Charice Music Industry 101: A&R – Where It All Begins..reposting

First of all, thank you for all your comments on last week’s article, ‘How Record Labels Operate‘. Yes, it’s true. We can only give you a general crash course on record labels and their ways. The industry itself is infamous for its complexity, so to delve into its depths through more comprehensive articles would probably leave us all hairless!




Record Labels Revealed: A&R – Where It All Begins

This week, we focus on what is the most important record label department of them all, A&R. It would be difficult to exaggerate the significance that A&R has in the industry, since it is with them that the whole industrial process – from artist discovery right through to music legend – begins. Madonna might have remained in obscurity if she hadn’t been signed by Michael Rosenblatt, the Sire Records A&R man who also signed Depeche Mode; Mariah Carey might have continued as a backing singer if it hadn’t been for Tommy Mottola, who also signed Jessica Simpson to Columbia Records.

Madonna’s First Single

In 1978, Madonna relocated to New York to pursue her dreams. She said of her move to New York, “It was the first time I’d ever taken a plane, the first time I’d ever gotten a taxi cab. I came here with $35 in my pocket. It was the bravest thing I’d ever done.”

In October, 1982, music executive Michael Rosenblatt of Sire Records signs Madonna to a one-off deal to record Everybody as a dance single.

A&R is the shortened version of the far more cultured sounding ‘Artists and Repertoire’, but when it comes to the realities of the business, it’s basically the department that signs and nurtures new signings. It’s referred to as ‘The Gatekeeper’ as it is only through A&R that musicians can make it into the music industry. As you can imagine then, A&R personnel attract most of the executive spotlight. They are highly sought after by ambitious hopefuls, loved by those who are accepted and hated by those who are rejected. Make no mistake about it, the pressure on A&R personnel is massive, and the popular notion that their lives are a haze of wild parties and crazy rock concerts is actually very different from the truth.



An A&R executive is employed to find new talent, so a record label expects a fresh supply of new marketable acts from them. The search entails a lot of time listening to demo recordings submitted either by colleagues, friends, associates or directly from bands and artists, as well as traveling to gigs in all kinds of small towns and out-of-the-way places. Once upon a time, an A&R executive would have been regularly swamped by hundreds of unsolicited demo tapes each week. These days, unsolicited submissions are no longer accepted (for legal reasons mainly) but executives still deal with hundreds of demos. In the modern era, they also keep a close eye on the internet – the reason why, Charice, for one, can tell you all about.



When a signing is made, the A&R department sets about getting all of the other departments working together on a plan to develop the artist’s career. The entire weight of the label’s resources row in behind the new ’star’ to promote, develop and publicize them, in the hope of creating a new marketing phenomenon. The idea is to get their story in every magazine, their face on every TV channel and their music on every radio station.



It all seems great, but the problem is that, once an executive has signed a new band or artist, he is responsible for that artist’s career direction, and their fates are often tied together. While talent is an integral part of success, it is not a guarantee. As one of the industry’s biggest A&R men, Columbia Record’s Tim Devine, once pointed out: “When the history of the music business is written, there are always big chapters on Dylan, Hendrix, Springsteen, Bowie, Sly Stone, Kurt Cobain, etc. An A&R person would give their eye teeth to discover just one of them. However, ‘new and different’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘good and marketable’.”



So, if the signing fails to make the impact that was expected, then the executive’s career can fall as flat as the band or artist he signed.



It means that A&R is where the action is. The drama, the glamor, the success, the failures: everything that is human about the music industry is handled by the A&R department, while the mechanics and finances are handled elsewhere.



Next week, we’ll continue this series with a look at the business end of the music industry spectrum. If you want to know how a record label actually makes money from their stable of stars, or how a band or artist gets their first record out, then check it out right here.


By Robert Sheen, Charicemania.com