Recording - September 2012 - 52

Continued from page 51 to your music going,“Ach, you’re no good,”and toss you aside like a ragdoll. I’ve got to say, there are some jerks who are A&R guys, but for the most part they are like these guys. They’re passionate music lovers who decided to take their passion for music and get a job trying to find great artists. They are not really the evil sons-of-you-know-whats that you might think they are. TAXI lives or dies by its reputation for pitching great music. So even if we were inclined to be like the nasty A&R people, we’d be foolish to forward every submission just to keep our members happy. We know that every time we don’t forward one of your submissions, we risk losing a member. We know that it hurts people. We know that they take it really personally when we don’t forward their stuff. So I hope you appreciate the fact that we are honest and truthful in what we do. I mean, we could tell everybody they’re getting forwarded and throw the stuff in a garbage can. Who would know? But we don’t. We are advocates for you. We are being hyper-honest about it, and I want you to know that the people screening your music really want you to get a deal. When you get a deal and we tell everybody else about it, then more people join TAXI. It’s self-perpetuating. So, with all that said, let’s get this panel under way. Robin, what’s the number one reason you see for members getting“returns?” Robin: OK, the number one reason for returns… Of course, there are lots of individual reasons that the screeners give in their feedback, but I think that the number one thing that members who aren’t getting forwarded are doing wrong is treating TAXI like the lottery. “If I just hit the right listing, if I just hit the right screener on the right day when he ate the right breakfast, I will get forwarded,” instead of treating TAXI like it’s a place where you can grow your skills, build on what you have, keep moving forward. You know, be a moving target. Don’t sit there and say, “I did my CD, I have these 10 songs and no more, and I’m going to just throw these against the wall until something sticks.” It’s really frustrating, I know. It would be frustrating for me. I understand how frustrating it can be. So one of the things I’ve noticed about people who are successful at TAXI is that they treat TAXI as a platform. “I am going to stand on this and I am going to build on what I’m doing. I’ll find out what my strengths are, and I will figure out what genre I am in myself. Because one of the things that happens a lot is that people are submitting songs and they don’t know what genre they are in. They are guessing and they are chasing genres. And that’s another one, “If I just find the right genre, I’ll get forwarded.” But the truth is, in some cases, you’re not in a genre, or you’re not close enough to anything con52

temporary where most of the listings are. So one of the things I’d like to suggest… Somebody said to me yesterday, “I write children’s music and you don’t have very many listings for children’s songs.” And, in fact, I’ve brought this up, and hopefully, we’ll start having some more of those. But in the meantime, I said to him, “Have you noticed how many ads use quirky, fun, playful, upbeat, whimsical songs? Have you listened to that ad with Ingrid Michaelson, who just sings, [Robin sings] ‘I just want to be OK, be OK, be OK’? It’s a kid’s song. They Might Be Giants do children’s songs, and they’re in an ad for Payless Shoes called ‘I Just Want to Be a Paleontologist’—a really cute song. Childlike, whimsical, upbeat, quirky is you. You could be submitting on ad agency listings that are paying $50,000 to $100,000 in licensing fees.” And he hadn’t even thought of it. His little face just lit up and he went, “Yeah, I can do that. I could do that.” Because he hadn’t looked to see what his strengths are, what genre he’s in, how he could spread out from that genre into other opportunities and really make his TAXI membership and his submissions pay off for him. And that was like a real epiphany moment for this guy. I know he’s gonna go home and write, “I Just Want to Be OK.” I just know he’s gonna do it. And he’s gonna do a good job of it. So build on what you’re doing. Build on what you hear back from the screeners. Keep learning and keep studying. The best thing you can do is to know what your genre sounds like before you write a song. Target your songs instead of writing the song and then targeting it. I use the analogy of trying to fit your foot in the glass slipper after the ball. It doesn’t usually fit. There are only a couple of Cinderellas. What if it isn’t you? You know, I’m not a Cinderella. I never was. I worked my ass off in this industry because I didn’t walk in and just magically do it—ever. And most people don’t. So think of it as building a career. Use TAXI as a springboard, and think about how you can build up, learn, grow, study, target, aim. All of this, everything in the listings is helping you become a better publisher and record label of you as a songwriter and artist. You are a record label and a publisher. So think that way when you’re pitching, then go talk to your artist and say, “You know what? I need some songs that are a little closer to these listings.” [applause] Kevin, what’s the number one reason that you find that people aren’t getting forwarded from you when you’re screening? Kevin: I think that’s a pretty tough question, because there’s not just one thing. I think it’s really different in every single case. One of the most important things is the broadcast quality of the recording.

It’s got to sound good. It’s got to sound competitive with what is currently being played on the radio, or being used in film and television. Then, also—and specifically for film and TV—I find a lot of times that the songs are really good, but I can’t use them because of the lyrics being perhaps too specific. A songwriter really needs to understand that when you’re pitching for film and TV that there is already a whole story that’s being told by the director. There’s a whole other vision—with characters and their lives and whatever they’re going through—and your music is going to be there to sort of add a little emotional support to that. So when people start sending in songs and the first line says, “I drove my red car down to the waterfall and ate a cheese sandwich,” that might not have anything to do with the story that’s being told in the film. And, you know, I do love songs that have great stories in them. But I think when they get too specific, using names and places, like songs that are called “Mary” about a girl. Maybe there’s not a character, maybe it’s a movie about a bunch of gangsters or something like that. It just doesn’t fit into the context of the film. So I have a hard time a lot with getting good songs—songs that I like, memorable songs with good hooks—but lyrically they are just not on target for what we are looking for. So I would definitely recommend being more universal with your lyric themes. Try to just come up with an idea that we all could relate to, and that will definitely increase your chances for fitting into this other story. Isn’t it a fair statement that the majority, if not all of the screeners, all kind of give out a sigh every time you hear something that’s close but doesn’t nail it and you go,“Ahhh.”Your heart breaks. And the members are sitting behind me right now saying,“Well, dude, why don’t you just forward it if it’s close?”But close isn’t good enough. It’s not good enough, and it may not be right enough, either. And as a screener you feel that disappointment. You so badly want the member to be made happy. It’s not just me, right? Kevin: Well, it’s tough, and we do want to forward stuff. I mean, that’s what you said when I said that about the joy that I get making that connection. That’s what we do. If you go through a week or so and you’re not really getting any results, it becomes frustrating. So when you do get something that sticks and it lands, it’s great. But we’re also providing a service to the people who are having us listen to the music, and if we’re giving them stuff that’s off target, now we’re starting to waste their time. You know, I’ll listen to 300 submissions to maybe forward seven tunes, and at that time I’m sort of looking at it as I have just saved a music supervisor three or four days of listening to music by saying, “I think this is on target for what you need.” And I go down the whole list of things—like the broadcast quality, the lyrics— Continued on page 55

Recording - September 2012

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