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Never Trust and A&R Rep

Posted by Will on December 25, 2004 at 06:34 I figured I could post this here because it's been a while since an item has been added to our articles section. It was originally written for garageradio.com, but what can ya do? ) Never Trust An A&R Rep By Will Dayble I couldn't help but notice that not much attention has been paid in Australia to the oh-so-scary department of "Artist and Repertoire," and the minions that make it function ... A&R Reps. Everybody has heard the term, but not everybody knows exactly how this section of the music industry functions. Being down under, stuff seems to work a little differently compared to the UK or America, where the goings on of this kind are more commonplace ... so here's a quick primer. I'll keep the premise of this article brief: A&R reps are some of the most evil, ruthless vicious bastards in the music industry, and whether they know it or not - they are the people that will con your band into selling their souls for a wage comparable to the type you'd get at the local Quickie-Mart. A&R reps, or "scouts," aren't old balding men with slick hair and gold teeth, they are young, scene-devoted kids and most likely believe they're the one that is going to play a part in un-earthing the next "big" thing. They will feed you and your band lines about "artistic freedom" and the cool stuff that other bands on the label are doing ... a large portion of them will actually believe it too! In most cases, the A&R Rep will get paid - by the artist - a percentage of their royalty rate, so the holy grail for any A&R Rep is to get a multi-million album selling band right at the point when they never thought they could achieve such 'amazing' levels of stardom ... usually it's at least a year or two between the band signing with the label and the band actually making any real sales and money. It's at the start of this period when a band is most vulnerable to signing the *buw buw buuuw* ... deal memo! Never, ever, ever sign a "deal memo," EVER! Especially if it's from a seemingly indie label. This is for one very simple reason - indie labels can't afford A&R reps! Those of us who run indie labels know this. On a real indie label the budget is tight and if you're scouting for bands you do it yourself. You don't pay a lackey to do it for you. If the seemingly down-to-earth label that approaches your band can afford to employ A&R scouts, it's most likely because they get their backing from another larger, shadier character ... and I think we've all had the stupidity of signing to a major drummed into us by now, yes? So don't trust A&R reps one little bit. If one of them is interested in you, get their card and call them later when the, "OMG! WTF! We just got interest from a label! Awesome!" buzz dies down. And again, I can't stress this too much: DON'T SIGN ANYTHING. Often the A&R rep will give you a letter of intent, or "deal memo" as they're commonly known ... this is basically a quick little thing that says the band will sign with the label when a contract has been decided on. Innocent enough right? Many of the smarter labels out there have stopped doing this because bands are becoming more and more wary of stuff they have to sign, however some still do. While A&R reps literally aren't allowed to write contracts, the deal memo is their Weapon of Mass Destruction, and an un-suspecting band wont realise that what they are actually getting signing is an iron-clad agreement that the band will at some time, sign a fully-fledged ass-rape of a contract with the label. It sounds kinda strange that this is actually "allowed" doesn't it? Remember that the profit-driver corporations who own these large labels (and all their subsidiaries) have an army of well-paid suits working this kind of stuff in the background to make totally sure the label is always in the right, and always in the black. One thing that always has to be kept in the forefront of your mind, when dealing with industry reps, is that while a long time ago record labels were small-scale operations, run by people who loved music. Most of it is now controlled by conglomerates, operating on a bottom-line mentality (in Australia most are owned by yet another larger corporation from another country). They are responsible entirely to their shareholders and the well-being of your band never, ever factors into the equation. Corporate consolidation means that most labels don't care about artist development anymore, and artists are a commodity that brings in revenue. Remember that when you're standing face to face with mister enthusiastic, hip A&R guy. Deal memos have no expiration date ... if the label presents the band with a deal the band doesn't like, the label can just wait, and wait. The band will not be allowed to sign to another label (unless the agreement is nullified, which barely ever happens unless large sums of money changes hands) and eventually the band will sign to the label, or no longer be a band. Never trust A&R reps. They might look just like you, speak like you and be into all of the bands you like (why else do you think the label hired them?), but the simple fact remains that the vast majority of them are Satan's evil fucking spawn ... sent here to bring the entire world into a level of musical mediocrity the likes of which could never imagine in our wildest nightmares.

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