By Edward Morris

® 2008 CMA Close Up News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.

As major record labels evolve plans for sailing toward their goals on uncertain seas, and as independents seek to compete with music industry giants, a new breed of entrepreneurs is finding ways to identify talented artists and help find their paths toward success.

Some of these visionaries are dedicated to providing the A&R services that are indispensable yet not always easy to accommodate in ever-tightening budgets. These services include helping a new artist develop a distinctive voice and image, find the right songs to record, do preproduction work or even produce finished albums, assemble support teams and help negotiate recording and publishing contracts and allied legal agreements.

But why stop there? They may also represent labels, managers, publishing companies or any combination of the three. It is, in other words, a wide-open field in which the job description expands to fit the client's needs.

Signs of this emerging trend surfaced last May, as Artist & Repertoire, LLC opened its doors in Nashville, with Music Row veterans Jeff Teague, President, and Tom Long, VP, at the helm. Teague, who spent five years as GM and VP of A&R for Word Records Nashville before becoming Creative Director/Producer at Nashville's Seventeen Grand Studios, described Artist & Repertoire as ready to handle the "overflow" of A&R functions brought on by major label consolidation and indie label startup.

"When the labels come together, there are, in some cases, five, six or seven divisions that at one point had their own A&R departments," he said. "So they combine all those under one banner to save money. Even if half the acts that were on those individual labels are let go, those labels still end up with a huge roster."

And each act in that roster, Teague pointed out, has A&R needs that might best be handled by a firm like Artist & Repertoire. "Majors don't have to provide us a desk, salary, computer or health insurance policy. They buy those needs as they arise on an à la carte basis."

Indie labels have special requirements of their own that include scouting for new acts, finding appropriate songs for them and working to develop an artist's "core image" - all of which can be addressed by a freelance A&R provider. Currently, for example, Artist & Repertoire has a consulting relationship with NuSpring Records, a new label with several acts in development. Headed by Paul Wright, whose history includes work with Zomba and Sony BMG Distribution System, NuSpring will shortly be announcing a high profile artist signing, brought to them via Artist & Repertoire.

"People have been calling us, [including] artists that have lost their [record] deals or people who are looking to attract deals and want direction," said Long, who partnered with Teague after serving for 10 years as Director for Membership at ASCAP Nashville, running Balmur Music for Anne Murray and then providing catalog management for Sony/ATV Music Publishing from 2001 to '06. "We consult with them on the creative and business side, provide preproduction or actually produce complete albums for them."

The company's other services include networking with managers, publicists, media trainers, photographers and other essential players in an artist's career strategy. They also run in-house music publishing companies, Rich 'N Rare Music (ASCAP) and Rare 'N Real Music (BMI). Their cornerstone writer, Daryl Burgess, has already scored a Van Zant cut with "The Hardest Thing," co-written with Thom McHugh from Clint Black's Blacktop Music.

The lesson to draw from their performance over this past year is, according to Teague, that "the industry doesn't need another song, it needs another hit song. It doesn't need another singer, it needs another artist."

That conclusion hasn't escaped the attention of TAXI, though this Los Angeles-based A&R behemoth approaches its mission from a different angle. Rather than hiring out directly to record, management and publishing companies, TAXI works exclusively with songwriters and artists, charging them an annual fee to act as their representatives. TAXI's Web site documents successes they've facilitated with their clients, two of which should resonate with Country Music audiences.

Elliott Park, for one, benefited from TAXI's help in securing his publishing deal with Nashville's Extreme Writers Group, where he co-wrote "I Loved Her First," a No. 1 hit for Heartland.

"I was a publisher at Windswept prior to coming here," said Cliff Audretch, referring to his current position as Senior Director of A&R for Universal Records South. "I actually tried to sign Elliott but then TAXI took him to Extreme. Now, once or twice a year, I will get a compilation from TAXI with what they feel are the best 12 songs they've screened for our market over the last six months. And I'll listen to it, absolutely."

Then there was the team of Jim Funk and Erick Hickenlooper, who had never made a serious attempt to get their songs recorded before spotting a TAXI ad in a magazine.

"We went to a TAXI songwriting convention," Hickenlooper explained, "and all the songs that were being played there were getting pretty heavily critiqued by the audience. When our song came on, I braced myself, thinking we were going to get hammered. But to our surprise, when the song grew to an end, the congregation of songwriters erupted in applause and then in a standing ovation."

With that, the chain of connections began, leading from TAXI to an independent publisher to Kenny Rogers, for whom that song, "Buy Me a Rose" became his first No. 1 Country single in 13 years.

"Record labels, publishers, ad agencies and music supervisors working in film and TV call TAXI and tell us what they need," explained the company's Founder and President/CEO Michael Laskow. "We blast that info out to our members. But we keep the company name and contact info private. Our members - 12,000 songwriters, bands, artists and composers in nearly 100 countries - respond when they see something that's a good fit for the music they've got. Our A&R team screens each and every submission for each listing, and we forward the material that's right on target stylistically and of high quality. If the label or publisher is interested, they contact the writer/artist directly and play 'Let's Make a Deal.'"

Laskow estimated that TAXI's Web site www.taxi.com generates about half of their business, with the other half coming from magazine ads, seminars and "various other forms of marketing, both online and by direct mail."

Each member pays annual dues of $299.95 and is admitted free with a guest to the company's annual Road Rally, a three-day networking and educational seminar.

TAXI opened for business 15 years ago, enough history to qualify it as being definitely ahead of its time. Even so, for some potential clients, independent A&R hasn't quite made its case.

"If you've got enough product and enough things to do, it's wonderful," said George Collier, President, Aspirion Records Group. "But we put out probably 20 CDs a year, and a lot of our stuff comes in finished and we license it from people. As for actual A&R duties, last year I believe we did maybe six real recordings."

Still, with the flow of would-be artists showing no end, and with the economics of the industry stepping up the appeal of outsourcing for both major and startup labels, the model pioneered by TAXI and Artist & Repertoire is well worth watching.