BBC News Online: Entertainment

Spielberg targets web talent

The organisation has instructed its A&R department to scour the site (www.dreamworksdigital.com) for new talent to sign up to its record label.

Wannabe recording artists are being encouraged to transmit songs and a photograph of themselves on a digital format, which will then be evaluated by the talent scouts.

The idea is to cut out the middlemen - like agents, managers and lawyers - to speed up the creative process.

Dreamworks A&R executive Luke Wood said: "More and more, the music community is coming together on the web and we want to be a part of that."

Streamed

Any songs deemed worthy by the label will be 'streamed' - or transmitted without actually being downloaded.

The public will then be asked for their verdict and comments.

It is very rare for a major record label to accept unsolicited tapes, but Wood said he hoped the site would "democratise" the creative process.

"We're still going to rely on our partners in publishing and legal to get the majority of our material," he admitted.

"What we're saying with this site is that if you have a good song, we want to hear it. And this is a direct way to do that without any of the other hierarchical barriers."

Dreamworks was set up by Spielberg and fellow moguls Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen and is most commonly known as a film studio, responsible for movies like Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan and Chicken Run.