Does TAXI know what they are talking about?

by Fran Snyder

This post isn’t about touring or house concerts. However, you need great songs to make a living at this music thing, so I think this might be of value to singer-songwriters out there.

In this article I’ll try to give a FOX, uh, “fair and balanced” view of TAXI, but with a personal emphasis of how they have reviewed one of my better songs and whether or not I find their reviews helpful.

TAXI, if you are unfamiliar with the company, has successfully positioned itself (over a fair number of years) as a “filter” for end-users of independent music. These end users would include music supervisors (looking for songs for television, movies and related media), music libraries (who provide compilations of music for various other end-users), and even A&R reps who are looking for songs or artists.

The idea is, they collect songs from artists, review them, and forward only the best (and most appropriate) to the companies who ask for these songs. If they consistently find excellent, “on-target” material, the more often the music industry will come calling for more songs, and more opportunities will be generated for member artists.

As with most successful companies, there are a lot of stories floating around out there about whether this company is legit and if they really serve their members (who pay $200-300/year to belong). I’ve been a member off and on, and I’ve submitted my fair share of recordings to the opportunities they present.

Also, for many of the listings you can submit music to at TAXI, they offer a formal critique of the songs you send in. It’s included in the price of the submission (usually $5 per song). These critiques are done by industry professionals (you can read their resumes online) who have a background in writing or choosing songs.

These critiques are the focus of the next few posts.

One of the songs I’ve submitted to many of their opportunity listings is a track called “Ruined.” One of my best songs? Probably. One of my best recordings? Probably not. However, the recording sounds good and conveys the song well. I could have made the production more interesting, and I intend to in the near future.

Listen to the song, and I’ll tell you what several of the music screeners at TAXI thought of it in the next post. Then we’ll talk about whether their comments are useful.

Here’s the song: Ruined

Live and Then Some, by Fran Snyder