What exactly is A&R? What do they do? How do they 'fit' into the music industry?
A&R, or Artist and Repertoire, is a department within recording labels that takes on various roles. As mentioned in the previous post about Recording Labels, A&R is responsible for scouting new talent and guiding an artist's creative vision through music production, branding, and marketing. Sometimes, they also act as liaisons between the artists and labels.
While these three roles are laid out, an A&R rep often wears multiple hats and has more roles and responsibilities than are listed online or in job descriptions. It depends and differs from label to label and artist to artist.
Firstly, A&R is responsible for finding artists. While in today’s world, scouting and finding artists through social media is certainly a common way to find artists, many still rely on more traditional methods, such as going to venues and gigs to scout an artist performing. As A&R reps are the ones finding new talent, their role in a record label is vital as it is necessary for continued success. In addition to finding new talent, having strong relationships with producers, engineers, and many other music professionals is important for the artists they scout to continue working their way up and creating. Reps will also have a keen eye and intuition for what’s trending and what’s not in the music industry to take advantage of any rising genres to continue pushing to the next level in the music industry.
Another major role that A&R plays a role in is the marketing and promotion of an artist and their songs. This includes helping them with brand image, social media presence, and promotion of albums.
In short, A&R has a variety of roles: scouting and scouring gigs, social media, blogs, and more to find up-and-coming talent, signing talent, being the person of contact for artists to meet with producers, sound engineers and more, guiding an artist's creative vision, marketing and promoting the artist and/or records, and sometimes being the liaison between artists and their labels.
As Berklee College of Music puts it, it's A&R’s “job to concretely understand what to others is mysterious: the confluence of qualities and circumstances that makes an artist a contender for commercial success.”
Sources:
A&R representative. Berklee College of Music. (2024). https://www.berklee.edu/careers/roles/ar-representative#:~:text=An%20A%26R%20
Iliev, N. (2023, January 31). Council post: Understanding the importance of A&R in the music industry. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/01/30/understanding-the-importance-of-ar-in-the-music-industry/
McIntyre, H. (2023, February 27). What exactly does an A&R professional actually do in the music industry?. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2023/02/24/what-exactly-does-an-ar-professional-actually-do-in-the-music-industry/
What is A&R and how does it work?. Ditto Music. (2022). https://dittomusic.com/en/blog/what-is-a-and-r-and-how-does-it-work
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