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Originally Posted by edmann signing a record deal is usually the worst move that a musican can make
A&R people are not your friends anymore than car salesmen are = you do not need them and they are absolutely not looking out for your best interests. |
Hi Ed,
you are sounding pretty much "burned" by A&Rs.
From my own experience, I can say, that A&Rs are businessman (big surprise, huh?
).
A car salesman won´t let pass a good deal; an A&R won´t let pass it, too.
After sending out my first demo years ago, I´ve been approached by the companies´ heads of A&R after 3 days (!!!), 2 weeks and 6 weeks. One never called back (needless to say, he´s the one bugging me the most right now).
I didn´t know anyone back then, nor did I know who those person were or what they did.
By the way, the head of A&R of the major that called back first, his company had projects like Britney, Backstreet Boys and N´Sync going on back then; so he wasn´t neither ignorant, nor didn´t he let the "car deal" pass through. I didn´t have a track record either.
He called me personaly; we had a 1 1/2 hours talk on the phone. He asked about everything - from my neighbourhood, my favourite food, my political opinion to my shoesize; you get the idea.
He KNEW the product wasn´t the thing to worry about - it was the producer. It´s not hard to produce a hit, get the money for 2-3 videos, promotion. Why do you think, there are so many "one hit wonders"?
Music is such a small part of becoming a succesfull producer/engineer/songwriter...
Learn everything about the game-industry, what clothe people curryntly buy, what´s their favourite soft-drink. Who are the biggest players in the advertising industry?
For example, there are many out of this world-webdesigners; there are few if even virtualy no companies specializing in custom sounddesign...learn about different income-streams; if non-existent, create them.
Every advertising and promotion guy I have spoken too, told me, how sound is (at least) 50% of today´s movie/ad.
There are enough Lemmings...
To assume that A&Rs are lazy, ignorant and arrogant "industry vampires" is a prejudice; a dangerous, by the way, as an A&R of a major can make you sell your music in Japan, Germany or the US...no matter if you are sitting in your 10 million $ studio-complex in Sweden or Germany or working your laptop sitting at the beach in Brasil or the Maledives.
There wasn´t a better age for music producers than now. Networking is the key.
If your market is saturated, sell your beats abroad. If you are making hip hop, make sure you can produce/write classic music and 60s rock and funk.
If you are into reaggaton, study the best drum and bass and house from the 80s/90s. Listen to irish folk, indian music, etc...
Always remember; there are 10s if not 100s who can replace you right away...and nobody will care besides you.
Really, noone will turn your offer down, if it´s not just an offer among 1000s.