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Matt Vander Boegh, Sherry-Lynn Lee, and Bob Mete seem to be enjoying themselves as they share a ton of great information about how to get more music forwarded by TAXI, and ultimately, more music licensed.
Matt Vander Boegh, Sherry-Lynn Lee, and Bob Mete seem to be enjoying themselves as they share a ton of great information about how to get more music forwarded by TAXI, and ultimately, more music licensed.

Panelists: Successful TAXI members, Matt Vander Boegh, Sherry-Lynn Lee, and Bob Mete

Moderator: Michael Laskow

Matt, what's your #2 suggestion for getting more forwards from TAXI and more licensing deals?
Well, in Bob's answer, he pretty much hit on all the rest of mine. You guys have both mentioned this, but I will reiterate it because it is so important. It's that pre-existing music, music that you already had recorded a year ago or five years ago, almost always invariably does not get forwarded. So in order to really get those forwards…

Tell them why it doesn't get forwarded.
Well, it goes back to the whole waffle analogy I spoke about a few minutes ago. Because you didn't follow the recipe that was being asked for, you made something that may be kind of close, but it doesn't have all the ingredients that you needed. I'll tell you my embarrassing story.

Which one, Matt?
There's only one! Back when I first started at TAXI, as some of you know how I got started, I was writing these country songs, trying to be a country songwriter, even though I'd never really written country music. I didn't even listen to it, but I just thought I could do it. So I had this one song that was really piano-driven. It was in like three-four time, and it was like ding-da-ding-da-ding—a lot of piano. But it was definitely a country song. There was no mistaking, it was country.

Well, there was a TAXI listing looking for something like Beatles era, and the reference was a Beatles track. And it was a piano-driven Beatles track, but it was The Beatles, and it had to be that. And I thought, well, my track has piano in it. So I sent in this country track for a Beatles listing, and I can only imagine what the screener was thinking as they listened. Like, "What is this idiot doing with a country song? Female country, and we need a male vocal." Just because there's a piano and this bouncy bass or whatever does not mean you have the right thing.

But that's such a common early mistake that a lot of people make in like year one and year two, is that people will join TAXI with a catalog of music and just look for things that have a passing similarity to what they've already got in their catalog. "Oh well, my track does have this short intro; I think it'll be good." And they'll send it in and they get rejected—or returned, to put it a little more nicely—and they'll wonder why. "My song was great." Yeah, but you sent in a country song for a Beatles listing. And I remember being like, "What?" I remember being upset about that. I was like, "What? Come on, this is great piano…"

So that is my second tip, that pre-existing music just doesn't work. And if you want to see success and get more forwards, you have to write directly to the listing. It goes back to the whole waffle thing; you have to give the company exactly what they're looking for. And 99 times out of 100, you don't have that exact thing already recorded in your back catalog.

People have said to me over the years, "Gosh, you're telling us to just write what they want! It's so formulaic and it's stifling my creativity. I don't even want to be in that music business." Do you guys feel creatively stifled from basically filling orders for waffles?
Matt: No way. Yeah, I do hear that from people, and I'm like, "I don't care, I'm making music for a living." People ask me for music, I get to make music and that's my job. That's so much better than putting on a suit and tie and going to work every day and having a boss giving you orders. So what if I'm makin' 10 cents on drones, I don't care. I'm in my shed in the backyard working for myself!

Bob: It's a challenge to deliver what's being asked for.

Right, it's a craft in and of itself, and people don't recognize that.

Sherry, how about you? How do you feel?
Sherry: I think it's the give-and-take creativity to do that; then they wouldn't be asking for it, right? They could just get a machine to do it.

Well, someday they will, but right now we can pretend that's not going to happen.

"There's a difference between a good song and the right song."Sherry-Lynn Lee

Sherry, what's your #2?
Sherry: #2 is train your ears by doing a lot of research and getting a lot of feedback. So I have a few things here… Because at first when you start, you don't really know the difference between your song and what's being asked for, just because you're new and you don't know how things work. There's nothing wrong with you, it just takes time. There's a difference between a good song and the right song. Just because your song didn't get forwarded doesn't mean that it's a bad song. It just wasn't the right thing for that particular thing.

So TAXI's Forward Blog, I've been using that a lot. So whenever I submit something—whether I get forwarded or not—I go to the Forward Blog. Who doesn't know about the Forward Blog here? TAXI has a Forward Blog; it'll list every single person's song that was forwarded for every listing. Go there and look at it. There are links to the songs. You can listen to them, listen to the referenced track, then look into your track and see if you can tell what the difference is. And with time you will get a lot better. So that's one.

Tunefind is another tool that I use to look up what songs shows and movies are using. Tunefind.com, it's free, use it. iSpot.tv for ads. You can see what songs are being used in ads. And then there are great resources like the TAXI Forum; there's the Mix Me Public Group on Facebook run by Patty Boss. I don't know if Patty is here, but a lot of TAXI members hang out there. We give each other feedback on mixes. Mixing Is Cake is another one for the lady producers in the room. You can just hang out there.

TAXI's Michael Laskow (3rd from left) joins panelists (l to r) Matt Vander Boegh, Sherry-Lynn Lee, and Bob Mete for a group shot after their session wrapped up.
TAXI's Michael Laskow (3rd from left) joins panelists (l to r) Matt Vander Boegh, Sherry-Lynn Lee, and Bob Mete for a group shot after their session wrapped up.

The more you study and compare your music to what is being used and what is being forwarded, the more you'll get better at understanding why yours didn't get forwarded. You will get less bitter; you will let go of your ego. You know, it's just a matter of practicing until you get there. Everything takes craft. So if you could do it from day one, then everybody could do it, right? So we just need to keep working.

It's funny, people would not expect, if they wanted to be a fine artist, doing oil paintings; they wouldn't expect that the first or second time out of the gate would be museum-quality, yet with music they do. I don't know why that is. The same thing may be true with cooking, or pretty much anything that involves creativity. There are so many things where people understand that there's a learning curve, yet with music they think that they are innately a genius and that everything they create is awesome, and they can't believe that this idiot screener in Los Angeles didn't forward their music. Mr. Mete?
Bob: The whole TAXI experience is such a learning curve, and what I found, especially last year, is when it really blossomed for me in terms of production. Up until now, my mixes were good. They were being accepted by top music libraries, so that was validation. That's cool. Then, my biggest recommendation is the Fett's Mixing Roadmapbook. I've learned so much from that man, it's unbelievable. And almost every time I talk to him, I learn something that I'm going to apply. Last year, I really got into learning about compression, and my mixes now are like, wow, jumping out of the studio. And I even went back to one of my libraries. I was doing something else, and I remixed a bunch of my Sinatra stuff and said, "Can I give them to you, and will you just switch them out, because these are so much nicer?" And they said, "Oh, no, we already sent these out. If the music supervisor thinks he's getting this, we don't want to send him that."

And I look back at my earlier mixes and I get nauseous. It's like, "Oh my God, what was I thinking?" And where did that knowledge come from? Right here at the TAXI Road Rally. Coming out here, this is Mecca. We come out here and we learn. And this last year I took like two or three classes on compression, and each presenter was a little different. You take all that knowledge, and then you go back and you spend your 10,000 hours learning about compression. It goes back to discipline. And it's just not writing something and sending it off; you've got to do it and…

I find one of my biggest things now is—maybe it's because I'm OCD or whatever—but I listen to it, then I take it on the road with me. When I'm on an airplane, I listen. You know, it's on repeat. On a four-hour flight, I must have listened to it 1,200 times already. But I'm digging down and digging down. My ears have gotten so much better doing that, so now I can hear things like, "Oh, I have a vocal pop—I never caught that before." And I'll go back in and I'll open up the track, and there it is.

It's just the little things, the details. I'm at the point now where I'm really zeroing in on detail. Where before, yeah, everything was there. It sounded good, people liked it, they signed it; OK, my job is done. Now I'm trying to get it up to those next levels. I want to be an engineer like Michael.

"I learned everything that I know from the Road Rally and the TAXI Forum. That's the only reason I'm sitting here on this stage right now."Matt Vander Boegh

No, you don't, I'm old school. I'm mics and wires, baby. No samples for this guy. Matt?
Matt: OK, so this is a good one, and it's already been mentioned by Bob here. But this is to get outside feedback from people in the industry before you submit your track to a listing. Not after… Afterwards, the ship has sailed, the return is probably on its way. But if you kind of workshop your music before you submit it, then you take the feedback of other people and you will improve your track—whether it's the mix, or the sounds and the samples, or the arrangement or whatever. Look for people who can point out the flaws in your track, and then fix them before you submit. And the best ways to do that are using the Peer-to-Peer section of the TAXI Forum. And I swear to God that the TAXI Forum is where I learned almost everything, except for the Road Rally. I learned everything that I know from the Road Rally and the TAXI Forum. That's the only reason I'm sitting here on this stage right now. The people on the TAXI Forum are world-class engineers, songwriters, composers—and there are also people who are just starting out. It is all walks of life on this musical path. It's in the TAXI Forum. It's people who get behind their computer and want to help out. If they've got a few minutes to spare, they jump on there and listen to some music and then offer some feedback. Where else can you get that? I don't know of any other place.

And there's a side benefit that is worth mentioning, which is while you are getting that feedback from them, you build relationships with people. And you may find a collaborator, or somebody may, which they are listening to your track, think that you are a great oboist or whatever, and reach out to you. So not only does it help you get better, but it helps you get better at networking in a very natural way.
Bob: And the word is feedback, not criticism. It's feedback; don't take it as criticism. It's being offered to help you to raise your game.

Matt: Yeah, those Forums. If you guys aren't on there, then you really, really should be. This is like personal testimonial here. That's one of the two reasons that I'm sitting up on this stage right now. That's the only reason I've got this career. It's because I got on the Forum, and I was like, "What do you think about this?" "Oh, well, if you did this and this…" Then you fix these things, and then stuff would start coming your way. Asking for advice: "Hey, how does this compressor really work?" You just get all sorts of good advice there that is absolutely free. There is no membership charge for that. It is just such a huge, huge deal.

And it gives you some more side benefits. Not only the networking thing… My second Road Rally that I came to… I had been to one Road Rally prior, and I didn't know anybody. So, at the second Road Rally, I had been on the Forum and tried to make myself a little bit of a kind of a presence there and get to know a few people. And when I came that second time around, I knew people digitally, so I already had friends. I met them for the first time in person here—just like you guys backstage. And they're writing music together and have been for a little while. They'd never met each other until here, but they met on TAXI's Forum.

"I've gotten at least two or three deals just by being on TAXI's Forum."Matt Vander Boegh

I've got a lot of co-writers that I met on the Forum, and here's like the third awesome benefit: I've actually gotten deals from the Forum. Music supervisors and publishers and library owners do go there, and if they see you and you are a nice, warm person in your commentary and stuff, and if you've got some music up there, they do reach out to you. I've gotten at least two or three deals just by being on TAXI's Forum.

I want to mention that you are absolutely right to say to go on there. And not only do they reach out to you guys, they reach out to me when members do really dopey stuff on there and say stuff that's not just inappropriate, like sex stuff or something, but I'm talking about inappropriate on a business level. People in the industry do not want to do business with people that come across like they're a jerk. Nobody does in any industry. And for some reason, sometimes from people… Maybe they are pissed off that they didn't get a forward on something—whatever the reason is—they post something on there, and it comes back to bite them in the butt in the form of there's a music supervisor that read that and went, "Yep, don't want to work with that guy." Ad then, a year later, that guy is at some industry dinner, and that person who made the dopey comment gets brought up. "Oh really. Yeah, I saw a comment that guy made on some Forum online. I wouldn't want to work with that guy."

There's no official blacklist, but there is sort of an unofficial warning list out there.
Matt: The "Idiot List." [laughter]

I've actually been at a table with 10 people at an industry event, and somebody's name came up, who was acting in a moronic fashion online. Four out of the 10 people at that table all knew the same person, and recounted stories of him acting the same way. That guy killed his career. It's sad!

Don't miss Part Three in next month's TAXI Transmitter!