#033: The Evolution of A&R
“Independent labels take nothing and make something out of it. Major labels buy that something, and try to make more out of it" — Tom Silverman
A&R is one of the biggest buzz terms and most misunderstood roles in the music industry today. The days of Ahmet Ertegun (founder of Atlantic Records) and Jerry Wexler (a founding partner at Atlantic Records) driving around from bar-to-bar in the South scouting Blues talent is an image that has had a lasting impact. Even in the 1980s, the A&R circuit was alive on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, with late night concerts and parties that discovered the likes of Mötley Crüe, Guns N' Roses and Poison. Or in the 1990s when the New York City to Seattle flights were full of record label representatives finding their label’s version of Nirvana or Pearl Jam. The late-night partying and late into work A&R is a romanticized version of the realities today, where many times the job is more in-line with a data analyst or financial projections expert.
A&R means ‘Artist & Repertoire’. Their role at a record label is to scout new talent and then handle the label responsibilities for the ‘Artist’ and their music aka ‘Records’ or ‘Repertoire’ after the artist signs. Before the internet and digital age, the only way that an A&R could hear a new artist is live at club or on any vinyl/CD’s that they could get their hands on. But now we are fully in the music streaming era and the emergence of data analysis software has been the rage. Chartmetric, Soundcharts, Instrumental, Next Big Sound and the Spotify Viral Charts are just scratching the surface on ways that an A&R can review analytics to find new talent. By using these tools an A&R is able to see detailed breakdowns, segmented in any time period that they want, for Spotify monthly listeners, follower growth, engagement rates, playlist additions, social media impact, stream to follower ratios and literally hundreds of other metrics.
For many within music, this all is already understood. But the “Why?” an A&R would lean so heavily on these tools might not be. The pressure on a new A&R at a label is immense. If they don’t find a project that has a certain level of success within the first 1-2 years after joining a label, they very likely will be out of a job at their annual review. Each of these pieces of data helps get the A&R get closer to an artist that will be more safe and likely to at least return their deal value. Data tools allow an A&R to hedge their bet and have a more accurate view of the current value and future projections for a recording artist. But many times within that process, the magic of the role of an A&R is removed. This leads to massive opportunities that are missed or the signing of a buzz-worthy song instead of a well-rounded artist. Typically one song, whether it’s a TikTok viral hit or pushed through Spotify’s algorithm, gets flagged by the analytic tracking software. But all too often, the ceiling of that viral artist is very low since their talent and experience is limited versus signing an artist without the viral moment yet, but who’s potential is at a superstar level. Superstar artists pay the bills and generate the real revenue for any major record label, however these days it’s too common for those artists to be passed over for ‘safer’ bets.
The best approach to A&R, as with most things in life, is to find the middle way. This means using the data analysis tools that exist, because not doing so is simply stupid. The analytic deniers, which there are many (especially some of the industry vets), are missing out on powerful ways to see where an artist is in their growth curve and it allows for more informed decisions when negotiating a deal. But only going off of the data is an even larger mistake that takes the magic out of music and removes too much of the gut instinct that should differentiate a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ A&R. There are times that an A&R knows that a recording artist is a star. This can come from seeing the artist perform live, having a conversation with them, viewing their social media branding, or more likely a combination of all-of-the-above. Even with the advancement of technology and analytic tools, it is still that gut instinct that will continue to drive the best A&Rs in the music industry into the future.
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JAY’S SONGS OF THE WEEK:
AJR - “Way Less Sad”
Sarah Proctor - “The Breaks
Paris Texas - “HEAVY METAL”
24kGoldn - “3, 2, 1”
C.J. Green - “Your Love”
