How A&R changes with the Music Industry

Not at all

I’ve was reading about the relaunch of Steve Greenberg’s S-Curve Label. The man who brought you Who Let The Dogs Out, which unfortunately was the soundtrack to one of my college summers. This has got me thinking about how the concept of A&R is changing along with the changing Music Industry.

The Hits press release states about the initial signings of We the Kings and crooner Tom Jones.

“S-Curve’s philosophy is that in the present and future music business, recorded music, music publishing and artist management are, in effect, all one business designed to launch and develop artists. Toward that end, S-Curve will not only be releasing We the Kings’ debut album, but have also signed a worldwide music publishing agreement with the band, while S-Curve’s agreement with Jones gives the company the opportunity to become involved in a broad spectrum of licensing and sponsorship deals. Management ventures will include acquiring interest in established management companies, as well as direct artist signings."

This is not exactly a new philosophy. David Geffen perfected, if not pioneered, the practice with Ayslum records in the 1970’s. The reason that it fell by the wayside is that artists realized that it is not always in their best interests to have their manager and their label be the same entity, let alone publishing. Now as record sales decline labels need additional revenue and management is the fastest legal way to get a piece of the pie without the financial risk of revenue sharing. EMI’s revenue sharing deal with Korn was a nice idea in theory, but I bet my student loans get paid off before Korn makes back their 25 million dollar advance.

How does this affect A&R? Will it begin to create a utopian artist development era or will the definition of buzz band change to the first band music supervisors fall all over, as the new management-labels drool in anticipation of publishing revenue. I’ve often said that there needs to be a more collaborative relationship between artist and this is a start. There have been numerous companies that have tried this same approach without the same corporate pedigree. Thus far I have yet to see many break any artists or make any real money. I see no real change in the A&R process as the prestigious management companies get rolled up and start merging with labels. Good music should always rise to the top, and pretty faces are still attractive to advertising companies.

The real change is in marketing that music and those faces. I will be watching We the Kings very closely though as I expect to hear them in some of my favorite shows or hawking my favorite toothpaste very soon.

I will also be seeing them at the knitting factory in NYC at on July 31 with signing power pick Danger Radio.