Hey Donna
I completely agree with your comments regarding TAXI - I see it being useful a little further down the road for me, when I have 10 or so songs that I think have a chance of getting picked up - at the moment I think I may have 1 or 2, but I am working on that!
I did learn a lot from my work with a publisher
Rule #1 is to only pitch your songs to very specific leads
The days of sending in a demo to a publisher / record company and hoping they will find the most suitable artists are also long gone
You really need to pitch (or even write) a specific song for a specific lead
The leads will often include "references" - especially for newer artists eg. "We have a new young male singer looking for tracks like Justin Beiber had a baby with Kylie and Lady Ga Ga" (i really did get a lead like this although I can't remember the artists - I will dig it out if I can find it)
The more specific the greater the chances of success - and the costs are then more "efficient" as you are not pitching the wrong song for the wrong artist
The sooner you lose the mindset of "I have a great song that anybody can record" and "I only write highbrow, complicated songs" (the cork sniffers
) the more chance of success you will have pitching your songs ( it is obviously different if you are pitching yourself as an artist/songwriter package or pitching to "highbrow" artists - although don't forget they probably write their own songs anyway!!!)
Which is another good point - you could be wasting your time pitching to artists (and especially bands) that write their own songs! - a good trawl of CD sleeves or Google could be time well spent
Back on topic - the other big advantage of the "paid pitches", and TAXI, is that you get a "lead sheet" or "tip sheet"
This tells you exactly which artists are looking for songs and when
Eg -In my fantasy world I would love to pitch my track "Edge Of Never" to Robbie - but he has just released an album so wont be looking for songs for the next one yet
Timing is therfore also key to increasing your chances - and a lead sheet will help you with this as well
@ Donna
The Guild does now accept songs for review electronically via email with an attached lyric sheet and mp3 of the song
The feedback is nowhere near as comprehensive as TAXI - however it is a useful "checksheet" for a reality check and the song is listened to by a publisher / record company so you never know...
The only issue I have found with GISC is that it does appear a little archaic - the website looks like something from the 90s and the newsletter is not very "professional" looking
I did write to them pointing out that their content was fantastic but everything should be more "sexy" to attract more members - a couple of hundred quid on a more sexy website would definitely increase the membership IMHO
However, don't be put off as the info is awesome