Digging Your Scene

One of the things we think is essential to help you get on in the creative industries is inside “know-how” and experience. Whether the economy is booming or busting, as long as you know what to expect and what the industry is looking for, you’ll have an edge. So we hope this article from a top A&R executive at a major label helps prepare you with a sense of reality and how the industry you’re seeking to get into might see you as you stand amongst your peers:

The music business has become much less frivolous when it comes to signing artists and as such, the quantity of artists getting deals has decreased in the last year significantly.

The flipside is that the amount of money that is being paid out to artists to get deals is sometimes more. Currently when an artist is signed, there is tremendous pressure on that artist to turn a profit in a short and often unrealistic space of time. With a bigger advance comes the undoubted pressure to bring in revenue quicker. Effectively the artist is starting on a big minus figure.

What is happening more is the development of artists that show potential “off site” and therefore off the radar, so when they are signed, they are more prepared and can realistically give their best shot of delivering what is required musically. It is necessary now to get artists to a position where they can sign their deal and deliver as quickly as is necessary.

This proves a very tough scenario for artists who need development. Technological advances have meant that an artist can take themselves a lot further down the line before they need a record company. This has meant there is much more emphasis on the artist to deliver nearly finished product. It has fallen to not only artists but also their managers to do a lot of the early A&R development work to get to a place where record companies show interest.

Anonymous – leading A&R exec for a major