TAXI TV

Get your questions ready for TAXI’s Head Screener, Craig Pilo, because he’s going to join us on this week’s TAXI TV! He’s always a popular guest and has a great deal of knowledge to share about the sync industry in general, as well as insight relating to TAXI’s screeners, the screening process, common mistakes, and great tips for getting more of your music forwarded to the industry people who are searching for it!

It's time to hear some great music from TAXI's members — songs and instrumentals, alike! Our Top 10 episodes are viewer favorites, so please join us today at 4 pm (PDT) for the LIVE show and you'll have a shot at winning a copy of Dean Krippaehne's latest must-have book, Cue Tips! If you want to get your music on TV, this book is indispensable! And you'll have a shot at winning a FREE copy if you're in the chat room for this episode! Join us and you'll hear a range of really cool music that our A&R team has uncovered recently.

Are you frustrated that you haven’t “made it” yet? No forwards from TAXI? No music libraries contacting you after TAXI forwards your music? No placements resulting from the music you’ve signed with music libraries or sync companies? We’re going to dive into some reasons why those things may not have happened for you yet on today’s episode, and what you can do about it. This episode was inspired by dozens—maybe hundreds of comments I’ve seen online over many years that go something like this: “I have a friend who used TAXI and said he didn’t get anything out of it.” After realizing I was only seeing this issue through the lens of TAXI’s members, I decided to make today’s episode about all songwriters, composers, producers, and artists who are frustrated they haven’t made it, whether they’re TAXI members or not! My research kept leading me back to books by Stephen Pressfield and Simon Sinek, and I’m going to share some cherry-picked wisdom from both of them on today’s episode. If you’re frustrated you haven’t “made it,” don’t miss today’s episode of TAXI TV! It just might change everything!

Have you ever wondered what the answers to these questions are? "How many submissions does it take until I start getting forwards from TAXI?" "How many forwards from TAXI does it take until I start to get deals and offers?" "How long after TAXI forwards my music does it take until I hear from the client?" "How long after I sign with the music library will it take for placements to happen?" "How long will it take to get paid after my music appears in a TV show?" You're not alone! Virtually all TAXI members (and all other musicians) have probably wanted answers to these very same questions. I've invited successful (and very experienced) TAXI member, Greg Carrozza, to join me for this episode so we can give you some real-world answers to those questions and many more. Here are a few more questions... "Have you ever wondered if songs or instrumentals get more placements?" "Have you ever wondered if songs or instrumentals generate more income, on the whole?" "Have you ever wondered which genres get the most placements?" "Have you ever wondered which genres generate the most income?" If you've ever wondered about any of the above, don't miss this episode!

“Michael, I’ve learned so much from the A&R Hot Seat episodes on TAXI TV! Can you please do them more often? My music has improved quite a bit because it’s much easier to be objective when deciding what works and what doesn’t about somebody else’s music rather than my own." — Timothy Reardon We’ve been hearing the same thing from other viewers for years! With that in mind, on this week’s TAXI TV, we’ll be making A&R decisions to test your A&R skills and see if TAXI's A&R team is as good as I think they are ;-) I'm going to surprise you with which listings we'll "judge" during this episode, but we'll choose one that was for songs, and the other will be an instrumental listing. Get a good night's sleep and clean your ears to get ready for an A&R Hot Seat episode that you guys love so much!

Long-time TAXI member, Keith LuBrant, has had more than 105,000 sync placements on more than 1,711 TV shows, on more than 283 TV networks, worldwide. He has a family, a full-time job, a mortgage, and all of the typical responsibilities you probably have. So, how has he accomplished what virtually every person reading this would like to do? You’ll have your chance to ask him that and every other question you can think of during today’s episode of TAXI TV. Send Your Questions Early to Get Front-of-the-Line! Email your questions to liz@taxi.com no later than MONDAY at 2pm PDT, and you’ll get bumped to the front of the line before we take questions from the folks in the live chat room!

I’ve got most of the main panels sorted out for this year’s conference, the TAXI Road Rally. But I need your opinion before I start calling to invite and confirm the panelists. Do you like the topics? Do you have other ideas? Is there consensus? As always, I want to get your opinions before I lock things down. Win a FREE Copy of Dean Krippaehne’s latest book, Cue Tips! — 50 songwriting, composing, and music production hacks to speed up your sync journey: https://amzn.to/45cIFKS I’ve read it. I loved it, and I’m going to give away THREE copies as a thank you for your help!

“So, Michael? Exactly what are the complaints you get from music library executives, if they’re not about the music?” I was going to do a TAXI TV episode and enumerate the complaints myself until I spent 47 minutes on the phone this past Sunday with a very wise music library CEO. He was frustrated… actually, you might even say, exasperated. He told me about his “pain points,” and they sounded nearly identical to what we hear from other library owners. That’s why I’ve invited him to tell you about the mistakes that create “pain points” for the companies you’d like to work with. Maybe more people will get the message if they hear it coming directly from a highly seasoned sync executive rather than me. If you think all you have to do is create really awesome music and sync companies will clamor to sign it and get you tons of placements, you don’t want to miss this episode of TAXI TV. Great music is only half of it, and you’re going to hear about the other half on today’s episode of TAXI TV at 4 PM PDT. If you want to have more libraries sign and sync your music, don’t miss today’s episode! There’s some mission-critical stuff you need to learn, and we’re going to hand it to you on a silver platter… and for FREE! All you need to do is block out the time to watch this TAXI TV.

I’m excited to have Rob Chiarelli join us for this week’s episode! He’s a huge fan-favorite on TAXI TV, and at our FREE (for TAXI members) annual conference, TAXI’s Road Rally (November 6th-9th, this year). Rob’s down-to-earth advice covers a wide range of topics, including production, engineering, mixing, music licensing, and general career advice, which is always relatable because he comes from your world. He’s a multi-instrumentalist and spent years playing live before he began working in many of the world’s top recording studios. Here’s his bio… Rob Chiarelli is an American record producer, mix engineer, musician, published author, and 6x Grammy Award winner. Widely recognized as a music producer for Will Smith and Men in Black II, Chiarelli's work appears on numerous Gold and Platinum albums and motion picture soundtracks, including 16 GRAMMY winners. Rob is also the founder of Final Mix Software, and he’s going to give away some free plugins to five lucky viewers during this week’s show! Hopefully, this new release! Please get your questions ready before the show because we’re going to take them in the order in which they appear in the live chat room. You’ll also need to be in the live chat to win the plugin!

I was doing some research yesterday, and I stumbled on something that’s been staring me in the face for decades. It’s a “formula” that TAXI’s most successful members use. Especially, the members who want to earn income with sync placements. Conversely, when I researched TAXI’s least successful members, I discovered that virtually none of them used the same formula. Why wouldn’t they, when it obviously works?! Frustrated? Are you frustrated that you’re not getting forwards, deals, and sync placements? Are you getting some, but you’d like to get more? In both cases, I found hard evidence that there are three things you can do that will stop you from killing your own sync career. I’m going to disclose that evidence on today’s episode of TAXI TV. Bonus Career-Saver! I also uncovered another mistake that even our successful members make, and it’s sort of a time bomb that doesn’t blow up in your face until way after the damage is done. Hopefully, I can save some careers by disclosing that mistake on today’s show.

It's been a while since we've done an "Ask Michael Anything" on TAXI TV, so that's exactly what we're going to do on today's show! Ask me anything about TAXI, engineering & production (from the mics and wires aspect), or the music licensing business, and I'll do my best to give straightforward and helpful answers. Want to know what production music libraries are looking for? I can tell you! Want to know why Hollywood studios won't use you to score their blockbuster films? I know the answer! Want to know why your mixes don't sound like hit records? I'll let you in on a little secret ;-) Want to know where the "sweet spot" is to place a mic on an acoustic guitar? You're going to find out! Want to know how to mic an electric guitar amp for the best sound? I'll fill you in! Want to know a sure-fire way to avoid popping "P's" when recording vocals? I'm going to show you. Want to know how to make publishers reach out to you time and time again? It's common sense, but many people don't do it! Want to know how to approach an industry pro at TAXI's convention? If you promise not to let them know who told you, I'll tell you the secret ;-) Want to know how to avoid headphone leakage when recording vocals? The answer is SO simple, yet almost always overlooked!

For many songwriters, birthing a great lyric can be agonizingly slow and painful. Yep, sort of like childbirth! Well, any mom would tell you that it’s not even close, but you get my point; It can be daunting, slow, and yes, even painful to write a great lyric. But it doesn’t have to be! If you’ve ever had writer’s block or find that it takes so long to craft a great lyric, you miss opportunities for TV and film placements because the window of opportunity is often short. Robin Frederick—author of the best-selling books, Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting and Shortcuts to Songwriting for Film & TV—packs the ballroom year after year at TAXI’s annual conference, the Road Rally. When you see and hear the interview I did with her for this week’s episode of TAXI TV, you’ll understand exactly why that is!

True Swans are a duo who are becoming quite successful using TAXI to launch their career. Michelle Lindley and Todd Dunnigan live more than 600 miles from each other, yet their collaboration has been nothing short of remarkable! If you’d like to know how and why long-distance collaborations can work and what the 4 keys to success Todd and Michelle have uncovered, then don’t miss this fascinating interview.

I thought you needed tens of thousands (or more) followers to pull off a successful crowdfunding campaign to raise money for your music. I was wrong, you don’t! Frankly, I knew very little about crowdfunding to raise money for music (or any other type of project). When Kevin McNoldy was doing his excellent TAXI TV episode about music mastering a few weeks ago, he mentioned that he knew quite a bit about it. He wasn’t kidding!!! And the most surprising thing I learned while taping this episode is that you don’t need to have a huge fanbase, following, or email list to raise money! Of course, you’ll raise more money if you have a huge fanbase, but Kevin is going to tell you how to raise a significant amount with very few, or practically no, fans. My crowdfunding examples, Kristine Moon and Kira Takei: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kristinemoon/kristine-moon-new-age-singer-songwriters-debut-album https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kiratakeikickstarter/help-singer-songwriter-kira-takei-launch-her-debut-album Check Out Kevin McNoldy: https://cphonicmastering.com/ https://kevinmcnoldy.com/

If you think that making great music is the key to making more money in sync licensing, you’re half wrong! If you don’t have great (and appropriate) titles for your music, nobody will know how great it is because they won’t find it, hear it, or license it. Shocked? Don’t be! There’s not a single music supervisor or TV editor side who wouldn’t back me up on that. I couldn’t find great information about creating titles that get your music found, heard, and generate income, anywhere! I solved that problem by spending an entire Sunday researching, writing, and producing an episode of TAXI TV that might be the most valuable information you’ll ever see or hear on this overlooked subject.

TAXI member, Jim Thacker, is experiencing what many—if not most—other musicians hope to accomplish. His music is being heard all over the world, and he’s landing some really nice sync placements on an ever-increasing basis. Some of them are in brand-name TV commercials! But things weren’t always going the way Jim wanted them to! Is the same true for you? Are you frustrated, disappointed, or just plain fed up with your music career? Are you doubting that it will ever happen? Hearing why Jim’s initial approach didn’t work will probably resonate with you. Hearing what he did to turn things around will not only inspire you, but it will also show you a very clear path to success. All you need to do is commit to following it! Enjoy, and thank you to Jim for letting me ambush you into doing this interview!!!

A year ago, Spotify decided they weren’t going to pay royalties on tracks that streamed less than 1,000 times. Instead, those royalties would go to other artists proportionately to their streaming totals. Our friend Tony van Veen, CEO of Disc Makers, recently calculated that in 2024 alone, this resulted in $47 million in independent artist royalties being diverted to (mostly) the majors! He went public with this data, Spotify actually responded, and Tony put them in their place. I’m excited that Tony will be our guest on Monday’s TAXI TV. We’ve been close friends for at least 25 years, and he’s one of the smartest business people I know. He’s also a true champion of indie musicians! Tony and I will be discussing his findings – and whether there’s anything artists can do about it.

Very few music creators really understand what audio mastering is, what it does, and when you need it… or not! There are plenty of people who think that mastering is some sort of “magical fairy dust” that, when sprinkled on a song or track, makes it much, much better. As if mastering can make a mediocre song become a hit. It can’t, and it won’t. It can only make it a better-sounding mediocre song! Join me for this week’s episode of TAXI TV, and by the end of the show, you’ll understand why mastering was invented, the physics behind how it works, what it does sonically to your music, and when you should use it, or not.

More and more music libraries and music supervisors are asking for stems and alt mixes because it makes your music much more “usable.” If you’re somewhat new to the music licensing world, you might need a little help in understanding how to deliver what the industry pros need, so we’re going to show you on this week’s episode! TAXI Member, Greg Carrozza, is going to join us this week, and if the tech gods are with us, we’ll be showing you what stems and alts are, how to make them, and why they can dramatically improve your chances of landing more placements. With any (tech) luck, we’ll be watching Greg’s computer screen in real-time as he walks us through the process, explaining what he’s doing and why he’s doing it! If you found our recent episode about edit points, button/stinger endings, and developmental arcs useful, we think you’ll learn a lot from Greg in this episode! We plan to do the show and tell, and follow it up with lots of Q&A, so don’t miss this week’s show!

Our viewers love it when we do the “A&R Hot Seat” episodes, and here’s why… “Michael, I’ve learned so much from the A&R Hot Seat episodes on TAXI TV! Can you please do them more often? My music has improved quite a bit because it’s much easier to be objective when deciding what works and what doesn’t about somebody else’s music rather than my own." —Timothy Reardon We’ve been hearing the same thing from other viewers for years! With that in mind, on this week’s TAXI TV, we’ll be making A&R decisions to test your A&R skills and see if TAXI's A&R team is as good as I think they are ;-) Here's what we'll be judging together. TAXI # S250412AG - AUTHENTIC-SOUNDING REGGAE/CARIBBEAN INSTRUMENTALS TAXI # S250320WY - TOP 40-Style COUNTRY SONGS