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Business News Labels & Publishers
Number of A&Rs at labels rises this year, says Music Registry
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 17 December 2012
Following that report last month from the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry, which said that record labels were investing more, in percentage terms, in A&R now than they were in 2008, despite the continued slump in record sales, Digital Music News last week published stats that suggested that the Anglo-American record industry increased the number of A&R execs it employed by 28 this year.
The stats, from Music Registry, reckon that major and independent labels in the US and UK together recruited 55 new A&R people this year, while 27 were laid off, meaning 28 new roles overall. This compares to an overall reduction in the number of A&Rs industry-wide of 24 in the previous two years, and comes despite the merger of the Universal and EMI record companies and the downsizing such mergers always cause (though the real impact of that on A&R may follow in 2013).
It’s not entirely clear where the Music Registry gets its data from, nor how A&R roles are defined (based on job title or responsibilities?), but still, it’s an interesting bar chart to look at (see it full size on the DMN website). If true, perhaps the death of A&R has been exaggerated somewhat, in much the same way predictions about the demise of the record label have not really come true.
