TAXI (A&R)

TAXI is an Independent A&R company, based in Calabasas, CA, that was founded in 1992 by music veteran Michael Laskow with the intent of helping songwriters, artists, bands, and composers get their music heard by record labels, music publishers, and supervisors of film/TV projects. [ [http://www.industryvendingmachine.com/interview_15_laskow_2007.html "Industry Vending Machine"] 2007.]

Annual Membership

Taxi has over 10,000 members in all 50 States and in over 90 countries. Members of Taxi are sent and updated list of requests for music and artists from companies within the music, film, and television industries every two weeks. [http://www.taxi.com/about.html]

Members can submit their original recorded music towards requests before the deadline date specified in the original ad, which Taxi refers to as an “Industry Listing [ [http://www.taxi.com/industry.php? "Industry Listings"] ] .” Every piece of music that is submitted towards the industry listings is reviewed by Taxi’s A&R team. The A&R team then makes the decision of whether or not the music is on target for what was requested by the industry, and choose to either send it along to the listing company, or return it to the songwriter.

When a member’s music is forwarded onto the listing company, Taxi does not take any part, monetarily, or in the negotiations of the potential deals.

Music submissions can be sent to Taxi through the mail, or via the TAXI specific music hosting service, Taximusic

A&R Team

Taxi’s A&R team is made up industry professionals who are experts in a specific genre of music. The A&R team is responsible for listening to every song submitted to Taxi, and making the subjective decision as to whether or not the song(s) are exactly what the industry listing is requesting. Many of the submissions are critiqued, and returned to the member with written feedback.

Taxi's A&R team members [ [http://www.taxi.com/only.html "Need Music?] ] are required to have worked as at least one of the following:

* An A&R person who has worked at a major label, or a credible independent label.

* A publisher who worked at a major publishing company, or credible independent publisher.

* A music journalist with strong credentials.

* A TV or film music supervisor with strong credits.

* A Producer who has credits on nationally released and/or charted musical work.

* An artist signed, or formerly signed to a major label or a credible independent label.

* A current or former staff writer for a major publishing company or credible independent publisher.

Industry Listings

Companies within in the music business contact Taxi to request music from independent bands, artists, songwriters, and composers within Taxi's membership base. The requests are turned into classified style ads, and delivered to the members on the 1st and 15th of every month (except for January 1) via either email or postal mail [http://taxi.com/member.html "Rules Of The Road"] .

Industry listings [ [http://www.taxi.com/industry.php? "Industry Listings"] ] include the type of listing company, genre(s) requested, referenced artists, deadline date for music to be received by Taxi in order to screen, and any additional relevant information provided to Taxi. The name of the listing company remains undisclosed to the member unless the material that they submitted is chosen to be sent to the listing company.

The types of companies that run listings with Taxi are [ [http://www.taxi.com/only.html "Need Music?] ] :

* Major record labels.

* Major publishers.

* Small and mid-size publisher with verifiable cuts on nationally released and/or charted products

* Music supervisors with credits/tracks in nationally released films or TV shows.

* Independent record labels that have nationally released and distributed, or charted product.

* Producers who have credits on nationally released and distributed, and/or charted material.

* Nationally distributed production music library companies with song placements in major films, TV shows or commercials.

* Managers with major label affiliations.

Successful Artists at Taxi

Taxi’s membership base includes both amateur, and professional songwriters. In any given year, Taxi reports that 6% of all members gets a deal through their service, but also acknowledge that the number is skewed due to members not reporting deals to Taxi [ [http://www.taxi.com/abouts/successrate.html "Success Rate"] ] . Members have signed Recording Contracts, Publishing Contracts, and numerous Licensing contracts for Film and TV placements. Some of Taxi’s most successful artists include Crossfade, who signed a record deal with the Earshot division of Columbia Records, Erik Hickenlooper and Jim Funk who had a #1 Hit called “Buy Me a Rose,” (recorded by Kenny Rogers) that resulted from a Publishing Contract, and Matt Hirt, who has had placements [ [http://www.taxi.com/transmitter/0310/headlineA0310.html "Matt Hirt"] by Kenny Kerner and Doug Minnick, October 2003] in Film and TV resulting from Taxi connections.

Forums

The Taxi website has a message board with topics including “forwards,” success through Taxi, songwriting, lyrics, music business, and music technology. Of the subforums available, the General Hangout section is the most heavily used, with over 20,000 posts.

As of May 2008, the TAXI forums had over 5,900 members.

Annual Convention

Taxi members receive two passes for Taxi’s annual three day convention, the "Road Rally" [ [http://www.taxi.com/rally/index.html?Rally-drop "Road Rally"] ] . The convention has been held in Los Angeles every November since 1998.

The annual event is sponsored by companies both within the Music Industry, such as Roland, Korg, and Masterwriter, as well as others including such as Apple, Aquafina, and others.

In 2007, the keynote speaker for the Road Rally was famed songwriter Kara DioGuardi, who will be a judge on the eight season of American Idol.

History

TAXI was founded on Jaunuary 15th, 1992 by Michael Laskow in Woodland Hills, California. Michael was an engineer/ producer in the 1970’s and 1980’s working with artists such as Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Cheap Trick [ [http://www.jpfolks.com/Mentors/laskow.html "Just Plain Folks] ] and others.

References

* [http://www.musesmuse.com/int-taxi.html "Interview with Michael Laskow"]
* [http://www.berklee.edu/bt/191/new_media.html "New Media, New Money"] 'Berklee Today' by Mark Small
* [http://www.indie-music.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5380 "Interview with Michael Laskow"] 'Indie-Music.com' by Suzanne Glass, November 4, 2006
* [http://www.prorec.com/Articles/tabid/109/EntryID/104/Default.aspx "Michael Laskow"] 'Prorec.com', by Rip Rowan, September 30, 1999.

External links

* [http://www.TAXI.com TAXI.com] (Home Page)
* [http://www.taximusic.com TAXImusic.com] (Web Hosting)
* [http://taxi.proboards27.com/ Forums] (Message Boards)
* [http://www.taxi.com/rally/rally2007.html Convention] (Road Rally Convention)