The State of A&R

I had coffee with a young A&R guy a couple weeks ago. He complained that things are really challenging right now. “It’s like, once something shows any signs of life, everyone goes after it at once,” he said. I nodded in agreement because he isn’t wrong. I’ve been on the artist side for some competitive projects recently, and I can confirm that indeed, everyone shows up at once whenever “signs of life” appear. This raises the question of what exactly are these signs of life, and I’ll get to that shortly. First, some background.

What Is It?

You probably know this - A&R is Artists and Repertoire, record or publishing rank & file or executives who sign and develop talent. The job has changed over the years, and continues to change seemingly week to week. It’s also remained constant in many respects. The “repertoire” aspect was more important before the era of the singer/songwriter, back when vocalists across genres cut songs written by professional songwriters. That’s still the focus in certain genres, such as mainstream country. Although fewer and fewer country artists are just singers who don’t write songs, there’s still a big market for “outside cuts” in Nashville. Therefore, “repertoire” is still a big part of A&R in many cases - even when the artist is integral to the writing process. Mostly, however - at least in the worlds I inhabit - A&R is about identifying, signing, and developing talent for commerce. Most of the changes have occurred in the processes we use to identify A&R targets, what we call research.

Research has been part of A&R forever. Back in the 90s we focused on radio airplay and audience response, leading to measurable sales. Label bidding wars in the 90s often focused on an act that had proven to have a market within a geographic area based on airplay, record sales, and ticket counts. In other cases, a “buzz” would build around A&R people paying attention to certain obscure acts. That’s what I wrote about in my essay on 90s bidding wars - Polara wasn’t a popular act, but they commanded a superstar record deal due to hysteria among the A&R community. These days, research is primarily based on digital consumption data, and it’s becoming more and more sophisticated. Major labels, big agents, and well-resourced management used to enjoy a competitive advantage from having access to the most effective research tools. More recently, the technology behind consumption research has made these tools available to practically anyone, thus leveling the playing field.

A mentor taught me that A&R is part of a continuum, a process that dovetails into marketing. The most effective and successful A&R people have a marketing sensibility that informs every step of their process. Once you’re identified and signed the act, development is mostly a function of marketing in all its permutations, whether it’s digital marketing, radio promotion, publicity, branding, or good old fashion, get-in-the-van touring. A skill that distinguishes great A&R is the ability to see the entire path to build an audience, and to communicate that vision to a marketing team to execute. As technology constantly forces us to rethink marketing resources and strategy, some things remain unchanged. The ability to hear music, distinguish exceptional quality, and understand how it will connect with a large audience has always been the critical skill set.

Signs of Life

What the young A&R guy meant by “signs of life” is what shows up in the research. I see how it happens from the artist’s perspective. There’s some sort of viral moment, usually on Tik Tok, that elicits audience reaction. Suddenly an artist’s social accounts are flooded with DMs from a wide range of music industry trollers. EVPs from major labels may show up, as do many scammers trying to make a fast buck or land grab rights from unsophisticated independent musicians. Serious A&R folks will usually investigate further, listen to the music and try to understand why it’s happening. Others - as I’ve witnessed - show up for just about anything viral, without regard for context or quality.

You’d think major labels and big, established independent labels would have a huge advantage in that anyone would be able to tell the difference between legit opportunities and scams. But scammers have an advantage: musicians have been conditioned over many years to distrust major labels and to seek out independent alternatives. “We’re not affiliated with any major music company” is a solid sales pitch. The bad reputation labels have is well-earned, there’s been plenty of bad behavior and misrepresentation in deal making over the years.

Now, in my view, the sharks in the water are more likely in my experience to be alternatives to traditional labels. Not to let older independent models completely off the hook, this reflects a change in the industry. When there’s a major or big indie label in the picture, musicians know they should hire a lawyer; and even if they don’t, the label will likely insist one for their own risk management. There’s a vetting process before a deal is made. With less scrupulous independent platforms, musicians may be discouraged from hiring a lawyer, and they find themselves stuck in a contract that proves at least as restrictive, land-grabby, and unfair as the worst major label deals. Other independent platforms are excellent and relatively artist-friendly, but it’s hard for most people to tell the difference. The most aggressive suitors are often the most dangerous.

Forget the Research

Research tools are incredibly important for A&R, but relying solely on research practically guarantees it will be difficult and expensive to close deals, and the deals will be low-margin due to competition. It’s often worth competing, of course, because things that are already viral already are more likely (though not guaranteed) to be profitable. In the nearly 20 years I’ve been doing some version of A&R, either to build clientele or a label roster, I’ve noted that everything successful has some sort of viral breakout. From MySpace to YouTube to SoundCloud to Instagram to Tik Tok, artist careers have been blowing up on social platforms for decades. What’s new is the speed and efficiency of algorithmic push, the ability to see the data in real time, and the very nature of virality. Now that algorithms are sophisticated enough to reach niche audiences, music can be viral without cracking the mainstream at all.

It’s rare these days that something goes so viral that everyone knows about it. For every Hawk Tua moment that breaks through, there are many thousands of routine viral spikes within music culture silos. That’s how Billy Strings can sell out multiple arena shows without being mainstream famous. The Billy phenomenon and others like it are a reflection of the algorithms becoming much more targeted towards niche communities on the Internet. The biggest bluegrass artist in the world can sell out multiple nights in arenas, while remaining under the mainstream radar. That’s new, and in my opinion it’s awesome. It’s a game-changer for A&R and artist development, because financial success doesn’t have to be mainstream success. In this model, an artist like Billy can be mainstream huge without having to make concessions artists would have made in another era. Yes, I know, there’s a jam band tribe driving his success that has fueled other artists to arena-level success. But have you ever seen it happen so fast? That’s algorithmic growth.

As competitive as it’s become for viral acts, I believe we’re coming into a time when the fundamentals of great A&R make the difference. If anything with signs of life is competitive, then the game is being a step or two ahead of those signs. Differentiating great from good, and having the vision to see how the marketing could work - these are the skills that will set companies apart in the next phase. Old fashion artist development is the key, whatever that means in today’s algorithmic mess.

If a label finds an artist before there’s research and signs them early, it’s obviously easier to make a deal, and it will likely be a more lucrative deal for the label if it’s successful. That takes guts, because the point of the research is to tip you off to what’s commercially viable. Or, more accurately, what might be commercially viable, because virality doesn’t necessarily mean something will successfully build an audience. That’s the real key to success - building an audience that will stick around. When I say - as I often do - that it’s a great time in the industry for artists, I mean artists who have an audience. Otherwise, it sucks pretty hard.

What Am I Even Talking About?

I remember when I first learned about A&R. It’s the first time I ever heard about a job I knew I could be good at. Then I went through some shit, and I learned that one role of A&R back then - especially the young, “cool” A&R (mostly) guys who convinced artists they’d find a great, supportive creative home at a label. I played in bands that came up in indie world and moved to majors with a built-in audience, but so many bands got signed to labels that absolutely, unambiguously screwed them over. For example, if an A&R signed a band and then the A&R got fired, or if there was a full-on regime change, the label would rarely drop the band. They’d take their time, see if they could squeeze a few bucks out of the investment. I witnessed artists losing years of their lives in deals that were never going anywhere. So many artists signed deals and got shelved. I got stuck in a contract with Hollywood Records for years before I got myself out of the contract through persistence. That’s Walt Disney, folks. I never signed to Disney, but I got stuck there anyway. It was a mess.

Since then, however, we’ve been through something of a hard reset after the bottom fell out of the industry in the transition from the product model to consumption. For a while, labels couldn’t take many risks because they couldn’t afford to! Now that we’ve achieved stability and growth, labels have money and resources, but the competitive field has changed. Artists used to sign bad deals because they needed everything the label had to offer to have a career. Now, there are more options, and artists have more leverage because they don’t necessarily need the deal. They do need to build an audience, so they need something. That’s the challenge for labels, how do they bring value at the early stage, when artists really need their help, so that they don’t have to compete and overspend. Signing early-stage artists is a win-win, as long as labels think of artists are partners and not an opportunity to land grab.

Just remember - when there are sharks in the water, get good professional advice. Yes, get a music business lawyer with a focus on risk management. And labels, be bold, be early, and treat artists as your partners!