The Biz : A&R;, On-Line

We were exploring the musical corners of America Online, nosing around in the Composers Coffeehouse and the Music Forums, checking out Rocklink and, hey, what’s this? “Major record label looking for the next Sheryl Crow.

We had stumbled aboard Taxi, an on-line A&R; outfit that screens aspiring bands, artists and songwriters for record labels and publishing houses. Musicians can use their Macs or PCs to peruse lists of specific record company needs--”A &R; weasel looking for great bands a la Cranberries. No ‘Hair,”’ for example, and someone “looking for ‘Spoken Word Poetry over music.’ Think of Henry Rollins...or Maynard G. Krebbs if you’re old enough...”

If a band finds a match, it can send a tape to Taxi, where former A&R; execs will screen it and, maybe, pass it on to the company that placed the listing. For a fee, naturally: Taxi subscribers pay $300 a year.

Taxi was founded in 1992 by Michael Laskow, a 20-year producer and engineer who’s worked with Eric Clapton, Neil Young and Cheap Trick and “tons of frustrated unsigned acts.” Laskow hired a dozen or so former record company executives, approached major execs about running the on-line listings and struck a deal with America Online. Any AOL subcriber can read the listings, but only fee-paying Taxi members can submit their work. (Non-wired musicians can use Taxi, too; the company will send the listings via “snail mail.”)

Of the current 2,000 members, 92 have snagged deals, Laskow says, from writing music for sitcoms, TV movies and boxing promos to staff jobs on record companies to full record deals. But Laskow concedes that only about 40% of the submissions ever make it to desks at Epic, Island, MCA or the other 100 companies that use Taxi. Still, he says, “where else can someone in Two Rivers, Kansas, get a critique from a former A&R; at Virgin Records?”

Musical middlemen have been around for decades, says John Carter, VP of A&R; for Island Records. “But Taxi is different. It’s a much more legitimate attempt than any I’ve encountered. I have the sense that everything they’re passing on to the industry is based on sincerity and integrity, where anyone else doing this job, it’s based on a bounty,” he says.

“There’s a common saying in music,” Laskow says. “‘Never pay anyone to listen to your music.’ But we’re taking groups that deserve to be heard to labels that want to hear them. I’m a matchmaker,” he says, “a nice Jewish matchmaker.”