Is TAXI Music Worth it? (Tips on Sync Licensing for Producers)

I was a Taxi member for 2 years, which resulted in 2 deals with libraries I have a very healthy and great relationship with. However, before my membership ended, I had already started approaching libraries directly, because I though I had figured out the system. Well, it took me a while to actually understand the "direct approach", but eventually I have been able to get into a few more libraries by presenting myself to them directly. I too spent a lot of money on music submissions, but I did get education back, which ultimately I assimilated and now I can liaise directly with libraries and publishers, which of course requires more effort, and normally does not include feedback, if the music gets rejected

You did an amazing job explaining this! Thank you fareel 🙏🏾

Thanks for the informative video! Thumbs up! One thing I wish you had covered is you said "I made whole bunch of not licensable music". How do I know if my music is licensable? Googling that doesn't immediately give a clear answer.

Great video. Love the honesty and unbiased position. Thank you.

Okay......for anyone who will listen (and want to criticize), I'm going to touch on some things I've learned since I got into Sync Licensing a few years ago: First...when you get into Sync Licensing, you are in the TV/FILM INDUSTRY, NOT the music industry. People will think because they write music, they're in the MUSIC industry, but they're NOT. Second....when I see the money part explained, when you break it down, it's really not a lot (Well, to me it isn't). Without any "specials", in your first year you pay $300 to join, and let's say with fees and so on, you kick out $400 for the year (That's around $33 a month, and It would be nice if TAXI had a payment plan, because that would make things easier for people to join.) Personally, I pay $125/yr with the Audio Engineering Society, and $99/yr with the Production Music Association. That's $224 a year. I could easily cancel those memberships, and pay less, per year, with TAXI renewal fees ($200). And then if you add music submission fees and other fess to TAXI, that could amount to $100-$200 a year. I pay more than that with plug ins subscriptions. So it depends on the individual's finances, and what they're willing to risk. And if you're not satisfied....just cancel and take it as a life lesson learned. Third....people are going to praise and criticize things based on their experience and success. I graduated from Full Sail University, years ago. Since I graduated, I've had great success in the music, audio and tv/film industry. But I've seen, and read, where people criticize Full Sail and say it's.......a rip off and a scam, because they can't accomplish the success THEY dreamed of. With ANYTHING they set out to do, people are going to have different results and success. You just have to take your chances and live through your own experiences. You're going to get out what you put in. Nothing is guaranteed. Fourth.....Sync Licensing is a marathon. If you expect instant results....."fuggedabouddit". I'm just getting royalties from music i did 2-3-4- years ago.

Thanks for the info. I'm currently working to get a few more pieces of gear n sample packs to begin trying to license music. I got a degree in music management/audio production mainly to understand the industry and to be able to record and release my music on my own. They warned us about pay to play and how we should always avoid it but when asked about Taxi they made it clear that the company was an exception to the rule. Taxi owner Michael Lasko is a genuinely decent person and as soon as I am ready to begin licensing music I plan to become a Taxi member as well. See ya in the forums.

I like your honesty and humbleness

Thanks so much! 👍. Great video!!!!

I'm a beginner in songwriting. I picked up the interest, which had been dormant for decades, after a friend brought me to karaoke and group vocal class at the local senior center. My abilities as a vocalist are not good enough for performance although my voice as such is pretty good and could be autotuned for demo purposes. My level as an instrumentalist is intermediate beginner. However, I have a strong sense of chord progression due in part to a little guitar background earlier in my life. In songwriting, my strength is lyrics and stories. I consider and list my influences as Bob Dylan, the Beatles (Lennon and McCartney), and Oscar Hammerstein II. My present instrument is keyboard. I have several questions. The first one pertains to demos. Is it possible in the present songwriting market to make a simple demo (vocal, lead line and chords) and have a band or artist pick it up? I am getting the idea that bands and artists want to be provided with complete arrangements. I would think they would want to do their own arrangements and maybe even alter the chords progressions to suit themselves but maybe it doesn't work that way. What's the situation in the present market? My second question pertains to Bandlab, and it is pretty simple. Does Bandlab have any value as a marketing tool for songwriters? That is apart from its value as a DAW. I ask because Bandlab seems to be a site for promoting finished music. My third question is more in the realm of a beef or complaint. I am trying to learn how to use DAW programs. I understand the issue with these. They have to be designed to meet the needs of advanced users and furthermore the advanced users probably constitute the great majority of the customer base for both the free ones and the paid ones. I have not been able to get good information about how to use any of these. All of the videos I have found are heavy on explaining what you can do and fall short on explaining the details of how you do it in any particular program. Seriously, the basic idea is not hard to understand. You layer tracks. Nothing new about that. The question I have is, do you know of any source of concise instruction in how to use DAWs? Concise instruction means, explaining how you get the program to do what you are trying to do. I have gotten the furthest so far in Waveform and Bandlab. I should count Paul SImon as an influence too. As a writer, his powers of evocation have been off the charts throughout his career, but he is too much of a squeaky complainer. He should know, once you put creative work in front of the world, you cannot control what other people think it means. He seems to have a problem with that and I don't want to be mentally involved in having to push back against it.

Thank you so much for this

People complaining about taxi don’t realize that in todays sync licensing game there are probably more than 200 submissions per request. Or even more I’ve seen 600 submissions per request. So that means you have to compete with lots of great producers and sometimes more than 2 brains worked in a track. So you have to be extremely clever with your craft in order to cut the line getting placements quick. Once you learn how to produce at that level then you might be able to research and submit on your own to who ever you find on the web.

Excellent!!

Would you say Taxi more for music artist or beat makers as well?

thank for been honest

Is taxi effective spanish songs?

Can anyone speak to how much, in dollars, this amount of "success" brings in? Placements mean very little to me. I want numbers. What did you make last year from this service?

How much money have you spent ? How much money have you earned?

I’m an independent studio engineer who writes and releases his own albums every couple months The Josh Campbell Band on Spotify and iTunes.. Im wondering if dropping the $300 would be worth it for a guy like me with a very specific genre style

Hi Chayse, Thank you so much for this information! I wanted to ask if we are eligible for this if we are a cover artist? Also, are we eligible even if we have our music already streaming through a distribution service such as Distrokid?

So it seem like you have to wait a year for your music to get out their