rather than what will. Yet no listing that I have ever seen is as specific as my second fake listing. Whose fault that is is hard to tell. Whether greed is involved is hard to tell. All I know is that sending to the first listing is a crapshoot.
Your odds are pretty bad.
Save your money and promote yourself!
Here is why you should make sure you send a RETURN CD MAILER if you send to TAXI. Without it, you have wasted a CD that you could give to a friend or a fan. Also, TAXI will never tell you whether or not you were forwarded unless you instruct them to. And even the best songwriter is going to waste a large number of CDs using TAXI.
Take my advice. Use your $400 plus investment in promotions like merchandise. Fund your band website, make T-shirts, bumper stickers, and play gigs. Use your time that would have been spend poring over listings and going through the elaborate CD "burrito making" process (Your CD enclosed in the lyric sheet/submission form) to record what you truly love, which is music.
There are a thousand organizations just like TAXI that want to take your money. You could join every single one of them and get nowhere fast. TAXI means well, but it's a lottery. If I want to get rich, I'd be better off saving money. If I want to get fans, I'd be better off promoting directly to them than trying to get signed to some pie-in-the-sky deal through TAXI.
So, that is my dirt on TAXI. They were honest with me when I requested a refund of my money. They were willing to do it. I decided to wait until the year was up anyway after I had made clear to them how I felt about their listings.
TAXI is only as evil as the million other organizations trying to take advantage of struggling musicians. Recognize sharks when you see them, and keep the mindset that you are always worth more than "paying to play".