mike_mccue


It seems to me that Tunecore and Taxi are in entirely two different businesses.

Taxi is specifically a A&R placement service that attempts to either broker your recordings to someone needing needle drop music for their media production or broker your songs to another Artist and Repertoire rep who is trying to collect song material for some other artist to record and perform.


(...)

Yep, finding specialists is IMO the best way to do it. I thought maybe Tunecore was a way to beat two horses with the same stick(). Looked into it and nope, back to plan one.

BTW, there are IMO better ways to have your music distributed to Digital Shops than the ones you pay to have it placed there. I receive great benefits on the marketing with a dedicated company that only make money if you do. However, I really like the CDbaby and Tunecore model which lets you join the digital distribution for a small costs without all the paperwork. After all, the most important thing is to have your stuff heard. I guess it only comes down to how you want to do it and on what level.

That's my 2 cents;)

I though no one really had a direct distribution with iTunes - except the biggest boys like Warner, Sony etc. I have projects and releases through labels, both major and indie, and they all use a third party who specialize in distribution through the various digital shops. Anyway, I also have my own record label (very indie) and the good thing about a company like the one I use is that they manage to put my music on the store fronts as featured artist in selected markets where I might sell something and they also report to the lists, like Billboard, Top40 lists etc. It's good to have the ability if you suddenly sell 100 00 downloads. I know CDBaby etc doesn't do that. Not that I have ever managed to be on one of those lists with any of my own stuff, but I've participated on two releases that made it onto the Norwegian charts

The A&R bit is different. I have usually used direct contacts in the biz, dealing with music supervisors and project managers. I agree, it's by far the best way. My interest in Taxi is to potentially make connections and license to more projects over seas. Scandinavia is small and ugly place and it's almost impossible to make a living of licensing sync music. Or make anything at all.

I do however, have an interesting thing coming up with a gaming company partially based in NY. Hopefully it will work out nicely and it will evolve into something more interesting

That's so true!!

Ha ha, I remember being a very young lad in the early 90's and Florida metal was the big thing! Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, Deicide, Death etc, not to mention the Roadrunner Record bands. I don't even remember all the names. Then of course the swedes made an impact and UK metal got really huge. But no one made a bigger impact than the Norwegian black metalers who first and foremost got famous for killing each other and burning churches. They got heard everywhere but in Norway. Germany made them big and then they managed to make a name for themselves in the US.

Good times, the 90's were!

Then again, US music always gets big over here it seems. Which is good. There are a lot of great music coming from across the "big-pond"

Mike - most of the concerns about Tunecore as I read them seem to be around whether you have a license for your content or not.

I understand you need to license other's material, but if I wrote the whole thing why do I need a licence ?

Also, it seems that all someone has to do is file a complaint that you are using unlicensed material and they freeze everything.

I like that we can now get access to itunes as everyone I know has an I-tunes store account and it is easy that way, but that is kind of scary that these Tunecore folks can wily-nily freeze you account and then tell you to hire a lawyer.  

Of course in my case we would be scrapping over 17.28$, but still.

JR

Thanks Mike....I am a week or two from making a decision and your input is very welcome.

JR

Depends on the contract you sign at each site to some degree. I'm really at a loss to offer any praise for Tunecore at this point. Look at the about tunecore section. Tell me what it's going to take to serve them if you have a problem. 

timidi


RE Taxi:
Keep in mind that in order to throw enough stuff at the wall where something may stick, it costs $5.00 per submission. That's a little steep in my eyes on top of the $300 per year. I mean, as ProjectM stated, he may like to unload some of his back catalog with gusto:) that could get pricey.
I have 2 CDs at CD baby and don't have any issues with them.

Hey Timidi!


That's a very good point. However, let's say I spend $300 + 20X$5 over a year ($400 total) which is not a small amount of money. But I think it will be worth it considering that I live in Norway and doing what Taxi is doing would probably cost me a lot more in international phone calls, e-mailing and follow ups - not to mention business trips if necessary, and time that I could actually spend making safe money. I think that would cost me a lot more than $400 the first year. I gladly hand over a few hundred-dollar bills for someone else to do it. That's why I wonder if people have any success with Taxi.

I call it a business investment.
 

Janet


I read somewhere on TAXI's website that about 6% of their clients get placements, so yeah, the competition's stiff. 

That's life I guess. Many people make a lot of music these days. But if one doesn't try one never get anywhere I know of circumstances where there are 100% fail rate so the odds aren't too bad at Taxi

mike_mccue

Jimbo 88


Hey has anyone tried putting the same album thru Tunecore and CDBaby?  The prices are cheap enough.   Would it cause some kinda crazy feedback loop in the business world.  Just wonderin?

I think you may ending up confusing iTunes. I've been wondering the same thing. Can I try different brokers while being represented at iTunes as one identity?





Hi crg, did you ever find someone with a legitimate complaint? All I found was people that just didn't understand you can't steal music and sell it as if it is yours.

I'm not sure what you think is wrong with a P.O. box? I know you can't serve a subpoena to one... but you can't you deliver a certified letter to one?

Just wondering... and also wondering what you might choose as an option to get on iTunes.

all the best,
mike

You sign up on a per album basis. If you choose to use different distributors for different albums, that's no problem. But you can not and will never be able to publish the same album through two different distributors. You can't have CDBaby and Tunecore to deliver to iTunes, because iTunes doesn't allow it. Normally (I don't know if this is the issue with CDBaby and Tunecore) a digital distributor doesn't allow you to sign up the same album to multiple digital distributors. That's a business thing I suppose.

If you want alternatives to Tunecore, just do a google search. I know iMusicianDigital is a popular choice here in Europe and there are quite a few others, CDBaby being a very popular option, Song Cast have been known to do a good job. Tunecore is not the the only choice;)

ProjectM

timidi


RE Taxi:
Keep in mind that in order to throw enough stuff at the wall where something may stick, it costs $5.00 per submission. That's a little steep in my eyes on top of the $300 per year. I mean, as ProjectM stated, he may like to unload some of his back catalog with gusto:) that could get pricey.
I have 2 CDs at CD baby and don't have any issues with them.

Hey Timidi!


That's a very good point. However, let's say I spend $300 + 20X$5 over a year ($400 total) which is not a small amount of money. But I think it will be worth it considering that I live in Norway and doing what Taxi is doing would probably cost me a lot more in international phone calls, e-mailing and follow ups - not to mention business trips if necessary, and time that I could actually spend making safe money. I think that would cost me a lot more than $400 the first year. I gladly hand over a few hundred-dollar bills for someone else to do it. That's why I wonder if people have any success with Taxi.

I call it a business investment.

I was thinking more like 10X12X$5 = $600 + 300 = 900


I think you may find that there are a lot of taxi listings that you will want to submit the same song to.


Actually, My way of looking at it is, if you (anyone) are going to do it, then do it. For me, that would probably mean at least 30 or so submissions a month (maybe submit the same tune 8 times, who knows).  So, you're up to $2000 PER YEAR..
So, I guess it depends on your wherewithall (or maybe your whereitwent:)


I think the listing sheets are publicly available to view.

Once i get to sell about 150 copies of our album, maybe i can join taxi. Anyone care for a SUPER AWESOME THRASH/DEATH FULL-LENGTH ALBUM for $5 (Excluding shipping, most probably it will be about $11 when it gets to you)?
3 songs up on Myspace!
http://www.myspace.com/demorganph

Sorry for the advertising. I am in anyway not a ad-bot or something, and i am certainly not illiterate. This topic just interested me so much that i wish i had the registration money to join Taxi. I get excited, sorry!

Taxi seems convincing, though they don't really have openings for the tougher types of metal. But this is probably that first A&R site i know. It is quite tiring fishing for some labels, sending snail mail albums to them. It also pisses me that nowadays labels prefer to look at your MySpace site rather than listen to some material passed to them by yourself. 2000 petty views can mask hidden and pre-judged talent!