To become a successful A&R you need to be passionate about music because your world will literally revolve around it. However, just because a song sounds good to you does not necessarily mean it is going to sound good to someone else. You must know what music can connect with certain audiences and see star power potential in your artist. The 10 most important things aspiring A&R’s should know goes as follows.
- Spot talent early and work with the artist to develop their music, brand, and image– However, due to technology many artists already have a small following and have developed their brand and image. In this case, you should keep the brand and image the artist has already built for himself and work on making their first breakout hit and expanding their audience.
- The golden rule is to follow your gut feeling– Being an A&R you have to be mindful that not all the music you hear is going to sound great production-wise due to resources. Therefore, you should listen to the lyrics and pay close attention to their story because production can be improved, the genuineness cannot.
- Leave your ego at the door– What I mean by this is that sometimes you might not be the only person who discovered an artist, maybe the artist was passed down from a friend. Also, many people work collectively as a team to make a single song. Overall, You should always give credit where credit is due.
- Advocate for the marginalized– This applies to your whole team, not just your artist. You should help diversify the music industry, that means diversifying the people that work behind the scenes as well. Work with artists, producers, and engineers from different backgrounds as well as people from different sexual and gender identities. For example, if you have an artist who identifies as queer it would be best to pair that artist with a queer producer who can relate and help your artist with creative direction.
- Look for caterpillars and not butterflies– Meaning look for artists that have not yet developed but can one day turn into the butterfly you know they can become.
- Have great relationships with managers– A&R and managers will sometimes perform the same duties for artists as far as music goes. However, it is good to keep a mental note that A&R should never outwork a manger because A&R focus on the music aspect, as opposed to managers, who are thinking beyond music into other business ventures.
- Work on your own account– What I mean is, it is no secret that breaking into the music industry is very difficult and may seem impossible at times. The good thing is that thanks to the interconnectivity of the internet we have access to reach many artists that many A&R’s are to busy to get to. You can reach out to upcoming artists and producers and start building your portfolio that way and when the time is right and with enough buzz, a record label will come to you and hire you.
- You must really believe in your artist– When it is time to introduce your artist to the rest of the label you will need to convince them to be able to see the potential star power you see in your artist. Meaning you must believe your artist will have a long career and not just sign an artist because of a trend.
- Communicate your artist needs– As an A&R you are the main person of contact between your artist and label and it is important to be able to communicate the wants and needs on both sides.
- Love the music-making process– You must truly love music to do this job, you must love the pairing of artists with producer, engineers, and songwriters. you must love selecting the best beats and generating ideas for a song. You must make sure that if you sample something that it gets cleared to avoid any legal issues. You must make sure that the whole body of work is excellent, that the production sounds amazing, and make it ready for the market.
