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Information about A&r

In the music industry, Artists and Repertoire (A&R) is the division of a record label company that is responsible for scouting and artist development. It is the link between the recording artist/act and the record label, generally to help with the artistic and commercial development of the label's artists. An A&R person is often required to handle contractual negotiations, find songwriters and record producers for the act, and schedule recording sessions. In the UK, before the rise of the Record Producer, the A&R Manager would oversee recording sessions and assume responsibility for making creative decisions relating to the recording.

Part of their duties include keeping contact with their counterparts in music publishing companies to get new songs and material from established songwriters. Contrary to common belief, it is not one of the A&R department's main jobs to sort through the plethora of demo tapes sent by hopeful musicians to the label. A&R departments at major labels in the USA typically only accept solicited demos, or ones from business contacts with which they are familiar. However, major labels outside the USA and many independent labels still accept unsolicited demos.

Examples of A&R people

Some A&R people have changed the face of modern music. John H. Hammond, for example, had a long and rich career discovering some of the biggest names in music. Artists he discovered, signed and even occasionally produced included Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin and many others. Other A&R people with similar track records include Clive Davis, Lenny Waronker and Fabrizio Giannini. Still more, such as John Cale, are musicians and recording artists in their own right.

In recent years, the two most famous A&R people are Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell. Known mostly for their work as judges on American Idol, the duo are also very successful executives who have worked with a wide variety of talent.

Notes

1. ^ Watrous, Peter (January 17 1919). Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame Inducts Its 6th Crop of Legends. New York Times. Retrieved on 2006-11-08.

In popular culture

  • "Into the Great Wide Open" by Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne includes the lyric "Their A&R man said 'I don't hear a single'".
  • Before the release of their album Infinity On High, the band Fall Out Boy told sources a potential title for one of the tracks on the album would be "You Can't Spell Star Without A&R". The track title didn't make it, instead the track was titled "This Ain't a Scene, it's an Arms Race," which is the album's lead single.
  • FEAR vocalist Lee Ving told A&R people to "go die" in the 1980 movie The Decline of Western Civilization, directed by Penelope Spheeris.
  • DL Incognito's song "ANR" uses A&R in reference to the Warner Brothers label.
  • In the song "No Gimmicks" by Soul Position, Blueprint says "No A&R gettin' more shine than I am."
  • Wu-Tang Clan "Protect Ya Neck" GZA: "First of all, who's your A&R? A mountain climber who plays an electric guitar? But he don't know the meaning of dope, when he's looking for a suit and tie rap that's cleaner than a bar of soap."
  • On his track "Corruption Dub", Sydney MC The Tongue raps "Who you gonna trust when your units start to shift/How you gonna think straight when you spark the spliff/Knowin' every A&R wants some arse to kiss".
  • On Crooked I's song "Rap 101", he ends the heated track by saying, "To all you A&R's out there, if it don't sound like this, it don't sound like sh**!"

External links

The music industry is the business of music. Although it encompasses the activity of many music-related businesses and organizations, it is currently dominated by the "big four" record groups, a.k.a.
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In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. In everyday usage, a record label is also a company that manages such brands and trademarks; coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution,
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A songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics to songs, the musical composition or melody to songs, or both. That is to say, a songwriter is a lyricist, a composer, or both.
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In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering
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music publisher, deals in the marketing and commercial exploitation of songs and music catalogs. While the term originally referred to publishers of sheet music, today's pop music publishers rarely deal with printed music or scores.
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musician is a person who plays or composes music. Musicians can be classified by their role in creating or performing music:
  • A musician or instrumentalist plays a musical instrument.

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An independent record label (or indie record label) is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels.
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William Ackerman is a Grammy winning guitarist and composer of acoustic-based instrumental music. He founded and ran for many years the influential new age record label Windham Hill Records.
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Ralph Bass (May 1, 1911 – March 5, 1997), born in The Bronx, New York, was an influential rhythm and blues record producer and talent scout for several independent labels and was responsible for many hit records.
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Cameo is a funk-influenced R&B group.

History

Formed in 1974, Cameo started out as a 13-member group created by former Juilliard student and New York-area clubgoer Larry Blackmon, called the New York City Players.
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Merlin Bobb has been a music veteran within the entertainment industry for over two decades, from radio to major labels to founder and CEO of his own music entertainment company.
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Modest Mouse is an American indie rock band formed in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington by singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, bassist Eric Judy, and guitarist Dann Gallucci.
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Ugly Casanova is an American indie rock band carried on Sub Pop Records. At present, the band has only released one album: Sharpen Your Teeth. According to the Ugly Casanova website, in 1998 a man named Edgar Graham, a.k.a.
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Monte Conner is a producer and A&R person for Roadrunner Records. He has worked with numerous bands including Trivium, Slipknot, and King Diamond. A majority of the greatest hits compilations from Roadrunner artists carry his name and he was in charge of the production for
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Simon Cowell (born 7 October, 1959) is a British artist and repertoire ("A&R") executive for Sony BMG in the United Kingdom and a television producer, more commonly known as a judge on television programmes such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, American Idol
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Not to be confused with J.J. Cale.


John Davies Cale (born March 9, 1942) is a Welsh musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his work in rock music, particularly as a founding member of The Velvet Underground, and he
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Clive Jay Davis (born April 4, 1932) is an American record producer and a leading music industry executive. From 1967-72 he was the President of Columbia Records, was the founder and president of Arista Records in the late 1970s through 2000 until founding J Records.
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Linkin Park is a rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Forming in 1996, the band had since sold more than forty million albums and won two Grammys.[1][2][3] With their debut album, Hybrid Theory
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Ian "Dicko" Dickson (born 28 March 1963 as Ian Ross Perrygrove in Birmingham, England) is a music industry and television personality in Australia. He is best known as a judge on the hit television shows Australian Idol and The Next Great American Band.
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Ron Fair is an A&R person, record producer and songwriter. He has written hits for several artists and is a record executive on the major label level, but he is best known as a "guru/mentor" in guiding the careers of unknown artists and turning them into superstars.
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Simon Fuller (born May 17 1960 in Hastings, England) is one of the the most powerful men in entertainment in the world. He is a British entrepreneur and creator of the Idol series, first seen as Pop Idol in the UK and over 100 other versions including American Idol,
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Logic Pro, as a MIDI sequencer and Digital Audio Workstation, has been used by many artists, producers, engineers, and musicians. Despite the popularity of Digidesign's Pro Tools, Logic Pro has a significant following and is used by many professionals across many musical genres.
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George Moore is a member of The Diplomats and the VP of A&R for Diplomat Records. He is better known by his stage name DukeDaGod. He released his first album More Than Music, Vol. 1 in summer of 2005 under Diplomats/Koch Records.
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John Henry Hammond, Jr. (December 15, 1910–July 10, 1987) was a record producer, musician and music critic from the 1930s to the early 1980s. In his service as a talent scout, Hammond became one of the most influential figures in 20th Century popular music.
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Mark Holden (born 27 April, 1954) is an Australian singer and television personality. He is one of four judges on the hit television series Australian Idol. |

Biography

Acting career

Holden was a television and film actor.
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Randall Darius Jackson (born June 23, 1956 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) is a Grammy Award-winning American rock bassist, singer, record producer and Emmy Award-nominated television and radio personality, now best known as a judge on American Idol.
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For other persons named Jim Jones, see Jim Jones (disambiguation).
Joseph Guillermo Jones II (born July 15, 1976 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States) better known by his stage name Jim Jones
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Joseph Guillermo Jones II (born July 15, 1976 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States) better known by his stage name Jim Jones
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The Diplomats are a Harlem, New York-based hip hop group who are more commonly known as Dipset. The group was formed in 2002 by founding members Cam'ron, Jim Jones and Freeky Zeeky.
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