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TAXI - From a member's perspective

Over the last few weeks I've started to notice that I'm personally getting asked a lot of questions about TAXI. The questions range from "Is TAXI worth it?" to "Is it legit?" to "How much money have you made as a result of TAXI?" and on and on. So after getting asked once again today I thought I would take the time to do a blog about my experience with TAXI so far.

Let me start by saying that I am not a paid spokesperson for them. I do not get any monetary compensation from them. That being said, in order to give full disclosure, I have to mention the fact that at the 2009 Road Rally, I was a part of a 10 member panel during one of the sessions and I was also presented with the TAXI 2009 Inspiration Award. But that being said, I promise you that the opinions that I express in this blog will be completely and 100% my own. Now let's get to it...


Photo credit: TAXI.com

Let me start off by explaining what TAXI is. It's an independent A&R company that acts as a kind of a middle-man between musicians and the industry. I'll stop right there and say that some people are already going to have a problem with that model as they don't want to have to go through a middle-man to get to the potential client. I completely understand that, and even agree with them to an extent. I'm about to go off on a slight tangent but please bear with me as it does relate to TAXI.

As an independent musician, it's very challenging trying to navigate through the current system. Sure, there are more opportunities than ever before, and technology has made it much easier for people to record their own music, but there's a downside to that as well. The downside being that it's much easier for people to record their own music. Not every one can play guitar like Dan Huff or Brent Mason. Not every one can mix like Chris Lord-Alge, David Bender or Ronan Chris Murphy. Those guys have put YEARS into honing their skills and their craft.

Let me stop here and say that I'm just as guilty as anyone when it comes to this. When I first started recording back in 2005, I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing. Seriously. Not. One. Clue. If you don't believe me, I've got a few former co-workers who can verify this story for you (I'm looking at you Joel S., Chuck S. and Cody B.) In fact, I really don't consider my starting point for learning the art of recording until January 2008. Why that date? That's when I joined TAXI. See, I told you I'd get back to TAXI.

When I joined TAXI in January 2008, I had maybe, 10 songs to start with. Most of them were in the hard rock and metal genre. But none of them were "ready" for use. In fact, I can remember this very clearly. I had been a member for a couple of weeks. There was a listing looking for romantic instrumentals. I had written one track that I thought might fit. I had programmed my drum track. I recorded my bass and then my guitars. And then it hit me. What do I do now???

I called up a friend of mine who happened to own a studio. I told him where I was at in the process and asked him what I needed to do next. He simply asked "Well, have you started mixing it yet?" I was like "What?" He replied "When do you want me to come over?" :-)

I ended up submitting that track for the listing and it was returned for being off target. But then I went on a run where my next nine submissions were all forwarded. I suppose I should stop here for a second and explain what I mean about forwards and returns.

When you submit a song to a listing it goes into a queue of songs. Once the deadline has passed, each and every song will go through a screening process by a TAXI screener. On TAXI's web site you can get a list of people who work as screeners, past and present. The screener will listen to the song that you submitted and then make a decision on whether or not they are going to mark the song as a return, or that they are going to forward the song on to the client who ran the listing. Some of the listings are marked as Y/N listings, which means you do not get a critique. But for the listings that do get a critique, you are provided with some information as to why the screener decided to forward or return your song.

I need to note that there is a $5 submission fee for each song that you submit. Some people don't like being charged to submit their music. I understand that. In a recent Ustream chat, TAXI CEO Michael Laskow commented on why they have a $5 submission fee. I tried to find the exact spot in the video for you but Ustream seems to be having issues. I think it's about halfway in. If I remember correctly, I think his answer was that it's actually to help CUT BACK on the number of submissions that they receive. By putting a small fee on each submission, the intent is to curb the amount of "spam" that they receive for each listing.

What do I mean by that? Here's an example. Let's say that a company is looking for songs that are in the range of Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne and Lady Gaga. Now, if they didn't charge per submission, then the likelihood of people submitting anything and everything for that listing, like Jewel, Beyonce or The Killers, in the chance that it "might be what they're looking for", is much more likely. Even with the $5 fee, I know early on when I was submitting, I would throw in a song or two that I thought was "close" but I wasn't 100% sure that it was what the listing was asking for. Then when it would get returned I'd usually say "Well, I knew it wasn't on target" and I'd wish I had my $5 back! But over the last year, I quit doing that.

Big Blue TAXI Submitting Tip of the Day: If you have to defend your song submission, then it's probably not on target.

Speaking of on target... Let me try and get back on target myself. So, where was I. Oh yeah... So some of you are probably asking why would you want to pay to have someone screen your songs? Can't you just submit to these companies on your own? Well, the answer to that is yes... and no.

If you have the time to do the research and find out which companies are in need of what material, then by all means, go for it. TAXI even says that they are the "2nd best way" to do this. But if you're going to do that, you want to make sure that not only you're music is up to snuff, but your music business skills are as well. You get one chance to make a first impression and from what I've seen in this industry, if you blow that chance, you may never have another opportunity with that company again.

Case and point. I just signed a couple of tracks this week to be made available for a production company that specializes in the extreme sports film industry. They made it abundantly clear that they will not tolerate any unsolicited correspondence from me or I would be permanently removed from their database. Understand now, this is a company that WANTS my music and WANTS to work with me. As they put it, they want to work with people that are easy to work with but they don't want a lot of contact and they definitely don't want any drama to deal with. Again, this is a company that WANTS to work with me. They also made it clear that this opportunity would not have happened without the work of one of the TAXI screeners filtering the music for them. I can say with 100% certainty that there is no way I could have gotten this deal on my own. So while I know it is possible to get deals on your own, which I have done multiple times, there are going to be times when it's going to take a forward from TAXI to get you in the door.

Also, let me add this as well. I've read that some people consider TAXI to be for amateurs. While I don't think that's a fair characterization, I do think that there is some truth to that. But let me add this...

If you join TAXI and within your first year of membership, and you submit your songs on a consistent basis (2-3 submissions a month), and you take the advice you get from the critiques, and you visit the forums (hadn't even mentioned them yet) and get some assistance in the Peer 2 Peer section, and you attend the Road Rally (I CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH HOW VITAL THE ROAD RALLY CAN BE TO YOUR SUCCESS!!!!)... if you do all of that within your first year, and someone still characterizes you as being an amateur... that's not TAXI's fault, that's all on you.

TAXI gives you plenty of resources and opportunities to help you grow from being an amateur into a professional. Now, I don't mean that you'll be doing this as a full-time career after one year. The business doesn't work that way. But if you take advantage of the resources that TAXI provides you with, then you should have no excuse to not make the transition from amateur to professional.

In fact, let me say this, even though Michael might not want to read this, if you utilize your TAXI membership to your maximum benefit, I believe there will come a point where your relationship with TAXI will change. And by that I mean, in the early stages, you will probably make a lot of submissions because you want to take advantage of the opportunities. But if you continue to get forwards and then those forwards start turning into deals, eventually, you will reach the point where the relationships you're making with the music libraries (I guess I'm referring more to the film and TV aspect of TAXI than I am the record label part) will be so time consuming that you won't have as much time or need to submit to TAXI listings. That, however, doesn't mean that you won't necessarily have any use for TAXI. I still would contend that the Road Rally may be one of the most important aspects of the membership and like with Nashville and Country music, I'm finding that with film and TV as well, it's all about the relationships. And the Road Rally is a great place to develop and foster those relationships.

OK, Let me try and summarize this monster of a post by telling you who I personally think would be a good candidate for TAXI and who I think would be better off saving their time and money.

Here is a list of people that I would encourage to join TAXI:
  • People that are relatively new to songwriting and recording. The critiques are very helpful and informative.
  • People that have a decent size song catalog
  • People that are willing to learn
  • Instrumental composers (all styles and genres) who have a home studio and are able to crank out lots of material on a frequent basis
Here is a list of people that I would NOT encourage to join TAXI:
  • Country songwriters, with one exception. I would encourage you to join so that you can see how high the bar is set for country music. Then after getting that reality check, I would suggest you move to Nashville. As much as it's about the song, in all honesty, it's also just as much about the relationships you form with the people in the industry. And living in Nashville, I can attest to the fact that it really is a lot about who you know. You gotta have the talent. That's a given. But you gotta have the connections too.
  • People that have only written 3 or 4 and hope to retire off of them. Though it's possible, one of them could be a hit, the odds of you only attempting something 4 times and finding that level of success at it are not very good. Put it this way. Would you expect someone who's never swung a baseball bat in his life, to be able to hit a home run against a major league pitcher in his first 3 or 4 attempts ever? Me either. Possible? Yes. Likely? No.
  • People that are not willing to learn
  • People that can't handle constructive criticism
I'm sure there's much I could say but I need to get back to my studio. I've got to make a CD tonight so I can mail it off to the new client I got this week courtesy of TAXI.

Let me conclude by saying that TAXI is not a miracle worker nor a magic pill but they are 100% legit and they do exactly what they say they will do. I've had an opportunity to spend some time on the phone and in person with Michael Laskow and I can personally attest that he is a man of his word.

If you have any questions, or comments about TAXI, this post, or music in general, leave them below and I'll do my best to answer them.

Until next time...

Blog Contest Week 9 - An Overview of Traditional PR



It's hard to believe that I'm on my last entry for Ariel Hyatt's Music Success In Nine Weeks Blog Contest. It's been quite an experience to say the least. Some of it has been easy to do, while other times it was definitely a bit challenging. But I guess you could really say that about anything in life.

Last week I mentioned that my main goal was to get my first newsletter out the door. I'm happy to say that I succeeded in doing that. I've actually gotten some nice feedback from a few of the people that read it. Definitely encouraging and I look forward to developing it into a routine.

The final chapter in the book deals with traditional PR. While this chapter would be extremely helpful to me if I was doing the touring band thing or just playing gigs, I still think I'll be able to glean some knowledge from it for my non-touring band (more on that later).

The chapter gives you some very practical and helpful info on traditional PR methods, such as 8 simple steps to creating a proper press release. Having a background in the music publishing side of the business, I'm very used to receiving press releases from other artists and publishers at my day job. Though I never took the time to analyze them or study them, as I read through the 8 steps in the book, I was trying to remember some of the old releases I've received and thinking to myself "So that's why they all seemed so similar!"

That section was followed up with a step-by-step guide to help you get as much attention as possible which was setup into two parts - your press kit and getting the word out about you. Again, this is a section that would have been so helpful to have had back in the day. But I know that I'll still be able to take some of her advice and apply it to my career today, whether it's as Big Blue Barry the artist or the songwriter and composer for film/TV or for my "band" Crushing Gray (Shameless Self-Promotion - If you like Breaking Benjamin, Nickelback or Daughtry, then I think you'll like us. Check us out at http://www.crushinggray.com).

There are a couple of exercises near the end of the chapter for you to complete. The first one is a personal analysis of your current press kit. The second one is to help you get quotes, both from fans and the industry alike, for your kit. Then to wrap up the chapter, she gives you tips on how to post the perfect press kit to your web site. I'll give you a hint, it involves your music, bio, photos and album artwork. I'll confess and say that I did not complete the exercises yet, however I do plan on doing so, especially for Crushing Gray.

There are a couple of "bonus" sections at the end of the book. One of them is for helping musicians find the right publicist and the other contains a list of 20 sites that she believes are critical for musician's in this new age of the industry. They definitely provide a nice supplement to everything else she talks about.

And with that, my final entry in this blog contest comes to a close. I want to thank Ariel and her team for giving me the chance to participate, as well as everyone else who read the blogs, and especially those who took the time to comment. I really appreciated that. I think I'll post another blog later this week with my thoughts on what I got from this book and contest and what it means for me going forward.

Until next time...

Blog Contest Week 8 - Creating a Continuum Program



When I first glanced at the title for this chapter, I immediately started having visions of intergalactic time travel and laser beams. But upon closer inspection of the book, I soon realized that it had nothing to do with the Space-Time Continuum. I gotta admit, I was a little disappointed. I thought I was going to be able to put some of my college education to use (I minored in Physics). But my disappointment went away rather quickly once I discovered that this chapter was going to help me come up with a plan to generate a stream of income that will, wait for it... continue... long after the first purchase has been made.

Ariel provides a quick recap of where we should be at this point in the book as it relates to the various tips, tricks, and techniques we've been learning since starting the book. Even though I'm following the majority of every idea and principle she's mentioned, I still feel like I'm just starting out.

I think the major reason behind me feeling that way is, even though I'm a very patient person, it generally doesn't take me too long to learn something and once I do, I expect to continue performing at the level on a constant basis. Well... I know with the social media stuff, that's not the case for me.

I'm still trying to figure out the best way for me to use Facebook and Twitter to communicate with my fans AND my friends. I want to keep everyone in the loop and I want to share my excitement about what's going in my musical career but at the same time I don't want to be "that" guy. You know the one I'm talking about. The one that ONLY talks about himself and is only concerned about his career. I don't think I'm "that" guy. But I can also be honest and say that I know a lot of my posts on Tweetybook - you like that? I just made that up :-) tend to deal with what's going on in my music career.

I think the challenge is trying to find time for everything and maintaining a balance. If this was the only job I had, then I think it would be much easier. It's rather difficult to have a day job, try to create a career as a musician, be married, keep up with friends and family as well as any interests of your own, and fit it all into a 24 hour/7 day work week. Whew.

Don't know where all that came from. Guess I needed to get that out of my system. OK. Moving back to the book again.

The gist of the chapter is the concept of the funnel and how it applies to marketing and sales. At the top of the funnel you would include something for everyone, like a free download. Then as you move downwards towards the smaller end of the funnel, you would start adding other items that increase in cost.

Ariel provided us with some ideas to help jump start the process for us. On the left you'll see a picture of my initial attempt. Some of the ideas were definitely geared towards artists that play out, but she had a few others that anyone could implement.

At the same time that I initially read through this chapter (I actually read through the book rather quickly, but trying to blog consistently, well that's been my challenge) I came across a thread on a web site that I frequent in which the author proposed that he was going to sell 1 Million Records in a year. This year to be exact. Starting on January 1, he was going to begin the process of writing, recording, mixing and mastering an album and then sell 1 million copies of it by the end of the year, all the while chronicling the process via YouTube. I'll be honest. I'm not sure if the guy is being serious about it, or if it's some big prank. Regardless, it did inspire me a bit. So as I tried to think of ways to further my music career, from a financial standpoint, two things kept coming to my mind.

The first was that guys contest idea. Now I know that the odds of me trying to sell 1 million records in a year is about as likely as Kentucky winning the national title in basketball. Oh wait a sec... that actually might happen this year! Had I wrote this last year, then the analogy would have applied. Seriously though, I knew that any number with TWO commas in it was just not going to happen. But I still wanted to dream big.

The second idea was one of Ariel's suggestions and that was to donate a portion of the proceeds of an event to charity. That one really stuck with me. And me being the numbers guy that I am (My major in college was Math), I tried to come up with some ideas that I could do that incorporate some type of numerical patterns.

What I finally ended up with was something I call the B3x10K challenge. You can read the full details at the B3x10K page on my site by clicking here. But the general gist of it is this:

Starting on March 1st, and lasting until Dec 31st of this year, I'm going to donate 30% of my online album and single download sales to charity. I'm going to give 10% each to the American Cancer Society (I lost two grandparents to cancer), the Red Cross (Haiti still needs help) and the Humane Society (What can I say, I love animals).

Here's the crazy part. I want to be able to raise $10,000 for each of them. Considering the fact that I'm a non-touring artist, I know I'm being unrealistic. And I'll be honest, I have no idea how I'm going to do it, other than I have to start building up my fan base NOW and really begin developing those relationships so that I can find people that will believe in me and want to help. I've always said that I wanted my music to make a difference in people's lives. Regardless of how many albums or singles I sell, I'll be always be able to look back at this year in my life and know that my music DID make a difference in someones life.

Finishing up this chapter, Ariel gives us a couple of exercises to help us to be able to finish our continuum program. This is something that I'll definitely be spending some time on and tweaking over the next couple of weeks as I continue to try and find the balance between myself as an artist and myself as a composer for film/TV.

Hard to believe that there's only one chapter left!

Until next time...

Blog Contest Week 7 - Real Live Networking Tips

Before I get to this week's topic, here's a quick update on last week's entry. I set aside some time to go through a stack of business cards that I had acquired over the last year or so from people that I met at the TAXI Road Rally in LA to increase the size of my newsletter list. I'm happy to report that I was able to double the size of my newsletter list! Now, in full disclosure, it wasn't very large to begin with, but hey, that's what this contest is all about right? Taking the steps to build something. I haven't even tackled my "inbox" yet, or the majority of my friends and family either. So I think it's possible that with a little work, this list can break the 100 mark very soon! The next step is to actually send out a newsletter! LOL... That's my primary goal for the week.

Now on to this week's contest. Chapter 7 is entitled "Real Live Networking Tips" and though I'm not gigging out anymore, this chapter still has relevance to me. One of the concepts she mentioned was being a shark in a sea of tuna. In other words, go hang out with groups of people that are NOT doing what I'm doing. One of the things that immediately came to my mind would be film festivals. I actually went to the Nashville Film Festival last year for the first time and was able to make some contacts there. Nothing came out of them yet (other than a few email addresses I was able to collect!) but it's something that I'll be even more prepared for this year.

She also gives some practical advice on things you shouldn't say as well as things you should say, and how to position yourself in the conversation. Some excellent advice that I will be implementing as I find myself in live networking situations. Which these days, don't seem to be that often. I used to spend much more time outside of the house but over the last couple of years, I've really become much more of a home-body. Wonder if it's related to the fact that I got a home studio about 2 years ago. Coincidence? I think not.

That's all for this week's chapter. I'll be posting my entry for Chapter 8 very soon so be on the look out!

Until next time...

Blog Contest Week 6 - How To Build Your Mailing LIst

This week's entry in the CyberPR Blog Contest finds us in newsletter land. Back when I was doing the band thing, I used to send out a newsletter to our email list. But since I made the switch from gigging artist to film/TV composer I just never thought about sending a newsletter. Well, that mindset is gone and I'll be sending out my first newsletter next week. I'm going to try and coordinate them around the first week of the month.

In this chapter Ariel makes the comparison that the size of one's email list is directly proportionate to the size of their income. And while I can't speak about that from the perspective of someone with an email list in the tens of thousands, unfortunately, I can however verify the other end of the spectrum of that statement. But hopefully with Ariel's help (no pressure!) that's all going to change.

She encourages you to set aside a scheduled time once a week of about 60-90 minutes to focus solely on building your email list. So tonight that's what I did. I think I went over the 90 minutes but I figured, what the heck, I'm already behind, time to start getting caught up!

She provides you with five tips on getting more fans onto your list, such as adding friends & family, creating a location to store potential email addresses, offering a bribe, list trading with other bands, and going mobile. I decided to focus on the first three methods mentioned.

For tonight, I focused on adding friends and family, as well as offering a bribe. The past two November's I've had a chance to go to the TAXI Road Rally in LA and make some great connections. In doing so, I've exchanged business cards with quite a few people. So the first thing I did was go through that stack of cards to find some potential list members. I ended up emailing 25 people tonight, using the template that Ariel provided. So far I've had 5 people respond back that I could add them. I think that's a good start!

Also tonight, I went through my followers on my Twitter account and sent a direct message to the 40 most recent followers and told them that they if they signed up for my monthly newsletter, they would get a free mp3. No response on that one yet, but it's not helping matters that about an hour after I did that, the ReverbNation site went down for maintenance.

Earlier in the week I started keeping a folder in my e-mail client with potential leads in it. I'm going to continue to do that and start making that a weekly habit as well. I'm going to grow this list. Oh yes! It will grow!

At the end of the chapter Ariel lists 7 steps to help jump-start your email list. Let's see how many of those I did tonight!
  1. Make dates with yourself for the next 3-6 months to focus on your list? Check!
  2. Create a list of bands/artists you play with? Nope. Might re-visit this one later on when list is bigger.
  3. Draft a "form" email? Check!
  4. Mobile fan club management? Nope, not for me at this time.
  5. Add a bribe to your home page? Check! Though technically, it was already there thanks to an earlier chapter in this book.
  6. Use ReverbNation sign-up widget? Same as #5
  7. Go through MySpace friends and ask for email? Nope. I don't have much of a MySpace presence at this point.
I'll be back soon with the next installment as this contest is coming to an end in the next couple of weeks.

Until next time...