Episodios

  • Lyric _Speed Writing_ with Robin Frederick![062325]
    Jun 24 2025
    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!
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    1 h y 27 m
  • True Swans & Their 4 Keys to SUCCESS with TAXI![061625]
    Jun 17 2025
    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.
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    1 h y 43 m
  • Crowdfunding Your Music Without Followers with Kevin McNoldy![060925]
    Jun 10 2025
    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/
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    1 h y 39 m
  • Title Your Music So It Gets Discovered and Licensed like a PRO![060225]
    Jun 3 2025
    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.
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    1 h y 36 m
  • An Achievable Path to Success with Your Music![051925]
    May 20 2025
    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!!!
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    1 h y 5 m
  • How Spotify Diverted $47 Million of Indie Artists’ Royalties![051225]
    May 13 2025
    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.
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    1 h y 37 m
  • Mastering_ The Art and Science Demystified[050525]
    May 6 2025
    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.
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    1 h y 35 m
  • Making Stems and Alt Mixes with Greg Carrozza![042825]
    Apr 29 2025
    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!
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    1 h y 21 m