The important A&R excuse hook

Posted on Apr 02, 2008 03:17 am
Dualflip
Member Since: Apr 06, 2007

I was just wondering, why do small bands give you that old A&R excuse to convince you to do something?. I'll explain better....

A band comes to you and says: "hey i want you to record or mix or master or whatever my demo". You obviously start asking the most common questions like how many tracks, instruments, etc..?, and the most important of all: whats your budget?.

It seems almost magical that when you ask that question, the band or band manger always gives you an answer like this: "well.. we now have a limited budget, but the A&R of (IMPORTANT-LABEL) is very interested in our project, in fact he's planning on signing it and promoting a tour in BLA Bla bla... and will have more money for the second record (or even worse: you'll be the one making all this possible.)"

Of course this never happens (sometimes it will but rarely does), its even worse when they invite you to a rehearsal and you hear them play and you notice that the band sucks so much(if thats the case) that no A&R would be so stupid as to sign the band, you feel that they are treating you like an idiot and worst of all they are wasting your time.

So the thing is this: why if they have little or no money instead of telling you something like "we have a limited budget but we have faith in the band and we are asking for your help" they give you the important A&R excuse hook, it really annoys me everytime i hear it, it makes me say "here it comes again..." and chances are i wont be accepting the job, or ill ask for a very very high price just to force them to say no.

Any comments?

[ Back to Top ]