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As you can see from looking at just half the ballroom, Road Rally 2004 had the most attendees ever!
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"The incredible spirit of camaraderie, encouragement and enthusiasm blew me away. Being there, being part of it, and interacting face to face with everybody and everything cannot be explained unless you were there."
— Alan Abrahams,
TAXI Member
Always hard to get smiles from A&R people when you ask them to pose. From left to right: Tony Ferguson, VP of A&R, A&M Records; Marshall Altman, A&R Executive, Columbia Records; Michael Laskow, TAXI, CEO; Larry Willoughby, VP of A&R, Capitol Records, Nashville; Autumn House, Dir. Of A&R, Capitol, Nashville; Steve Smith, VP of A&R, Aware Records; Louis Posen, President, Hopeless Records.
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Columbia Records A&R Executive, Marshall Altman, takes lots of time to answer questions from audience members.
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Capitol Nashville A&R Director Autumn House extends a warm greeting to some happy TAXI members.
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The niche genre A&R panelists, (l to r) Anthony Musiala, VP of A&R, Minty Fresh Records; Meredith Chinn, Dance/Electronic expert and DJ; Michael Laskow, TAXI, CEO; Bud Harner, VP of A&R, Verve Records, and Jon Grimson, President, Americana Entertainment.
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| Hit songwriter, Rick Nowels is surrounded by TAXI members looking for the keys to writing really big hits. Nowels has written songs for Dido, Jewel, Santana & Michelle Branch, Belinda Carlisle, and many more. |
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Verve Records' VP of A&R, Bud Harner, spends some quality time with a member discussing the finer points of Jazz.
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One of the coolest things that happens every year at the Rally, are the impromptu jam sessions all over the hotel.
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Hundreds of hits among them, world-class songwriters Ben Margulies (Mariah Carey), Gary Nicholson (over 350 songs cut), Jack Tempchin (Already Gone, Peaceful Easy Feeling), Rick Nowels (Dido, Jewel, Santana & Michelle Branch, Belinda Carlisle, and many more).
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Publishing royalty takes a family photo after their panel (l-r), Steve Markland, VP, Windswept Pacific, Randy Poe, President, Leiber & Stoller, Cathy Genovese, Director of A&R, TAXI, Bruce Burch, VP, Sho-Bud Music and Robert Case, New Pants Publishing.
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Unless you live in L.A., New York, or Nashville, it's often next to impossible.
TAXI's annual, members-only convention can change all that. But, please don't take our word for it. Read these excerpts from some of the HUNDREDS of letters we got after last year's Road Rally. And after you read them, We'll tell you how you can get a FREE TAXI membership!
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Dear Michael,
Because we came to the Rally, we had significant exposure to, and meaningful conversations with A&M V.P. of A&R, Tony Ferguson; Aware/Columbia V.P. of A&R, Steve Smith; ASCAP V.P.s Ralph Murphy and Randy Grimmet, the President of Leiber & Stoller Music Publishing, Randy Poe, hit songwriters Ben Margulies, Jack Tempchin, Steve Seskin and Rick Nowels; and producers, Rob Chiarelli and Jay King. Each of them now has our music in their hands. Many of them sought us out during the course of the weekend!
I can't say enough about what an incredible experience the Road Rally was. What you do for musicians goes well beyond TAXI as a business. It's more like a public service. You give so much to the music community by fostering this incredible and supportive environment.
THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts,
Sincerely,
Robin, Kelly & Kamille Rudisill
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Dear TAXI,
I can't say enough about how TAXI has furthered my career in music, built up my credit list of films, video games, etc. that have used my music as a result of TAXI. This is the first Rally I've ever attended, and knowing how competitive the music business can be, I was concerned about the reception I would receive from other members. But to my surprise, everyone was open and friendly at the convention, including the panelists and mentors . It's been a week since I returned from the Rally, and (last night) I finally got a good night's sleep because I was so pumped up about music. I've had music business fever and couldn't sleep a wink. After sitting in on the A&R pitch panel, I feel like I've learned how to listen to and write music all over again. It's like I'm listening to the radio for the first time.
BZ Lewis
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Just ONE ticket to the SXSW (South by Southwest) music conference costs as much as $545. Even the six-month, advance purchase tickets are $345 EACH!! And that's for just ONE person.
Obviously, TWO tickets could cost you as much as $1090!!
So, here's what we're thinking...
If you haven't joined TAXI yet, you must have a really good reason. But what reason could you have for missing out on all the opportunities you'll have by coming to the Road Rally?
From a strictly financial perspective, it would cost you and a friend (or spouse) just $300 for BOTH tickets to the Road Rally.
Why?
Because you get TWO FREE tickets with your TAXI membership. If all you use TAXI for is to gain entry to this exclusive event, you've saved $790 over SXSW! Ask anybody who has been to both, and they'll be sure to will tell you the Rally is THE convention to go to. It's the one where you CAN actually go face-to-face with top music business executives.
So, let's think this through a little further.
What if you come to the Rally, meet with some industry folks, get your music heard by a mentor, have the good fortune to get a song played for a gaggle of industry people on a listening panel, and all indications are that you've got something great in your hands – what do you do next?
Here's the FREE Membership Part!
Use your TAXI membership to pitch to over 1,200 opportunities a year! Remember, you didn't just buy two tickets to the Road Rally – you got a FREE membership to TAXI in the deal ;-)
So... could you join TAXI (in your name), split the cost with a friend, bring them to the Rally, use your TAXI membership to pitch your music all year, and still get a refund on the last day of your full-year membership? Crazy as it seems, YES!
We're so incredibly SURE that you'll love TAXI and the Road Rally, that we're willing to put an INSANE offer like that in print! Hell, we've just given you a road map to rip us off!!
Now, there might be a couple of people who see this that might take advantage of this SWEET deal, and rip us off – but we believe that 99.9% of you are honest people.
Can you imagine ANY other music convention cutting their price by as much as 70%, giving you a full-year of all of TAXI's great services as a bonus, AND offering you a money-back guarantee after a whole year?
We think NOT! So what are you waiting for?
Killer Room Rates for a Luxury Hotel in Hollywood!
This year's Road Rally will be held November 3rd, though the 6th in the heart of Hollywood at an awesome hotel – the same place that people stay at for the Academy Awards, as a matter of fact. Will you pay Oscar prices? Nope! We got a killer deal, so your room will be just $129/night with advance registration.
You're going to take a vacation anyway, this year, right? What were you going to do... see some wind-warn rock formations? Ride a roller coaster? Woo-hooo!
Why not spend the same amount of money and get serious with your music? You read our letters every week (if you don't, sign up here). You know TAXI is cool. You keep hearing about it from friends. And yet, you remain stuck in procrastination land. Why do you do that to yourself? Move forward – life is too short to spend it "thinking" about what you're going to do.
Just SOME of the Stuff at This Year's Rally:
- Open Mics all three nights (performers drawn at random – your first gig in Hollywood!)
- One-to-One Mentoring – A&R People, Producers, Hit Songwriters, and Industry Pros of all kinds will sit down and listen to your song and/or your questions.
- Drivers' Ed Classes – Incredible breakout classes with some of the nation's top songwriting, vocal, marketing, and production coaches. You're going to want to go to more than one of these!
- A&R Pitch Panel, Alternate Genres – For all the people who make music in genres that the major labels could care less about. You asked, we delivered. Randomly drawn songs get heard by top A&R Execs from the Jazz, World, Christian and Dance/Electronica genres.
- Producers Panel – Other conventions put a bunch of producers on panels to tell you how they make hits in multi-million dollar studios. We'll have people that will tell you how to do it in your home studio in terms that everyone can understand. No lofty B.S. at this convention.
- Do It Yourself – D.I.Y. experts give you advice you can actually use to dramatically improve your career. This is a must see for Indie artists.
- Major Label A&R Q&A and Pitch Panels – No convention anywhere delivers this many high-quality A&R people on these panels. Our panelists are handpicked for the "accessibility" and position in the industry. Panelists include A&R Execs from A&M, Columbia, Sony Music Nashville, Octone and Sony Urban (more TBA). Where else do you have a chance of getting your song played for 5 or 6 TOP A&R execs?
- Group "Grope" – Group mentor sessions. We hand pick great people from many different areas of the music industry. You've probably never gotten this up close and personal with people who actually WANT to help you!
- Music Library Pitch Panel – Randomly picked songs get played. Lots of member deals/Film & TV placements have happened as a result of this panel!
- Hit Songwriters Panel – We get the world's best songwriters, and put them in a room with you. Find out how they create their monster hits. Learn from the best. Just a few of the past panelists have included Jack Tempchin (hit songwriter for the Eagles), Lamont Dozier & Brian Holland (Motown legends) and Jeffrey Steele (Nashville superstar) plus many, many more.
- Music Publishers, Pitch and Q&A – Randomly picked members' songs are played for the pubs and the audience and your questions are answered. "Buy Me a Rose" was discovered on this panel, and went on to become a #1 HIT!!!
As you can imagine, tickets for the Rally go pretty quickly. Please don't think about THIS until it's too late. When you're ready to be part of the world's best convention for unsigned writers, artists, and composers, then click here to join TAXI.
We look forward to meeting you soon,
Your friends at TAXI |
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