A&R, Artist and Repertoire, A and R, A&R Articles

• What is A&R in the Music Industry?
• What do A & R Reps Do?
• How does A&R Work?

A&R Stands for Artist & Repertoire.  A&R is the department of a record company that finds and or develops bands, songwriters, or musicians.  More often than not A&R reps help out with a bands artistic and commercial marketability.  Think of the A&R Department as the middleman between the band and record label.

A & R Department Responsibilities may include some or all of the following:

• Locating bands, songwriters, and musicians for their record label
• Negotiating contracts for a band or artist
• Finding producers for recording the band
• Locating recording engineers
• Scheduling time to record the band
• Locating songs for a band from music publishers with whom they have relationships
• Listen to demos from bands
  

A&R Reps from major or larger record companies usually only listen to solicited demo submissions from musicians.  A solicited submission is one that a music company only accepts from known or reputable contacts with whom they've networked in the past.  Smaller record labels may accept both solicited and unsolicited (anyone can send demo) demo submissions.  A great resource to tell what record companies accept unsolicited and solicited submissions are the Songwriter's Market books.  They give you information on what record companies may need with a demo submission and how to submit your band demos.