What is the best way to get a job discovering and signing bands for a record label?

There's really only one dependable way to get an A&R job in the music business. You need access. You may think you have the best 'ears' in town, but if the right people don't see that, you have no chance. (This should not come as a shock.) To make it happen you need to do a few basic things. a) Get a job where you can interface with talent execs. That could mean working at a hot club or rehearsal room (preferably in NY or LA), a publishing company, management company or in any department at a label. Many A&R people began in publicity or marketing or even business affairs and then worked their way over. (Do your homework and study their history.) If you can't get in front of the existing A&R staff in a regular or natural way, you'll have little opportunity to 'prove' yourself. Of course, access only gets you so far. You then have to regularly present a steady stream of viable acts that deserve a place on a label's roster. The label may not sign them, but if you were the first person to hip them to the Killers or Arcade Fire or whomever, they will listen the next time you present something they haven't yet seen. Be focused. Don't present 20 acts at a time - pick 1 or 2 but make sure they are stellar. No one is going to hire (or sign) you because you think you are good. You have to prove it and proving it takes time. To get in the door, my advice would be: Be smart Be early Be persistent Be right and (always) be nice. Know when to take 'no' for an answer and play for the long game. Patience pays.

Nobody will give you an A&R job just because you say you can do it. You have to provide evidence of success. Get out there and prove your skills - event promoter, manager, label or perhaps even just blogging. if you're successful, people will come find you. However,  label A&R is a rapidly changing role. It's unlikely to exist in the form it does now for much longer.

Heya I found this good article that may be able to help. YOU'RE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT Did that catch you off guard?  This is brutal and not the 'work hard and you'll achieve anything mantra' that most advice guides give you- and they definitely won't put it as their first bullet point. This industry is hard - anyone who tells you otherwise is a snake oil salesman. Even if you follow everything that is written in this guide to a T you’re still not anywhere guaranteed to make it. About 80-95% of artists released on major labels fail and only about 3% (if that) make a long-term career out of selling music. The odds aren't great- we all know this.  So the truly desperate go on the X Factor and its clones as a 'short cut' but lose their credibility along the way. If you're going to make music then do it because you love music and not because it’s a way to get famous. And be brutally honest with yourself about it- don’t lie to yourself and say you’re really doing it for the love of music when in the back of your mind you know that it's fame that you're  really chasing. Know that you won't become famous and at best you'll make a couple of pennies on the side from your passion... BUSINESS Ok, once you've gotten over the first bullet point and you're still trying to make it, you need to understand that there is a reason why it’s called the music business (in fact it really should be called 'business music' as business always trumps creativity/music). As with any business you need to create what the market is demanding and to be able to sell it. Point blank period. If on a sunny day you're selling hot chocolate, coffee and tea then your business will fail. You have to change your stock and start selling ice cream and ice poles. The same with music. If your music is failing then you have to either change or stay true to yourself and keep failing (failing in the economic sense as opposed to artistic fulfillment sense). For some bizarre reason, artists don't treat the music business as a business- they see it as a way to channel creativity when it’s ABSOLUTELY NOT. This point of seeing the music business as a business is so important that rest of this post will be variations of this point.   REALLY WATCH WHATS GOING ON Once you start seeing the industry as a business you need to treat it as such and study it like a business. The best place to start is TV talent shows. Now when it comes to TV talent shows such as the X Factor, we’ve concluded that there are 3 types of people who watch these kinds of shows: Type 1. Those who watch the show Type 2. Those who really watch the show Type 3. Those who really, really watch the show. You want to be in category 3. We'll elaborate. Group number 1 are the ones who watch the show and comment on how nice Cheryl looks like this week, her hair, make up, etc and how so and so sang better this week than last and that whatshisname should be booted off next. For what we hope you can see are obvious reasons you shouldn’t be in this category. Group number 2 are the arm chair critics who think they know what’s going on but don’t really. They’ll call the show a fix, complain that it’s just (another) way for Simon Cowell to make more money and leave angry messages on the Daily Mail comment section- yet they tune in every week without fail to hatewatch the show. Again you shouldn’t be in this category. (By the way the show isn’t a fix – they’ve got too much money to make and won’t risk advertising pounds if people could tell the show was just a fix- but it is heavily controlled and staged. But we all know that)   You should be in group number 3. The ones who really, really watch the show. They’re the rare breed who are eagle eyed and are watching what’s really going on. This is the category you should be in. They understand why we have Michael Jackson week*, why Pharrell Williams, The Script and Ed Sheeran appear on the show**, they listen and watch the Talk Talk commercials that come before hand and already know why the participants are singing the selected songs on the commercial.*** This is the category you should be in and this is how you should start looking at the music industry. STUDY THE BUSINESS We mean truly study the business and the good ones in the business. You know how you used to study for exams in school? In the library with books, notepads, pens, etc til late in the evening? Yeah, well the same level of intensity needs to be applied to studying the music business. In your 10,000 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXviNQW2xuo hours about 8,000 should be applied to perfecting your music and 2,000 applied to studying the industry. You think that’s a bit OTT? Well all the best have done it: Madonna, Beyonce, Lady Gaga etc. Below is a YouTube documentary of Beyonce’s ‘Driven’ from 12-13 min is the goldmine. It’s here you see how she studied how to walk and talk like a superstar- videotaping herself and perfecting herself. Pay attention – she wasn’t born a superstar she had to become one.   Dig up old detailed magazine profiles and think pieces of Madonna and see how she learnt how to use her sexuality to become a super star – manipulating her bisexual manager to get want she wants. Think the word manipulation is a bit too strong? You don’t belong in this industry. But the best example by far is Lady Gaga. Really study her as she will give you a master class on becoming a superstar. Stefani Germanotta was talented but not extraordinary. Pretty but not beautiful. A good performer but not exceptional. She knew all of her disadvantages and turned them around to become advantages. She created a work of art to become Lady Gaga. Masterminding her personal image and brand (more on this later) to become the superstar she is today. But the problem is you can’t be Lady Gaga – she is already taken. And trying to emulate her will only mean you become a Lidl-version of her when the original Waitrose one already exists- not a good look. You have to create your own super star. There was a comment section left in the Daily Mail (don’t judge us) which we thought was worth pondering on:   Yuck! There are so many people in this world who have REAL talent and never get any recognition. How do clowns like this end up making so much money? - JoAnne, Toronto, Canada That's true, there are a lot of talented people who never make it and the reason is they think like you - that talent is all it takes and that they shouldn't have to change in order to be successful. The reality is that in any business you have to meet market demands; if you create a product no one wants then your business will fail. The music industry wants beautiful people; she obviously can't compete on that level (I don't think she's unattractive - just not stunning) so she has turned that disadvantage around by creating a character that sets her apart. Madonna has also done this, continually recreating herself over the years. The reason they are successful is that they are both shrewd business women who respond to market demands, and that in my opinion IS real talent. - Sue, Cheshire, 19/11/2009 11:50       Interesting comment and response…. But the crazy paradox of this all (NB this industry is full of paradoxes- it’s a bizarre industry) is that your image doesn’t have to be out there a la Gaga to be a superstar- just look at Adele. No gimmicks, no meat dresses or crazy stage theatrics, just an incredibly voice with heartfelt emotions that sell in their millions in an era where million dollar sellers apparently don’t exist. Also be careful if you’re trying to go down the Gaga route of theatrics, it's a slippery slope and one even Gaga hasn’t mastered  andhttp://rbellion.com/lady-gaga-what-went-wrong/ STUDY THE BUSINESS Did we say this already? Well we’ll say it again because it’s that important. Sign up to industry newsletters like Lefsetz notes, attend seminars about the business side of things. Really understand marketing.  Look at new artists such as Marz Leon’shttp://marzxleon.tumblr.com/and http://instagram.com/marzxleonpage. No posts about what she is eating or touristy pictures of her abroad. Nope, they’re all carefully choreographed posts that send out her message- cool edgy and obviously trying to solicit endorsement deals from brands who are into this cool edgy stuff e.g. Levi’s, Diesel Jeans, Saint Laurent, House of Holland etc. Another interesting case study (love her or hate her)  is Iggy Azalea. She started out as a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IosP8iSnwNkbut she knew that she would drown in a sea of other Britney Spears 2.0 wannabes so she created a new persona for herself- a white female rapper. But not just any white female rapper but a white female rapper from Australia. Name us another white female rapper from Australia? Exactly. But she didn’t stop there. She like Gaga and Madonna before (who we know she no doubt studied before hand – can you see a theme going on here?) knew that her image was important. Many female rappers are masculinised and hide their femininity to be taken more seriously.  Not our Iggy though. She knew the brand that she wanted to create- a brand that would feel comfortable in the income supplementing world of high fashion as well as music.   PUBLISHING Don’t give away your publishing rights under any circumstances. They’re absolute gold dust and you should fight tooth and nail to keep as much rights as possible. We see so many young wannabes who get excited because they have a publishing deal with a major company like Sony ATV or Universal Publishing. It’s one of the worst deals you can get: you give the label half your publishing rights in return you get –nothing. Just the prestige and the occasional advice and access to the label. Its daylight robbery in its finest form. Keep all your publishing rights. The article continues here http://rbellion.com/aboutus/how-to-get-signed-by-a-record-label/

Looks like anyone these days start their own label. Since it's much lower cost to do it these days. Me and a friend did this too but we see that it's not as easy as it sounds and you still need to invest in your acts, esp. if you want them to get better and get big! For you I'd suggest maybe getting internship in a label and then work real good. Or intern at a site like http://www.musicthinktank.com or http://www.hypebot.com. ;)

A&R is a rapidly changing discipline these days. A lot of labels are cutting back on their A&R people... As has been stated, starting your own label is the quickest way to start talent scouting. Other than that, I'd say get a blog up and start trawling youtube, bandcamp, myspace and soundcloud for hidden gems. Review the good ones and connect with label executives and A&R Managers on Linkedin with links to your blog.

The only guaranteed way would be to start your own record label, but the most practical solution is to find a record label headquartered somewhere relatively close to you, walk in there and try to apply for a job.

Becoming an A&R is either a job of luck through connections or something that comes with allot of hard work and dedication building trust with multiple independent labels and artists and eventually majors who may at some point see you as the perfect person to be the 'Rock A&R' for example.

There are a couple ways to do it but the simplest and most time honored one is to get a job -- any job -- at a label and then get out there and find cool stuff and bring it to the attention of others there. If you have a knack for it that'll be your assignment real quickly. Though I warn you it's much harder than it looks to find good stuff thats not already well on everyone's radar... the plain and simple truth is most bands really suck. Well at least from a even slightly commercially viable perspective. A close runner up is starting your own label followed probably by being a studio guy (AKA producer) but each takes a quite distinct skill set.