The New Face of A&R

A few weeks ago, I began a quest to discover where the fate of A&R lies in this ever-morphing industry of music. My theory was that A&R has taken on a new form and that A&R in the traditional sense is dead. However, since I am a novice in the field and have not experienced the change from the inside, I decided to consult a few music industry executives. I sat down with Andrew Kronfeld, General Manager of Motown Universal who gave some very interesting insight on the changing dynamics of A&R. “More A&R is coming from the outside [and within the labels you are seeing] much smaller A&R departments.” Kronfeld went on to say that because labels are often dealing with more producers and other independents in the industry, A&R has become “leaner” and more “decentralized.” I have found that the major labels are spending less time developing acts and want something closer to a finished product in order reduce risk and invest less capital. Kronfeld also added that the opportunities in A&R will be much “more independently minded” and labels will be dealing with A&R consultants rather than in-house A&R executives. So this tells future A&Rs and people on the come up to just do your own thing.
Interested in taking a cue from the independent side of the game, I met with the President of Decon Records (Decon Media), Peter Bittenbender. Peter projects that labels will be “setting quotas” and limiting the amount of artists they sign each year. This meaning less A&R people because there are less artists to sign and less projects to coordinate. The A&R executives that will remain will be the ones who continuously deliver and create albums that sell because “that is what they’re judged on,” says Peter. Has the role of A&R changed? Not dramatically. Yes there are more things to be aware of such as the continued fragmentation of the market and importance of digital. Yes there are tougher goals to achieve since people don’t purchase albums the way they used to. A&R Manager, Andrew Keller of Columbia Records says “great is great music [and] it’s our job to put great music out there.” If you look at it in that sense, the role of A&R hasn’t changed much, however the environment of the music market has considerably. A&R will have a similar fate and become fragmented just as the industry has with more entities other than major record labels, finding, developing and putting out great artists and music. A&R will have less of a concentration within the four majors and will be a role that many will take on in the greater music and entertainment industry.