Taxi!

[SteveK]

TAXI...?
Anyone with any experience with the company?

[Echelon]

fraud fraud fraud. They guarentee you a call from record companies and deals, but all the companies that will ever call you are owned by taxi. I have never heard of a band having a good dealing with them. Trust me, it's essentially a scam. Your paying a lot of money for a bad review.

[vestast]

The chances of anyone selling songs through Taxi are slim, and they will even tell you that if you call them as my friend did.

I do know of one member on this BBS that was potentially selling a song to one of Taxi's clients. Never did hear back if it went through or not though..

[David Hooper]

They never guarantee you a call from anybody. They're a screening service and the nature of a screening service is that you may get filtered.

[Buck62]

TAXI may not be the greatest resource for getting your music to the right set of ears in the music business, but their still cheaper than David Hooper's offer...

http://www.kathoderaymusic.com/indie.../order35h.html


Read the part in the smaller print that's NOT high-lighted when you sign a contract with Mr Hooper...

"I'll invest just $35 to get started for the first month and $97 per month thereafter for this incredible resource."



TAXI has in introductory rate of $299 for a full year.

Mr Hooper's service will cost you $510 for a 6-month "contract."



TAXI was responsible for discovering the Kenny Rogers hit "Buy Me A Rose" from two unknown writers.

Mr Hooper has discovered NOBODY who has ever signed with a MAJOR label or had a Top 40 hit song.


While TAXI might not be the best way to get your music to the masses, they're much more successful than a lot of other "services" out there.... like the one Mr Hooper spams here on this BBS.

[SteveK]

Originally Posted by Buck62

While TAXI might not be the best way to get your music to the masses, they're much more successful than a lot of other "services" out there.... like the one Mr Hooper spams here on this BBS.

Thanks for the replies folks! So what are some of the better/other options?

[getgo]

Didn't Taxi have some involvement with Sixpence's tune Kiss Me? Seems they had something to do with that.

[Buck62]

Look, nobody's going to give you a record deal just because you have a kick-ass demo. The way the music biz works today is different.

First, you have to tour, tour, tour... spending you own money on that tour.

Then you have to finance (record, release, promote and distribute) your own first album.

That album has to sell at least 10,000 copies before anyone in the music industry will even look at you.

You have to convince a big label's A & R people to come and see you perform live.

That live performance needs to have at least 500 rabid, screaming fans.

If you do all this, you might land a record deal.

[the edzell]

get signed, get the advance and make the record you could be buried deep in company politics or given a green marketing guy who couldn't sell his way out of a paper bag. The landscape is littered with great bands who got signed but were lost in the shuffle.

[Recording Chick]

Originally Posted by Buck62

Look, nobody's going to give you a record deal just because you have a kick-ass demo. The way the music biz works today is different.

First, you have to tour, tour, tour... spending you own money on that tour.

Then you have to finance (record, release, promote and distribute) your own first album.

That album has to sell at least 10,000 copies before anyone in the music industry will even look at you.

You have to convince a big label's A & R people to come and see you perform live.

That live performance needs to have at least 500 rabid, screaming fans.

If you do all this, you might land a record deal.

I thought this was worth repeating. Buck62 has it exactly right.

[SteveK]

Not really looking for a record deal...too old, too gray, too etc. Just thinking about getting some music into the hands of people who aren't too...and maybe selling a song or two....

[wheelema]

I have a friend who promoted bands, and one of the things he has stressed is that you must have a whole album done... one or two songs most likely will not cut it.

[lykwydchykyn]

Originally Posted by SteveK

Not really looking for a record deal...too old, too gray, too etc. Just thinking about getting some music into the hands of people who aren't too...and maybe selling a song or two....

That's why I seriously considered joining it a few years back. But it seems like 90% of what shows up in their lists is some record label or another looking for artists -- NOT material. I was basically looking for some connections for music library and TV licensing. There were maybe 2 or 3 listings of a very general nature per month in that avenue. Just didn't make sense to me.

What kind of material are you writing? Are you just demo'ing it or making finished products?

[Buck62]

Originally Posted by SteveK

Not really looking for a record deal...too old, too gray, too etc. Just thinking about getting some music into the hands of people who aren't too...and maybe selling a song or two....

If you want to sell songs, go to Nashville and starve with everyone else who has the dream of writing a hit song. If you're not writing Country you can forget about selling any of your tunes. Rock bands write all their own material, and it doesn't have to be all that good. If Mick Jagger writes a so-so average song, you bet your ass it's gonna sell 1.5 million units just on reputation alone. You have NO reputation, good or bad, so nobody's gonna care how good your songs are. Pop singers rely on professional songwriters. But their label only listens to the stuff written by a very small pool of professional songwriters with Grammy Awards and MTV Awards on their mantles at their homes.

I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but it's totally true. Nashville is loaded with talented songwriters, but only .001% of them are making money writing hit songs. The rest of them are called bartenders and waiters. I've been there and seen it first-hand and it ain't pretty.

Probably the best way to showcase your material is to find a really talented up-and-coming band in your area and convince them to play and/or record your songs. That way, if they make it you'll establish yourself as a pro-writer with some credibility. That will probably get you more work down the road, but even that isn't guaranteed.

It's a tough business to break into. You have a better chance of winning the lottery unless you pour every ounce of effort you have into attaining your goal of writing a hit song that makes it to the right people.

Anybody who tells you that they can "help you" into the business by charging you a fee is a con artist who's taking your money and profitting immensely on your dream.

Best of luck to you!

[ProducerBigC]

Back in the day my wife thought Taxi would be a good investment, and a good opportunity, and as a birthday gift she paid for a 2 year membership for me. I had my share of your song has been forward to such and such records, but no deal never came out of it, not even a phone call from none of these labels. This was at a time when the market wasn't so stocked full of crappy rap and hip hop. She felt the music I was making was definitely worthy of getting signed if heard by the right people, and I knew I was making hot music. Not once did they send me a bad response to the stuff I would send them, and would always send me good feedback saying that my music was sent to this label and that label, and even a few film companies, but no deal never came out of it. I even used to get calls from so called companies only to eventually stop hearing from them. A couple a times I even was faxed contracts which I signed, only to never hear from them again and when I tried to get in contact with these companies their phones would be disconnected.

As for the dudes who supposed to have sold that Kenny Rodgers song through the company, Taxi has been selling that garbage in their advertisement for at least the last 11 years.

[David Hooper]

Originally Posted by Buck62

TAXI may not be the greatest resource for getting your music to the right set of ears in the music business, but their still cheaper than David Hooper's offer...

My service doesn't cost you money, it makes you money.

And the doors are locked to new clients, by the way, so don't you guys bitch and moan that I'm trying to sell anything. Look at www.indiebiz.com for proof.

Originally Posted by Buck62

TAXI was responsible for discovering the Kenny Rogers hit "Buy Me A Rose" from two unknown writers.

Mr Hooper has discovered NOBODY who has ever signed with a MAJOR label or had a Top 40 hit song.

People don't come to me because they want a "hit." They come to me because they want a career.

And if you want to see who I've worked with, do a search.

[wakeupbomb]

Originally Posted by David Hooper

My service doesn't cost you money, it makes you money.

And the doors are locked to new clients, by the way, so don't you guys bitch and moan that I'm trying to sell anything. Look at www.indiebiz.com for proof.



People don't come to me because they want a "hit." They come to me because they want a career.

And if you want to see who I've worked with, do a search.

Wait...your service doesn't cost money? That's an odd business plan. You "get" these people careers and you don't charge a dime? I'd like a career please. It's free right? That's what you said, it doesn't cost you money. I have some songs I've recorded, so if I send them to you, you'll get me a career? That's a sweet deal.

[David Hooper]

Originally Posted by wakeupbomb

Wait...your service doesn't cost money? That's an odd business plan. You "get" these people careers and you don't charge a dime? I'd like a career please. It's free right? That's what you said, it doesn't cost you money. I have some songs I've recorded, so if I send them to you, you'll get me a career? That's a sweet deal.

I didn't say anything about not charging. My point is that the service more than pays for itself.

Of course, the doors on www.indiebiz.com are now locked, so you guys have missed your chance. I'll keep you posted if anything new comes along though.