A&R People are usually picked from the ranks of company Executives, Producers and small label staff members.

Understand A&R is basically a commissioned sales job. Most don’t survive more than 18 months.

You have to find good acts with management and money (they won’t sign anyone without Management or Money) and then those acts have to make money for the company.

A couple of dud acts and you’re out the door along with those acts who don’t get their contracts picked up in the 2nd year.

To “perform” an act has to go Platium, minimum. To make money for the company they have to go Quad Paltinum.

Your pay is a modest salary plus overide based on the peformance of the artist. Plus a small expense account.

Your job is to hit every club within 400 miles and seek out talent capable of making $millions for the label.

Then your job is to convince your boss to sign them. You have no signing power until you build clout with the label.

Your boss wants to see the money. Generally today they want to see an artist with $200,000 in budget money or a Management company that can finance promotion and a tour.

Your best bet is to get a Business or Marketing degree, get an entry level job in Sales with a label or work for a small lable and manage or produce bands and singers on the side.

Here are two facts of life.

I knew one guy who worked for Capital Records who had an idea for a Comedy Record and Capital passed, so he took it to RCA who went for it.

Herb Alpert, ever hear of him, as in Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. He was in Marketing at RCA and he couldn’t get RCA to sign his own band so he pressed his own records with his brother in law Jerry Moss and they get it on the AIR and it went #1 and then RCA offered them a distribution deal.

That’s how A&M Records got started.

He then went on to sign Sergio Mendez to his label.