Dear Passengers,
April Fools! Gotcha! I knew that subject line would get your attention. It probably got more of you to open this email quicker than any other I've written.
You'd think after 14 years of working with the top companies in the music business and hooking up thousands of musicians with deals, people would finally believe that we're for real. I just opened a letter from a guy in Ohio wanting to know if TAXI is a scam. Did he think I'd tell him if we were? :-)
I had to laugh. You'd think he would have just gone to our website and looked at the arsenal of information that proves how legit we are, but noooooooo! That would have been too much like work.
I can't really blame the guy. I'm essentially lazy by nature, so I get the "I don't want to do more work here than I have to" thing. I also know that TAXI still sounds too good to be true. It's just something we've learned to live with around these hallowed halls. :-)
But you should be VERY HAPPY you tuned in this issue, because I've got some killer news. And before you read this, please know that I know this announcement is going to sound like a sales pitch to join TAXI. I don't mean it to be. Yes, I'd like you to join, but when you're ready. I'd rather see you become part of us when you can use the membership to its fullest.
The big announcement?
I see a new trend with production music libraries/music placement companies, and it's going to be very good for you. We're finalizing a deal as we speak to run a ton of listings over the next several months for tunes and tracks for a new company that lets you keep all your copyrights, offers a non-exclusive deal, and does a 50/50 split on every placement you get from them.
That my friends, is about the best deal a musician could ask for. And I think over the next few years, you're going to see more and more companies follow suit. There are still plenty of good deals to be had with traditional model libraries until the new era kicks in, but I believe it's on the horizon.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . we will soon begin to run listings for just about every kind of music imaginable (don't get nutty on me, but you catch my drift, right?), with and without vocals. This new company is going to need a lot of music, but they are EXTREMELY picky. We will have to be as well.
The recordings have to be solid, but NOT 24-track digital. If you're very competent-to-excellent, with just 4 or 8 tracks, you might be ready for prime time. I'm guessing some of the stuff they'll be looking for might even be solo finger-picked guitar, solo piano, solo concertina, solo violin or flute . . . you get the idea. These are just educated guesses on my part, but I have a good feel for that part of the industry because I did a big-city audio post gig for 8 years, and used a lot of library/needle drop/canned music at the time.
So, if you read my recent series on Film and TV Music and it sounded like something that interested you, then it might be time for you to take the plunge. Don't do it if you're not ready, but I've got to figure a lot of you guys might even have finished CDs of Modern Rock or Singer/Songwriter stuff that you've pressed somewhere like Disc Makers, and it could be perfect for this company. But the songs have to be excellent.
Also, please don't join JUST for the Concertina type (unusual) listings. That might be a once or twice a year kind of thing, and I don't want to see you sorely disappointed when we don't get as many Snarfblat listings as we did Pop! Save your money on that one kids.
Anyway, I wanted you to know that these cool new listings are coming up in the very near future, and if you were thinking strongly about joining to take advantage of the Film and TV opportunities anyway, now would be a really good time to Click Here to Join.
I think you'll enjoy the listings (a lot) in 2006!
Talk to you soon, and thanks to the guy from Ohio who wanted to know if we were a scam. I had writer's block, and he snapped me out of it! :-)
See ya,
Michael