Songwriters Are The New A&R

This is a phenomenon I’ve been witnessing recently and it’s on the rise.

Back in the mists of time, a band or singer would often be signed because an A&R (artist and repertoire) scout would see them at a gig. These scouts are a dying breed. I used to know a couple who would trawl the London circuit and sometimes further afield powered by weak lager, a smidgin of gak, and a sense of their own importance. (‘I’m in the list, Artie Fufkin, Polymer Records’). As record Companies shrink like post-coital male genitalia (an apt metaphor perhaps) the A&R departments are often the most badly hit.
 
I heard a (probably apocryphal) story about an A&R person getting a new job and not signing anyone at all for three years. Their logic being that their job was safe if they didn’t lose the company any money by signing an act that didn’t make it. In fact, EMI’s profits are finally on an upturn because they’re realizing that signing artists causes most of their losses! If they just concentrate on flogging their back catalogue again and again and again (how about Beatles boxsets which divide the songs by category ‘Psychedelic’, ‘Love Songs’, ‘India’ ‘rock and roll’…. You heard it here first) they wouldn’t be in trouble at all.

So where does all this leave the songwriter?

Traditionally an artist would be signed, make a record, have a meeting where the A&R boss would say ‘I love the record guys but I don’t hear a single’ and then press the secret red button under the desk that summons the leading songwriters from various pubs (this is next to the gold button which calls Timbaland if they want a guaranteed hit). The act would co write with the songwriter to create the radio ‘hit’. What’s changed is songwriters are now earning about half as much from physical sales as five years ago (due to the fall in CD prices and piracy). It’s also the case that less product is released on Major labels than before and many songwriters have to have their songs released on Major Labels to fulfill their commitment. So the songwriters have taken the next step- they are becoming A&R.

So now when I go to small club gigs, half the audience seem to be songwriters, hoping to discover the raw talent of a Winehouse or a Blunt. The songwriter then nurtures the talent and pitches a basically finished record to a major label. The songwriter has co-written all the songs on the record and thus earns more and the upside for the label is they don’t the upkeep of an expensive A&R department. This means that some songwriters I know are working and investing in new singers and bands for up to a year in the hope they get signed or get a license deal. Of course, if the labels don’t bite then it’s a lot of time and money down the drain-the songwriter’s money that is!

This is all part of the changing world of the songwriter. We used to be writers, then we all had to become producers and arrangers, now we becoming A&R, perhaps the next stage will be designing the artwork and shooting the video……

So how do I feel about this? On one level, I’ve sometimes co written with artists that a label has signed that I don’t think are really great so I doubt the skill of an A&R department on some level, but at the same time I think the fledgling artists out there should be given time to develop their songwriting on their own to create a distinctive style and direction before they get ‘blanded out’ by working with the industry. As someone who loves songwriting and collaborating, my biggest thrill is to co-write with someone who has a definite style and a clear sense of who they are. I don’t want to be defining them by telling them what to sound like. Too often artists are told to reign in the part of them which is uniquely them rather than to take every idiosyncrasy and magnify to the power of 100. I suppose that sometimes i forget that this is the 'music industry'.

If you're wondering how my band Farrah choose the songs for our record, check out our vlog.