Taxi
At Taxi, a team of A+R pros help assess your music, giving feedback on how to better match your music with industry reps’ requests. It’s pricey at three hundred bucks a year and 5-15 dollars per submission, but for the right kind of artist with radio- or ad-friendly music it can quickly pay for itself. But let’s get real: Taxi profits from taking the money from artists who have little to no chance of obtaining placement in the money-making music opportunities Taxi can access. Part of that is because the field is highly competitive and only a minute percentage of the music submitted ever results in money earned — not Taxi’s fault. The ethics of profiting from artist naiveté as to their capabilities as a songwriter, performer or producer are murky because part of Taxi’s service involves coaching musicians to improve those capabilities. An informal study of comments left online by customers of the service shows a net negative opinion, though a minority of users report some success with Taxi, or at least a valuable learning experience. We’re sure Taxi means well, but all things considered, there are less expensive and more reliable ways to improve one’s musical capabilities and opportunities.
