Dear TAXI,

I'm really pissed off that you didn't tell me about Dispatch before I joined! I feel like you guys are hiding it just so you can upsell me like all the other companies out there. Why don't you have any info about Dispatch on your Web site? You guys feel like such a cool company, and I can't believe that you would hide this from me. What's up!

And why do you charge more for it? Why isn't it included with regular TAXI?

Daryll Conness

Dear Daryll,

I'll admit that you're not the first TAXI member to be upset about us not talking about Dispatch very openly. There's a really good reason for it, and once I tell you, I think you'll see that we're not very evil after all.

The reason we don't talk about Dispatch upfront is that we don't want brand new members to join until they've had a chance to get the hang of TAXI.

Truth is, many people go a little hog wild when they first join TAXI. They submit to just about anything, then wonder why their music didn't get forwarded.

If they knew about Dispatch, they'd pitch even more songs at those listings, and get even more frustrated. We've learned over time that the members who have the most success with TAXI have been with us for at least a few months, if not a year or more.

There's an art to pitching your music. If we were truly evil, we'd try to sell you Dispatch right away... before you learn the art of reading the listings well and pitching well.

The reason we don't include it with regular TAXI is that it costs us extra money to run those quick turn around listings. Extra screeners, extra office space, extra e-mails to go out, people to write them, people to do the intake of the listings when the companies call, etc. It's really like its own little company within a company.

But I'm glad you asked about Dispatch. We DO get this question quite often, so I'm going to run the info about it right under your letter. Hopefully, my answer and the Dispatch info you can read here will answer the same question for other members.

I'm sorry to upset you,
Michael

Hi Michael,

I've already had some offers to sign my tracks to two different American production music library companies because they found my music through TAXI. So thanks for that, but I've got a question. How do I know if these are good companies to sign up under? Any advice?

Thanks,
Helen Swailes
Sydney, Australia

Hi Helen,

All of the companies we run industry listings for have been pre-screened by us before we'll work with them. So you've got THAT going for you :-) I just posted an article about this on our blog last month, so I'm going to run it here to make sure you, and all the other folks with similar questions can read it. I hope these tips on selecting the right music licensing companies helps you out.

Warm regards,
Michael

How to Choose the Right Music Licensing Companies
Film and TV placements are the new "record deal." However, many musicians still don't which company has the best chance of getting them a film or TV placement, and they often have no idea which company has the best track record for making the most money for the songwriters ad artists they work with.

Truth be told, it's not all that hard to set up a web page that looks great, add a database that hosts music, post up a couple of success stories (true or not), and bammo, you're in business as a music licensing company! Doesn't matter if you're in the cow pastures of Wisconsin, the heart of Hollywood, or the plains of Africa. Nobody does due diligence any more. "If they've got a cool web page, they must be real!" Uh-huh!

Things to watch out for:
Open submissions — Not ALL companies that allow any old Tom, Dick, or Harry to submit to them are schlock shops, but many are. Accepting music from any and everybody seems appealing at first, but it also means that the music supervisors and music editors are going to hear a lot of mediocre music (at best), and quickly leave the site with nothing in hand.

Rating and filtering by fans and competing musicians — Music supervisors want filtered music. They want only the very best music. In many cases (but not necessarily all), music that has been selected or filtered by competing songwriters or artists doesn't stand up to the quality of music that has been pre-screened by real music industry professionals. Why? Two reasons: The musicians doing the filtering have never worked at a music supervision company, a film company, a TV production company, a record company, or a Film or TV publishing company. They simply don't know how high the bar is set. They also may not know that just because they personally like a particular song or instrumental track, it doesn't mean that it will work well for TV or film music companies.

The second reason is that some less than ethical people will "vote down" the competition. It's become somewhat common for musicians who want their music to rise will ask fans, friends and family members to visit the music web sites that have "contests," to give them high scores and give the competition low scores.

Companies that don't have solid, long-term relationships with the industry — Music supervisors have go-to people that they've worked with for years. They trust their ears. They know they can rely on them for great music. If you can't find solid evidence that those relationships exists at the company you're about to sign with, you might want to keep looking and find a company that does!

I hope you find these tips helpful.

Michael