TAXI TV

Hollywood Score Composer and Film Producer Brian Ralston is one of the most well-informed and articulate people I’ve met during my 50 years in the music business. He’s so clear-headed about so many aspects of the music and film industries that I did a solo interview with him at this year’s Road Rally—our annual conference. Brian didn’t disappoint! The people in the ballroom felt like they had lear...

During my 33 years as the CEO of TAXI, the Holy Grail I’ve been relentlessly searching for has been that “thing” that makes some composers, producers, songwriters, and artists successful, while others never achieve their goals. What is the “secret sauce?” Why some and not others? I recently ran into long-time TAXI member, Chuck Schlacter, in the hotel lobby during our annual conference—the TAXI Ro...

My two favorite things I hear from members at our annual conference are: 1) “I went to school at Berklee, but I’ve learned more in a single weekend at the Road Rally than I learned in four years of college,” and 2) “I was certain that I was going to be let down after all your hype about the Rally, but it’s actually way better than you said it would be.” I hear those same things every single year....

I got really excited when I recently listened to a TAXI compilation with emotionally upbeat songs for advertising on it. Why? I heard a great example of a particular style of music that gets used all the time in TV commercials. I liked it so much that I planned on playing that particular song in the grand ballroom at our annual conference, the Road Rally, later this week. After listening to more s...

Monday’s episode of TAXI TV should be amazing! Robin Frederick is going to join us, and she’s going to tell us what her Top 10 Songwriting Hacks are. Robin’s book, Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting, is a best-seller, and we’ve never heard anything but raves, so even I’m excited to hear what her “hacks” are. If you’re new to our email list or TAXI TV, you really don’t miss this episode. You’ll find out...

We always love having Ronan on TAXI TV, so we’re excited to have him join us on today’s show (4 pm Pacific time) to teach us some tricks of the trade about production and mixing variables that can make your tracks more “synch-able.” We’ll discuss how to approach reverbs, panning, EQ, arrangement, mastering, etc., to make sure your track fits the style/genre, era, and overall sound the music superv...

If you’ve ever been frustrated that your sync career is taking off as quickly as you’d like, you really don’t want to miss today’s live episode of TAXI TV (4 pm Pacific time) on YouTube! I’ll be joined by one of TAXI’s most successful members, Matt Vander Boegh, and I’ve asked him to distill all the things he’s done to become so successful down to the 5 most important. Matt’s music can be heard ev...

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...

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'...

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...

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 lo...

“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,...

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 qu...

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,...

“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 near...

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...

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 obvio...

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 t...

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 f...

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 i...

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...

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 a...

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 p...

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 p...

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!...