I would like to point out that an a&r guy doesn’t always sit around on the couch in his office looking for brand new music to sign to a deal. In fact, I would even say that the majority of his time, is spent working with the artists that are already on his roster. Even deeper, the label guys whose only responsibility is a&r, is a very small community. Think about the fact that there are only four majors now. Often times the same a&r guy will perform his duties for several imprints under the same music company. Think about Geffen/A&M/Interscope. It’s all about branding. A hip/hop act won’t be branded as well on Interscope (traditionally rock & roll) as it would be on Geffen. Take Avery Lipman for example, he signed rock act Godsmack to Universal Republic and hip-hop artist Chamillionaire to Universal Motown.

Back to label guys doing only a&r though…that only works for the companies that can afford to have a guy or more, just doing that. Indie labels that are only working with 3 or 5 artists are rarely looking for new acts to sign, and when they do, it is a collective and calculated effort to get the band on board. Case in point. I know of a band that got an indie deal a certain amount of time back, they are now enjoying a nice buzz in L.A. Another band got a major deal. Both of the records had about the same recording schedule, but the one signed to the major hasn’t even gotten their record released yet!

So I’ll say it again. a&r is just an extension of what you are already doing—deciding why you like a certain project and figuring out what you might like to do differently in order to make it better.

Who have you discovered lately?