TAXI - The World's Leading Indie A & R Company

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 7:15 pm

The company has been around for some time. Has anyone here ever used TAXI?

Please share your experiences.

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 8:49 pm

A friend of mine was highly offended as to their rather high fees. But then, I told her it takes money to make money. So if you throw enough money at somebody that knows how to spend your money? It could be worthwhile?

Michael Laskow probably went bust with his Triadd Studios in Fort Lauderdale, like most everybody else, so he had to figure out something else to do? It was a nice MCI studio if you like MCI consoles. I don't. But their recorders were good and he was within walking distance of their factory. So I know, HE didn't need any Taxi. Maybe he lost his car also? Leases on expensive equipment are hard to keep up.

Low overhead studio. No leases. No taxis.
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 5:34 pm

I've never used TAXI, but I do pay my taxes.

I had known someone years ago that decided to try it out. He made a CD and payed big money to have it produced. He got a thousand of them made and he told me he spent $30G on it. (after listening I don't have no idea how)
He was really upset when he gave me a copy and told me he was giving them away instead of selling them.
He failed to get any attention with it. He then decided to try TAXI and produced not one lead. Its easy for me to see why you cannot get your foot in the door of record execs without any clout.

Clout is hard to come by, you need something called talent and a fan base first! Talent is something you get that not many people have, it makes you stand out and make great music.

Without talent your better off flipping burgers and listening to the radio. Taxi or a big money production does not mean a thing unless people like it.

Spend your money wisely or don't spend it at all.

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 9:54 pm

I think I still may be an associate member there.....not really sure.

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 4:08 pm

I used the Taxi.com 12 month service about 6 -7 years ago. A few things come to mind. Still trying to get my songs heard it seemed a good fit, this Taxi.com service. It was back at the time "Jimmy Eats World" had gained elevated status.

What I was ready for using Taxi was to get one little niche that I could pigeon-hole one little song in. What I got was far from that. It was a wide open playing field with little room for what I was doing.

One thing that it did was to take away the inability to specify a genre for specific songs. In order for it[service] to help me as a user, it was up to me to place the song in the best genre, no doubts and no fudging.

These entries cost an extra fee, 5(USD) I think it was, per submission, above and beyond the admission fees. Smile

Often a piece of work might be asked for that would list the song or bands focus as "Switchfoot meets Jimmy Eats World with a dash of Robert Cray". What?

Instrumentals were always hot, so I found myself working on the next big thing instrumentally. As anyone who does this [EricWatkins] can tell you, it is a lot easier to say then create.

As a tool, I worked harder and longer hours trying to match the submission criteria. As a songwriter with a certain game plan in mind, I lost focus on what it was that I did.

It seemed then and looks now to be aimed at a much, much younger crowd then I run with.

Looking over the page for Industry listings at Taxi.com is a good idea before making a commitment to this service.

It may be a better fit for you then it was, at the time, for me.

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 12:10 am

The thing I like about Taxi is that they do exactly what they say they are going to do, at exactly the rate they say they are going to charge. There is no upsell and they take no percentages of any of their successes. What they do is not a good fit for everyone but they are a really straight forward company.

Another cool thing is that the Taxi Road Rally is a very cool conference and its free (plus a guest) to any taxi members, so that pretty much makes the membership fees worth it right there.

In full disclosure: I do not work for Taxi, but they have invited me to speak at the Road Rally a few times.

http://www.ilike.com/user/TheMaheekats · Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 1:04 pm

I'm not a member of Taxi but I enjoy reading all the articles that are posted for free in the Resources section of their website. There's also this thing called Studio Buddy. Its a database where Engineers share their secrets in the studio.

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 4:19 pm

Propaganda....is what it would be called in another country.

Oh, I AM in another country Wink

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 10:22 pm

i hear lots of responses like "taxi has a great road rally" or "taxi have me good critique on my song" but i have never heard "using a taxi sheet helped me get a song placed with an artist" and that's what they advertise to do. (except of course the one magazine advert where they have the chick who looks like debbie gibson but is not debbie gibson)

500 bucks? that is SO crazy. spend $25 at barnes and noble and buy a songwriter's how to book. the appendix will give you more resources than taxi ever would.

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 3:34 am

I was a member of TAXI many moons ago. I submitted about 50 times. Some songs more than once. I even got some critiques back which I never really did find helpful. Music is so subjective. So I don't put much credence in what their people say.

For example, "not broadcast quality". Yet I turned around and got a placement on my own with the exact same recording! Go figger . . .

As for the road rally, I'd love to attend. But I'm gigging most weekends. It seems to me that if a Music Conference wishes to truly pull, they would hold their seminars during the week when we're not as busy. I would fly anywhere in the country if they held their conferences on a Mon-Wed. Then I could still get back in time to rest for the weekend.

Just my .02

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