I have spent $600 in two years with TAXI Music with the express goal of making more sync licensing library contacts.
In this video I will talk about my journey with TAXI, my reasons for deciding to quit the service, and what I plan to do instead?
So, why am I not Uber excited enough about TAXI to continue and hope it will Lyft my composing career?
Come along for the ride…
#taxi #synclicensing #makemusicincome
My latest videos:
When Is a Song Done? – https://youtu.be/tAqlDAf7Lk8
Selling Sheet Music Deep Dive – https://youtu.be/d5y5RGmEo00
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I talk about all of them whether I was accepted or not and the give you the direct link to submit YOUR music to them.
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Eric has been helping artists and songwriters for over 20 years build lasting music careers, and now is working via one-on-one coaching with composers and producers to help build strong catalogs, get into stock and sync libraries, and of course: Make Music Income. Find more info here: https://makemusicincome.com/coaching/
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SYNC LICENSING
Positive Spin Songs – https://positivespinsongs.com
STOCK MUSIC LICENSING
From the Moment Music – http://fromthemomentmusic.com
ARTIST BRANDS
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FTC Legal Disclaimer – Some links found in the description box of my videos may be affiliate links, meaning I will make commission on sales you make through my link. This is at no extra cost to you to use my links/codes, it’s just one more way to support me and my channel! Thank you!
MUSIC INCOME YOUTUBE CHANNELS WE SUGGEST
Sync My Music – https://youtube.com/c/SyncMyMusic
Stock Music Licensing – https://youtube.com/c/StockMusicLicensing
StevieB/Production Music Academy – https://youtube.com/channel/UC-6OyeP_Tk6G-gt5JSVKzkg
Dave Kropf/52 Cues – https://www.youtube.com/c/DaveKropf
Andrew Southworth – https://youtube.com/c/AndrewSouthworth
Tom DuPree III: https://youtube.com/user/tomdupreeiii
TAXI: https://youtube.com/c/TaxiIndependentAR
OTHER GREAT LINKS YOU MAY FIND HELPFUL
The Music Library Report – https://bit.ly/musiclibraryreport
Ed Hartman – Resources for Composers and Songwriters – https://bit.ly/edhartmanresources
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Excellent advice. They were on my list of potentials👍👍
Great video, thanks again Eric.
Would love to hear your comments about this video or an experience with TAXI, but please keep all the comments helpful please!
I did a couple of years, got accepted into several libraries and then went on my own. I'm in a dozen libraries now – mostly exclusive that I found myself. What you have to consider is whilst you or I may have joined Taxi with many years of producing experience , a lot of people join up with music that is not ready for Primetime ( i.e. dated, not well produced etc ) so even if they did try by themselves they'd never be accepted. I think Taxi can be a reality check for some people. Whether that's worth $200+ a year is another question.
You almost have to look at Taxi as a Baseball analogy. You're on the Team. You get a chance to step up to the plate. You strike out = RETURN Next you hit a single..= FORWARD. Then you get a double = CONTACTED. On to a triple = SIGNED The best thing is getting a homer = On a The TV anywhere. The only difference is baseball players get paid.
Hello. I found a few sites that have the same type of sevice. I'm very independent. I like doing my own thing. I pitch my own work. Another thing that I don't like is having to compose music for anything specific. I just want to compose music, because I want to. What ever is on the library is what I have to offer. Take it, or leave it. 🙂😄
Very uplyfting video, uber excited for the year ahead!
I joined Taxi just to try it out. I quit after a year. It’s a cool company to get your chops up and get feedback on things to improve on. A lot of my music was rejected some was forwarded but nothing really happened. I started to build my own relationships and a lot of my music that I originally made for TAXI got accepted in other libraries from relationships I formed on my own. Now the music that I originally made for TAXI is getting major placements on NFL, House Wives, Vanderpump Rules etc. All from my personal relationships. You gotta have personal relationships in this business.
I've never joined TAXI, as I thought it was overpriced and I had already been making contacts and placements with Music Libraries all without needing TAXI. There's other similar services that don't cost nearly as much.
I agree…it is much better to build your own business relationships rather than giving money to middlemen.
Did our ever go to a Road Rally? I never used Taxi and don’t plan on it. lol.
Thanks, Eric, for sharing your experiences! I don't have too much money to waste, already done that in other ways, so it's great to get a nuanced view on these things, based on experiences, and I'll read what other people say about it. Happy New Year 🙂
Seems like if you're quick at writing for briefs and you like it you might be able to do decently, anything returned you can easily push over to stock, I'd bet. Even if it was cheaper I'm not sure it'd be for me, I am anything but quick (something I need to work on, get focused way to much on minor details) Also the fee to submit on top of the yearly fee seems excessive. Thanks for giving it a fair shot, I'm sure it works well for a specific type of composer.
Interesting. Quitting Taxi, expensive. Dave is making it the Year of Taxi!
Thanks a lot for your help and input about this. I’ve been analyzing this company for a while. I agree I believe they’re a good company but overpriced. As I get into to this, I totally agree with you that you shouldn’t pay to be apart of something that’s not returning value or “possible” chance of being placed. $300 a year for a “maybe” is not reasonable or can be justified. In my opinion
Main thing about TAXI, most Forwards do not mean much to were it was forwarded… very expensive to be a ''passenger'' . I've been there for 3 years and spent more than you. Also was member for ''dispatch'' never had anything from those submission… But one thing for sure, If you can get a forward and a signed deal with a publisher, and make a good relationship with them… you are in ''business'' . Write, Forget, Submit, Repeat… If you are a dedicated musician/composer, stuff will happen.
Thank you for sharing!
Have a great day and thanks again for all the value you share!
Started Taxi at the beginning of 2021, full force, 67 forwards (forward rate 47%), 6 contacts ( contact rate about 10% of the forwards), signed 6 contracts, only 3 companies were serious. In 2022, 47 forwards for 26 listings, 2 contacts from the SAME two companies I have already a good relationship with! So: ZERO new contact in 2022! I will renew in 2023 BUT only pitch tracks that will have a home in my libraries if they’re not getting forwarded by Taxi or if they are, will not get a response from the company that run the listing, which happens in a sobering 90% of the cases😮So by the end of 2023 we will see. I owe Taxi everything I got so far concerning relationships in production music, BUT at one point maybe it’s time to walk on your own. Let’s see!
Well my experience with Taxi couldn't have been better: Subsribed for one year, 6 submissions, 5 forwards, 1 contact by a publisher I still write for. So my calculation is: $200 + $30 = 1 deal, which is what I was hoping for and was lucky to get.
However, you can all do this on your own, just as you said. I see Taxi as an uplifter into writing + the potential of a deal. However likely that is.
Great video, fair and honest in my opinion. Thanks Eric!
I do both. I write for briefs and proactively, write for libraries on my own and you can do either or both. Either way, it works. I agree with this and believe that you can find your own libraries and do well.
Eric… My compliments on the way you handled this — You made great points while not bashing Taxi. You were a gentleman. So, I just want to say I have been doing the Taxi thing for a few years and my experiences mirror yours and some of the other folks here. As a result, I'm fairly convinced that Taxi might not be all they suggest they are.
Great info, you are most transparent I’ve seen In my 4/5 years and 3 or 4 groups I’ve been involved with learning about sync music!
Great video! You put my thoughts into words. I relate to the guilt feeling, and the never ending briefs overwhelm. I haven’t had much luck with forwards. The comments back have been helpful with seeing what I need to work on with production. The yearly conference is free which is nice.
I so agree with you! I don't believe in any pay to pitch. I've had close to 6000 placements and I agree with you that we must pitch directly, do our research, make it happen! Good for you! Perhaps the Taxi Road Rally is a worthwhile event but not the briefs/pitching.
I have been a Taxi member for 6 years and it took me several years to understand the industry and improve my work both in quality and quantity. I had over 90 forwards before my first deal 3.5 years ago. Since then, I have 600 signed tracks and songs across 20+ libraries/publishers and over 250 placements as of my last PRO statement. I do agree that more members have your experience as compared to mine. But I really think that’s because you (and probably others) haven’t given Taxi enough of a chance and taken full advantage of everything Taxi has to offer.
First, you must submit more music; 10-20 submissions in a year is not going to yield enough positive results. As you mention, there are many reasons why a forward will not result in you being contacted to sign your work. So you have to create and submit a lot more in order to give yourself a better chance of success. I’ve done nearly 600 submissions to Taxi over the years. More of that was loaded in years 2-4 and more recently has tailed off because libraries and cowriters come to me now (more on this below) so I don’t have as much time to write and submit to Taxi.
Next, my experience with the companies that have signed my work through Taxi forwards has been great. They have been high quality both on how they conduct business and the placements I have ultimately gotten through them. I have many friends who are Taxi members both more and less successful than me, and haven’t heard anything bad about any company anyone has signed with through a Taxi forward. If fact, I’ve had a bad experience with a company that I submitted to cold and not through Taxi.
And Taxi vets these companies to make sure they are of good quality which is much harder to do as a composer just searching on the internet. In addition, these companies ask Taxi for music so they have a need right now. When you submit music to Taxi to fill that need, and if it gets forward and ultimately signed, there’s a much higher chance that you will get a placement. If you contact libraries cold and send them music you’ve done, if they don’t need it, they will probably ignore you. However, they may sign it even if they don’t need it right now. But there’s a much lower probability of placement of that work if they don’t actually need it and just want to fill out their library with more tracks. Now that I have provided lots of music to libraries and they have placed some of that music, they send briefs out or ask me directly to provide them with specific music. And, again, this work has a higher change of placement.
This underscores your point that personal relationships are important. To me that is a great BENEFIT of being a Taxi member. You get introduced to the companies by forwards, and then you get to keep and maintain those relationships beyond Taxi.
And while Taxi is a middle man in the sense of screening submissions, they are very good at it. Of course they may get one wrong here or there, but mostly they don’t. Most libraries looking for music come to them specifically BECAUSE they screen the submissions so that they don’t have to. Many good companies don’t accept cold submissions because they don’t want to review them. It’s WAY too much effort. And Taxi provides very good feedback when your work is returned (not forwarded) which you can use to help your work improve. Even if you got a response from a cold submission to a library, they aren’t going to give you details on why they aren’t signing you. Again, they don’t have the time. At best it will be yes or no, and as I said, probably no response.
An important aspect of Taxi is the forum where you can get feedback from peers, find collaborators, and generally learn about the industry. You can hear music that has been forwarded and you can learn about deals that others have gotten.
And the biggest part of Taxi missing from this video is the Taxi Road Rally held in Los Angeles on the first weekend of November. The event is free for members (and one guest) and is an invaluable source of information and networking possibilities. At the most recent event, I met a publisher that I did 4 songs for and then he asked me to produce 5 albums over the next several months (one solo and 4 with other artists). I have learned so much at the classes there and listening panels where random member’s music is played and critiqued live. And I have met so many of my collaborators and friends, many of which we have signed and placed works together. The rally is the single most important reason why I have success in this industry.
My observation is that those Taxi members that are successful are taking advantage of ALL that Taxi has to offer like Taxi TV episodes, the forum, the forwards blog and road rally. They are using these tools as well as the feedback from submissions to improve their work and to make excellent connections.
All this being said, Taxi is not for everyone. I know that my experience might not be the same as some other members. But you get out of it what you put in. If you want to be struck by whatever your muse is and just write a dozen tracks a year and try to find someone to publish them, you can do that without Taxi. You can find some low level libraries that will get you a few dollars, maybe hundreds. But if you want composing and/or song writing for sync to be your full time income then you have to do the music that is needed, you need to do it excellently and you need to do a lot of it.
I never signed up with them. What do you know abut Amurco Music?
Great video Eric! I am in my second year as a Taxi member, and I have had many of the same feelings and reflections as you. In fact I quit at an earlier stage, and was out of the Taxi-system for many years. I have had a lot of returns/rejections these two years. I have also had some forwards. Only one of them resulted in a call from a library, but that library ended up signing first tre tracks, and then ordered a whole album. Like you, I have been working with music for a long time. I have been a singer&songwriter for 30 years. I find that Taxi forces me to up my game and write better music. It has forced me to switch from trying to express my feelings, to instead write to a brief and the needs of a client. So it's almost like an education for me, bringing me into new musical styles and requiring a certain discipline from me. I actually also recently signed with a library on my own after reaching out to them personally, using many of the tracks I had written for Taxi, but that got rejected. That also resulted in a whole album. As you so wisely state: It's about each persons experience. The bottom line question is; Is it worth it? For me, the answer has been yes so far, all things considered.