Jun 4, 2020·1 reply
safe@8yearsa
@PSYCHO_KILLERreplied to the wrong post smh
Essentially the role of an A&R is to find and sign new artists to labels. They can work on the label or publishing side in order to find artists or songwriters. Coldplay for example were found by a publishing A&R who then shopped their music to labels. In the internet age this involves listening to demos (XL Recordings an INDIE label receive 200,000 unsolicited demos per year and sign 1 artist per year), scouting forums and industry press and attending live shows. Now A&Rs tend to work less for labels and more for talent agencies or independently.
The traditional role of a manager is usually to find artists and manage them - negotiating contracts, organizing meetings with labels, sponsors etc, organizing touring. An A&R traditionally might communicate with managers and meet with artists or get demos from a manager.
Nowadays these roles are pretty entwined. A lot of A&R scouts go into management either independently or with a label. They can be involved in all or any of what you mentioned - they can find artists, get their artists signed to labels and publishing deals, organize recording sessions, organize other ventures like sponsorships and develop the artists. From a creative standpoint they can help on a micro level like song selection, connecting artists with producers and songwriters and the like.
someone like Christian Clancy is a good example of a modern A&R. He was tied to Interscope but was only in a consulting role and a friend showed him the French video by Tyler. He met with them and set them up as an independent label and became their manager. He helped with all facets of OF - creative direction of music and touring, negotiating meetings with places like Adult Swim as well as labels, and his pas experience w labels can help him to give creative direction and marketing direction. He doesn't work directly for the label but he's associated with them and connected in the industry
phenomenal post
- OPJun 4, 2020Americana 2
phenomenal post
❤️
- Jun 4, 2020·1 replysafe
@8yearsa
@PSYCHO_KILLERreplied to the wrong post smh
Essentially the role of an A&R is to find and sign new artists to labels. They can work on the label or publishing side in order to find artists or songwriters. Coldplay for example were found by a publishing A&R who then shopped their music to labels. In the internet age this involves listening to demos (XL Recordings an INDIE label receive 200,000 unsolicited demos per year and sign 1 artist per year), scouting forums and industry press and attending live shows. Now A&Rs tend to work less for labels and more for talent agencies or independently.
The traditional role of a manager is usually to find artists and manage them - negotiating contracts, organizing meetings with labels, sponsors etc, organizing touring. An A&R traditionally might communicate with managers and meet with artists or get demos from a manager.
Nowadays these roles are pretty entwined. A lot of A&R scouts go into management either independently or with a label. They can be involved in all or any of what you mentioned - they can find artists, get their artists signed to labels and publishing deals, organize recording sessions, organize other ventures like sponsorships and develop the artists. From a creative standpoint they can help on a micro level like song selection, connecting artists with producers and songwriters and the like.
someone like Christian Clancy is a good example of a modern A&R. He was tied to Interscope but was only in a consulting role and a friend showed him the French video by Tyler. He met with them and set them up as an independent label and became their manager. He helped with all facets of OF - creative direction of music and touring, negotiating meetings with places like Adult Swim as well as labels, and his pas experience w labels can help him to give creative direction and marketing direction. He doesn't work directly for the label but he's associated with them and connected in the industry
Very good post. This thread needs to be stickied
Jun 4, 2020·1 replySkipped straight to the independent section because why learn about the devil if I won't make a deal with him.
- OPJun 4, 2020·1 replyRetired Artist
Very good post. This thread needs to be stickied
Eh I’m cool w it either way as long as some people got some benefit from it I’m happy
- OPJun 4, 2020Abandoned Account
Skipped straight to the independent section because why learn about the devil if I won't make a deal with him.
It’s tough - you gotta be onto it and aware of all the areas that need to be covered - but it’s doable now more than ever
Also you’re still an independent artist if you end up w a manager and that can make things a lot easier
Jun 4, 2020thank you for making this thread. KTT2 is alive and well.
Jun 4, 2020·1 replysafeEh I’m cool w it either way as long as some people got some benefit from it I’m happy
On God if you turned this thread into a huge thread with all info on page 1 I could honestly see it appearing on page 1 Google searches in a couple years. Upcoming artists WILL love this.
Maybe talk a bit about the marketing side of it all too? since besides the actual music that is basically what makes or breaks an artist
That might already be too elaborate though, idk
- OPJun 4, 2020·2 repliesGettinmoney8
On God if you turned this thread into a huge thread with all info on page 1 I could honestly see it appearing on page 1 Google searches in a couple years. Upcoming artists WILL love this.
Maybe talk a bit about the marketing side of it all too? since besides the actual music that is basically what makes or breaks an artist
That might already be too elaborate though, idk
I like it
Gonna keep doing my 1 thread a week but I might add a little to this one every now and then cause I agree that it’s hard to find all this in one place
That being said I’ll have to talk to S about the character limit first and see if there’s a way he can make an allowance or something
My next thread is on music sales and label tactics so there’ll be a bunch of stuff in that thread about marketing that I can bring over to here As well
- Jun 4, 2020·edited·1 replysafe
I like it
Gonna keep doing my 1 thread a week but I might add a little to this one every now and then cause I agree that it’s hard to find all this in one place
That being said I’ll have to talk to S about the character limit first and see if there’s a way he can make an allowance or something
My next thread is on music sales and label tactics so there’ll be a bunch of stuff in that thread about marketing that I can bring over to here As well
Great! Music sales and label tactics are where it's at.
When can we expect the next thread?
Jun 4, 2020·2 replies
EuroNymousi am ok with it if they play fair and we don't have streaming wars pt 2 where artists become exclusive to their platform
I think it is sadly inevitable that there is going to exclusive content, just look at Spotify singles and that Joe rogan podcast, true that'll suck for the consumer.
- OPJun 4, 2020Gettinmoney8
Great! Music sales and label tactics are where it's at.
When can we expect the next thread?
Depends
I’m working through a summer research project for college rn so mostly I’m doing this when I’m feeling motivated but want a change of sceneryEarliest would be sometime Saturday latest would be mid next week
- OPJun 4, 2020·1 replyetant
I think it is sadly inevitable that there is going to exclusive content, just look at Spotify singles and that Joe rogan podcast, true that'll suck for the consumer.
It’s not a guarantee
I’m not familiar regulation wise but I imagine given the regulatory hell around the UMG EMI merger we’d get similar regulatory issues if exclusives started to seriously become a thing
I also think in some ways spotify doing what they’re doing podcast wise maybe suggests that it’s not really viable (whether it’s regulations or label pushback) for them to do exclusivesThat being said I might just be hopeful
It would be really really awful if it became a thing 
Jun 4, 2020·edited·2 replies@safe an insider confirmed :allears:
- Jun 4, 2020·1 replynarsay· edited
@safe an insider confirmed :allears:
shhhh
- Jun 4, 2020Retired Artist
shhhh
you right. changed
- Jun 4, 2020·2 repliesetant
I think it is sadly inevitable that there is going to exclusive content, just look at Spotify singles and that Joe rogan podcast, true that'll suck for the consumer.
Exclusive music will not become a thing.
Most small artists barely make enough money as is and the big ones are too smart to make their music exclusive.
- OPJun 4, 2020·2 repliesnarsay
@safe an insider confirmed :allears:
lol I wish
if I do end up working in the industry in the next year though I’ll do a follow up post w stuff I learned
- Jun 4, 2020safe
lol I wish
if I do end up working in the industry in the next year though I’ll do a follow up post w stuff I learned
i support. good luck
- Jun 4, 2020·edited·1 replysafe
lol I wish
if I do end up working in the industry in the next year though I’ll do a follow up post w stuff I learned
Here's a tip if you wanna make it in the industry:
Music industry is ALL about networking.Good luck making it! ❤
- OPJun 4, 2020Gettinmoney8
Exclusive music will not become a thing.
Most small artists barely make enough money as is and the big ones are too smart to make their music exclusive.
I think that if streaming services become music labels it could happen with artists signed to the services - Views was Apple exclusive for a week, Coloring Book and blonde as well iirc
But I do think it’s unlikely that it happens w the current industry layout at least on a serious level. We might see Apple cut drake a big check to release something Apple exclusive to try and give Apple some more market share but I doubt we see anything beyond what’s already happening anytime soon
- OPJun 4, 2020·1 replyGettinmoney8
Here's a tip if you wanna make it in the industry:
Music industry is ALL about networking.Good luck making it! ❤
Might be a little lucky in that regard but we’ll see if the connection ends up being useful or not
Thank u tho - Jun 4, 2020·edited·1 replysafe
Might be a little lucky in that regard but we’ll see if the connection ends up being useful or not
Thank u thoMake sure you use your connection to build other more significant connections!
Idk what u tryna do in the industry but many artists (as well as label execs) make it big by just having outstanding social skills and building the right connections (French Montana, DJ Khaled, etc).
- OPJun 4, 2020Gettinmoney8· edited
Make sure you use your connection to build other more significant connections!
Idk what u tryna do in the industry but many artists (as well as label execs) make it big by just having outstanding social skills and building the right connections (French Montana, DJ Khaled, etc).
Yea absolutely I actually should start doing some proactive networking over this break since I’m working from home
It’s a pain because I’ve worked in the same field two years in a row now and it’s cool but it’s probably not what I want to go into but I have like a fantastic network in this field now
need to try do the same now w music - Jun 4, 2020·1 replysafe
It’s not a guarantee
I’m not familiar regulation wise but I imagine given the regulatory hell around the UMG EMI merger we’d get similar regulatory issues if exclusives started to seriously become a thing
I also think in some ways spotify doing what they’re doing podcast wise maybe suggests that it’s not really viable (whether it’s regulations or label pushback) for them to do exclusivesThat being said I might just be hopeful
It would be really really awful if it became a thingI see where you going with this, we have to realize that policy makers are extremely slow at breaking up monopolies, think about how we haven't broken up google or facebook or amazon. When do you think they will start to care about music. Although the FTC might stop spottily from acquiring Warner music for example.
As regards to your other post, lets not forget that spotify's market is 35B while warner music 13B, and spotify has the upper hand, if those big labels dont lease their music spotify, they are going to lose a lot of money.
A more interesting question is how can they monetize those exclusive content. For example for podcast, instead of podcaster talking about an ad, spotify could instead personalize the ad for each listener, since they already know their email address and what they listen to. This could increase the value for each of those ads thus increasing value of the company, but I am not so sure about the exclusive music route, other than attracting more people to the platform. Although one thing is for certain, if there is exclusivity, that might be the end of the golden era of streaming. itll be like PS and Xbox, each have their exclusive.