Artists and repertoire (
colloquially abbreviated to A&R) is the division of a
record label or music publishing company that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of
recording artists (singers, instrumentalists, bands, and so on) and
songwriters.
It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label or publishing company; every activity involving artists to the point of album release is generally considered under the purview, and responsibility, of A&R.
Responsibilities
Finding talent
The A&R division of a record label is responsible for finding new
recording artists and bringing those artists to the record company. A&R staff may go to hear emerging bands play at nightclubs and festivals to scout for talent. Personnel in the A&R division are expected to understand the current tastes of the market and to be able to find artists that will be commercially successful. For this reason, A&R people are often young and many are musicians,
music journalists
Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...
or
record producers
A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
.
An A&R executive is authorized to offer a
record contract, often in the form of a "deal memo": a short informal document that establishes a business relationship between the recording artist and the record company. The actual contract negotiations will typically be carried out by rival
entertainment lawyer
Entertainment law, also referred to as media law, is legal services provided to the entertainment industry. These services in entertainment law overlap with intellectual property law. Intellectual property has many moving parts that include tradema ...
s hired by the musician's
manager and the record company.
A&R executives rely mostly on the
word of mouth of trusted associates, critics and business contacts, rather than on unsolicited
demo tapes. They also tend to favor the bands that play in the same city as the record label's offices.
Overseeing the recording process
The A&R division of a record label oversees the music style and
recording
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, r ...
process. This includes helping the artist to find the right record producer, scheduling time in a recording studio and advising the artist on all aspects of making a high-quality recording. They work with the artist to choose the best songs (i.e.,
repertoire) to record. For artists who do not write their own music, the A&R person will assist in finding songs, songwriters, and arrangers. A&R staff will help find
session musicians for the recording. A&R executives maintain contact with their counterparts at
music publishing companies to get new songs and material from songwriters and producers.
As the record nears completion, the A&R department works closely with the artist to determine whether the record is acceptable to the record company. This process may include suggesting that new songs need to be written, that existing songs need a new arrangement, or that some album tracks need to be re-recorded. A key issue is whether the album has a single: a particular track which can be used to
market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
*Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
*Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, an ...
the record.
Assisting with marketing and promotion
Once the record is completed, the A&R department consults with marketing,
promotion
Promotion may refer to:
Marketing
* Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...
, the
artist and their management to choose one or more singles to help promote the record.
History and influence
The tastes of particular A&R executives have influenced the course of music history. A&R man
John H. Hammond discovered
Billie Holiday,
Bob Dylan,
Aretha Franklin and
Bruce Springsteen. Hammond's colleagues were initially skeptical of these artists because none of them appeared to be creating "commercial" music. Hammond's instincts proved to be correct, and these artists went on to sell hundreds of millions of records.
Gary Gersh signed the band
Nirvana to
David Geffen's
DGC Records
DGC Records (an initialism for the David Geffen Company) was an American record label that operated as a division of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, which is owned by the Universal Music Group.
History
DGC Records was launched in 1990 as a subsi ...
at a time when
alternative rock music was not considered commercial. Gersh was able to convince his co-workers to push the record in spite of their misgivings. In cases like these, A&R people have radically changed the direction of popular musical tastes and introduced large numbers of people to new sounds.
This kind of prescience is, however, the exception rather than the rule. Historically, A&R executives have tended to sign new artists that fit into recent trends and who resemble acts that are currently successful. For example, Columbia Records' A&R man in the 1950s,
Mitch Miller
Mitchell William Miller (July 4, 1911 – July 31, 2010) was an American choral conductor, record producer, record-industry executive, and professional oboist. He was involved in almost all aspects of the industry, particularly as a conductor ...
, favored traditional pop singers like
Guy Mitchell
Guy Mitchell (born Albert George Cernik; February 22, 1927 – July 1, 1999) was an American pop singer and actor, successful in his homeland, the UK, and Australia. He sold 44 million records, including six million-selling singles.
In the fa ...
and
Patti Page, and rejected early rock-'n'-rollers
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
and
Buddy Holly.
This "trend following" mindset has generated several waves of narrowly defined genres, leading to a perception of triteness, including
teen pop
Teen pop is a subgenre of pop music that is created, marketed and oriented towards preteens and teenagers.Lamb, Bill"Teen Pop" About.com. Retrieved January 28, 2007. Teen pop incorporates different subgenres of pop music, as well as elements o ...
(1998–2001),
alternative rock (1993–1996),
glam metal
Glam metal (also known as hair metal or pop metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal that features pop-influenced hooks and guitar riffs, upbeat rock anthems, and slow power ballads. It borrows heavily from the fashion and image of 1970s glam ...
(1986–1991) and
disco (1976–1978). Trend following can be counter-productive, since it has often led to over-promotion followed by backlash (as
happened to the disco genre for example). Towards the end of the life of each wave or trend, record companies have found themselves faced with enormous losses, as consumers' tastes changed. For example, at the end of the disco boom in 1978, millions of records were returned by record retailers, causing a deep recession in the music business that lasted until 1982, when
Michael Jackson's ''
Thriller'' finally brought the public back into record stores in large numbers.
The general move towards more conservative and business-minded signings from the 1980s onwards is seen to be symptomatic of an industry where the most powerful figures are no longer music fans or people with musical backgrounds but business executives, a group largely composed of individuals with uniform backgrounds. Traditionally A&R executives were composers, arrangers and producers –
Atlantic Records's heads
Jerry Wexler and
Ahmet Ertegun were producers and composers respectively – but an A&R with musical ability and knowledge has become a rarity, with
Ron Fair
Ronald Fair is an American A&R executive, record producer, record executive, musical arranger, recording engineer and conductor. In a career that has spanned over 30 years at major record labels he has produced and arranged hits for several ar ...
and
Martin Kierszenbaum being notable recent exceptions.
The composer and arranger
Richard Niles has said,
What you've got now is huge multinational companies where most of their A&R staff are businessmen. They’re people who look at music from the standpoint of marketing, not from the standpoint of music and talent. They will say, "Go out and get me anything that's popular now."
Hip hop group
Wu-Tang Clan referenced this stereotype of the business-minded A&R executive in their single "
Protect Ya Neck", metaphorically likening them to "mountain climbers".
Regional variations
According to
Rhythm King Records
Rhythm King Records Ltd was a British independent record label, founded in the mid-1980s by Martin Heath, Adele Nozedar, DJ Jay Strongman and James Horrocks. It was based in Chiswick, London.
History Beginnings
Starting out as an offshoot of D ...
and
Lizard King Records founder Martin Heath, the A&R community in the UK is more integrated than it is in the US, being very London-centric and encompassing a relatively small number of people.
"If scouts are chasing a band, you’ll see the same thirty people in one room. You get a herd mentality in the UK, but also some very diverse signings as well," he said in an interview with
HitQuarters.
Heath believes that in the USA it is more typical for A&R to wait until a band is established – having attracted other offers or achieved a level of sales – before taking action, a technique which often works out as being more expensive.
2000s changes
New forms of digital distribution have changed the relationship between consumers and the music they choose. Gerd Leonhard and others argue that the wide selection of music on digital services has allowed music consumers to bypass the traditional role of A&R. In the wake of
declining record sales, many A&R staffers have been terminated.
See also
*
Impresario
An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer.
His ...
*
Song plugger
*
Chas Chandler
Bryan James "Chas" Chandler (18 December 1938 – 17 July 1996) was an English musician, record producer and manager, best known as the original bassist in The Animals, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He ...
*
Clive Davis
*
Al Coury
Albert Eli Coury (October 21, 1934 – August 8, 2013) was an American music record executive and producer who was vice-president of Capitol Records, co-founder of RSO Records, founder of Network Records and general manager of Geffen Records.
Co ...
*
Kara DioGuardi
Kara Elizabeth DioGuardi (; born December 9, 1970) is an American songwriter, record producer, music publisher, A&R executive, and singer. She writes music primarily in the pop rock genre. DioGuardi has worked with many popular artists; sales o ...
*
David Geffen
*
Loren Israel
*
John Kalodner
*
Clyde Otis
*
Muff Winwood
Mervyn "Muff" Winwood (born 15 June 1943, Erdington, Birmingham, England) is a British songwriter and record producer, and the older brother of Steve Winwood. Both were members of the Spencer Davis Group in the 1960s, in which Muff Winwood pla ...
Citations
References
* (Reprinted in ''
Maximum RocknRoll'' No. 133 (June 1994) and later various websites.)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Artists And Repertoire
Music industry
Occupations in music
Musical terminology