About Me
You are Iron Man
Iron Man
90%
The Flash
90%
Superman
80%
Spider-Man
80%
Robin
65%
Hulk
60%
Green Lantern
55%
Catwoman
55%
Supergirl
50%
Wonder Woman
45%
Batman
40%
Inventor. Businessman. Genius.
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Each one of you thinks you know what "good" music is. In fact, you are probably one thousand percent convinced of this. In a sense you are right and in a sense you are wrong. You are right when you define it for yourself: If you think music is good, who can argue with that and convince you otherwise? But you are wrong when you define it for others. After all, each individual listener ultimately answers the question of whether music is "good" for him or herself. You are wrong because the truth is that there is no universal answer to this question.Music can create in the listener an involuntary response ranging from joy to melancholy, aggression to nirvana, and everything in between. Such is the power of music. But because each listener responds differently, no one can say with any degree of certainty that they know what "good" music is in the absolute.This may seem trivial to you, or needlessly abstract. But the reality is that the sooner you can truly understand and embrace this concept, the sooner you will learn what it takes to be a successful modern-day Sony A&R Scout.Each one of you knows an artist that you thought was phenomenal, but for whatever reason, never broke on a huge scale. And every one of you has personally slammed an artist (or several) who has sold millions of records, and for the life of you, you can't understand why. Is the fact that millions of other people disagreed with you and voted with their money (the strongest vote of all) not good enough for you? You could argue all sorts of things like: "the label spent millions and rammed this crap down people's throats," or "radio stinks, MTV stinks," (actually, it does, kinda). But the fact remains that millions of people felt differently strongly enough to buy the music. Do you still believe that you know better than everyone else?All record labels, whether major or independent, are in the business of selling music. By definition, they MUST sell music to survive. To successfully sell something, one must have a "market" or a group of potential buyers. "Indies," because of lower overhead costs, have the luxury of being able to sell to smaller, more specialized markets (alternately referred to as "niche" or "micro" markets) since they don't need to sell as much music to be profitable. Major labels, on the other hand, need to sell much larger quantities, and thus need to attract a proportionately larger segment of the population. Therefore, the music major labels sell must appeal to a much larger and broader audience. When you do A&R for a major label, you need to write this on your forehead, commit to it, and live it.Many unsuccessful major label A&R people fail because they cannot accept this maxim. They always try to sign the "cool" artists for fear of being perceived as "uncool". They trade on the illusion of knowing something others don't. Yet many of the artists they sign ultimately prove to be "too cool" for the mainstream and disappear quickly. In reality, the fact that so many of these "cool" artists were signed over the last several years to expensive deals, and that such a large majority of them subsequently failed to "break," is one of the major reasons behind the current major label decline. On the other hand, many of the successful A&R people who have kept the industry afloat until now have given up trying to "be cool" and instead focused on doing their jobs. Their job, simply stated, is to find an artist that will appeal to many and sell many. When their artists sell millions, they are rewarded.The lesson here is this: you must never forget that the people who (still) buy music are the lifeblood of the recording industry. Get to know them, as many of them as possible, and understand them. If you want to work in this business, they are the ones who will make this possible. To be successful as an A&R person, you need to appeal to them in the strongest way possible. And, as in every business, give the people what they want, not what you think they should want.This does NOT necessarily mean that you have to choose between what you feel is "good," "credible," "hip" (insert your adjective here) and what will sell. Of course, every A&R person's ultimate goal is to find the artist that has all of those things and still manages to sell millions of records. Those artists DO exist, but everyone will probably agree that they are relatively scarce. Still, that should always be top of mind and your ultimate objective as well.As you go forward, take these lessons to heart. Be passionate about the music you love (in fact, hold onto it with both hands and never let it go!). But open your mind to the possibility that what you love isn't necessarily what will sell on a grand scale. If it is one and the same, great -but be honest with yourself first, understand your role and your market, and then listen objectively.
