My Thoughts on TAXI

Today I want to talk about something I've been hesitant to do so for a long time. The reason I'm doing so now is because I am no longer connected to this subject at this time and that I want others who may read this blog to know a little more about how this matter works and what lessons I learned from my experience.

Recently, I decided to allow my membership to expire in an organization named TAXI Music Service. It is touted as the "world's leading independent A&R company" which I do not doubt at all. Basically it works this way: you pay an annual membership fee of $200, $300 or more--depending on whether you're a first-timer, renewing member or you want beyond the basic services--and twice a month you receive updated listings of what the entertainment industry is requesting. Each listing comes with a due date. So if you have any recordings which in your opinion match any listing, you can submit them to the listing with a $5-per-song submission fee. And then you wait 30-60 days to hear back from them. You'll receive a notice that either your song(s) were forwarded to the industry personnel who submitted the listing or the song was rejected by the TAXI reviewers. At times you will also get an extensive critique of your song with scoring on point-scales and comments as to why your song(s) was rejected, what was good about it and how to make it better. Other times you will just get a rejection notice with not much information other than a line or two that states why the song was disapproved. I have never gotten any songs submitted past the TAXI people (forwarded) so I don't know what kind of notices you get in that situation. But once a song does get forwarded you may or may never hear from the person it was forwarded to.

My first stint with TAXI was in the early 2000's. I'm not sure for how many years I was with them Perhaps four, five or six. Not sure. It just wasn't one of those things that you tend to remember. At that time I didn't really have a lot of songs anyway and the music I was working on was very limited in scope. I only sought out very specific listings and they weren't all that common. So after several years of sending in the same songs and always getting rejected, I allowed my membership to expire sometime in the mid to late 2000's, Then, as I changed direction in my creativity and worked on many new songs during my separation with TAXI, in 2012 I decided to rejoin TAXI and try again. Now I had more songs and they were better. I had learned to produce better sounding music and I also had some nicer gear. Plus, there were a lot more music categories that I could submit my music to as opposed to the one single category I was only going for during my first stint.

It was during my second stint with TAXI (2012-2014) I really felt that I was going to break through. As I said, my music was better and it covered several different genres. I had more options. But there was something I still didn't understand until just the past few months. I submitted almost every one of my best songs at least once and I still never got one past the TAXI reviewers. Everything was rejected. Remember when I wrote about working on a cover version of "Hey Joe" for a special project? It was for a TAXI submission. It too was rejected.

It was around that time that I actually came to understand what TAXI is all about and how you MIGHT succeed with it. If you are interested in creating copycat music--in the sense of whatever is big and hot now or whatever was big and hot in the past, e.g. Jimi Hendrix--then you might have a chance. If you want to be a Mumford & Sons soundalike or a Drake clone or a JET copycat, then you're going in the right direction. All of TAXI's listings has artists/bands that are referenced so that you know what they want your music to sound like. If however you want to do your own unique and original music, you really don't stand a ghost of a chance. The majority of my own unique and original songs were usually labelled as retro sounding which I guess nowadays for an artist trying to break through is not a good label. By the same token, if a huge, established artist/band makes some retro-sounding music--i.e., Coldplay's X&Y album--it's immediately proclaimed 'genius' by the critics. [Note: I am a huge fan of Coldplay's X&Y album].

So I had to decide; do I want to sound like today's mainstream bands/artists and work on music I'm not especially passionate about for a CHANCE--albeit probably a tiny chance--to make it through TAXI? Or stay true to myself working on my own original music and accept that I am probably never going to get anywhere--especially not through TAXI--with it? I custom made a few recordings for TAXI listings. But they too were rejected. "Hey Joe" was one of them. I enjoyed doing that song because I've always like that one and it's from the era that I'm really influenced by. But I don't have the time or energy to spend doing covers just to have them get rejected. I know it's possible to get noticed doing covers especially if you go the route of YouTube. Most of my view numbers on my YouTube channel come from the instrument covers I did versus my own songs. But the original intent of doing the covers was to attract views to my music which has never really materialized.

So my personal experience has been that TAXI Music Service is not interested in original, unique music. Not my original Exit World music. If I had a song that sounded just like the Lumineers but with a touch of Exit World they might accept that. But an Exit World song with a touch of the Lumineers? No. Thus, if you are willing to make or already have music that sounds like that made by the big mainstream names, TAXI may work for you. But I really don't have the time nor the desire to make music in the style of modern artists & bands I'm not interested in. If that means I have no chance of 'making it' in the music business, well, that's something I've been slowly coming to terms with in recent months anyway. I'll keep making music regardless and putting it out there. Thank goodness for the internet!