What it takes to become an A&R with Eren Aydogmus (first-year hire at Alamo Records)
What does an A&R career entail?
An A&R’s main job function is to find new artists who have potential to sign to a record label. To Eren, a lot of that job responsibility centers around building a story. While looking for potential artists to work with, he tends to be on the lookout for artists who are building their own narrative. Then, it’s important to work collaboratively to hone in on that narrative and ways to express it to wider audiences. This could be done through putting on shows or other methods, but it’s crucial for the artist to be able to build and express their personality to fans. “At the end of the day, this is all entertainment,” Eren said. “So, the fans really want to feel involved in their favorite artist’s life.”
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Some A&Rs are very hands-on with the music in the studio, whether that means writing or putting sessions together or helping to build hit records. But overall, the core of the role revolves around project management. They act as the main point person between the label and the artist, which involves a few different aspects: research, outreach, and development.
Research: One of the most important components of being an A&R is finding new records and artists as a tastemaker. This could be finding something that catches your ear or noticing someone who is catching a lot of momentum. Then, you would look into it further and figure out more information and data on that particular artist.
Outreach: Once you find that record or artist, you want to build a relationship with them. Outreach involves the actual reach out and relationship building aspect of the job. This is also more on the signing side of working with a record label.
Development: After you find an artist and help them get signed, that’s when you start working with an artist so they can have their breakthrough. This largely depends on project management – putting together projects, arranging tours, developing content, and more.
Defining an artist’s breakthrough
Pinpointing an artist’s successful breakthrough can be difficult. This typically is the stage where an artist gets their break and becomes a more mainstream artist. “It’s tough to put this into words, but I think once an artist breaks, that’s when you can really label them as a real artist,” Eren said.
This could be defined by a certain threshold of listeners and streams, or it could refer to an artist’s cultural relevance and how they mesh into other industries (like fashion or sports). Eren finds that once an artist becomes a household name, they’ve really had a breakthrough. It might not mean that everyone is listening to that artist, but they have gotten to a point where their name is recognizable across various genres.
Breaking into A&R
Getting your foot in the door for an A&R career isn’t a straightforward path. A long series of connections and hard work led Eren to his current A&R job today. His good ear, network, and work ethic all attributed to his job offer from Alamo at the end of 2023. When it comes to securing an A&R gig of your own, those are the three things that will help the most.
A Good Ear
Overall, having a good ear usually means listening to your gut and having the confidence to write and talk about the artists and songs you like. One of the things that made Eren such a good A&R candidate was that he was on everything early, from knowing what artists were developing and bubbling in different scenes to having relationships with many artists.
By the time he was up for the role with Alamo Records, Eren had really proved how good his ear was for finding new talent through blog posts he’d written for Daily Chiefers, a popular hip-hop blog. These posts ended up serving as an “ear resume” for the Alamo job. He would write about artists he really enjoyed, and some of them would end up having a hit record in the next four to six months. It was a great way to have it down on paper that he was finding hits.
In addition to Eren’s blog writing, he attributes his good ear to growing up in Houston. “Being in the ins and outs of the underground scene there and just like good music all around. Like, I think that also helped develop my ear as a kid,” he said.
A Good Network
It may be cliche, but a huge aspect of getting into any career depends on who you know. For Eren, his entry into Daily Chiefers allowed him to expand his network in a way that would change his career forever. He was introduced to Joey Walker, the owner of Daily Chiefers and VP of A&R at Alamo Records, who mentored him and provided him with valuable insight into what it takes to be an A&R. Connections with industry professionals like Joey helped Eren to see that the A&R route was the direction he wanted to go.
He also would talk to a lot of A&Rs in his blog writing days and send them artists to start that relationship-building process. Eren stresses that one of the most important aspects of networking is making conversations more personal and not necessarily all about work. He likes to talk about inspirations with people and learn why people got into the industry rather than having surface level small talk. Because of the way he treats his professional relationships and built his network, he had a lot of referrals for the Alamo Records job, which left a good impression.
A Good Work Ethic
With a good ear and a good network, you also want to make sure your work ethic is aligned with your goals. Although Eren considers his entry into the Daily Chiefers as partially luck, the fact that he continued to work consistently towards his goals is what has defined his path as an A&R. He attributes most of his early and current career to that first blog writing gig, and he landed it all because he happened to be old friends with someone who already worked there. But by utilizing an older relationship and staying dedicated to his passions, he created space for it to evolve into something new and extend into a career path.
“It's not about confidence. It's not about ego. It's just about, you're interested in this thing. You're going to follow that inspiration, and you're going to remember that everybody feels that inspiration,” Eren said. “That's why they're in music. It's not about the job. It's not about the salary. It's just that inspiration.”
A&R Advice
For anyone who wants to break into the music industry as an A&R, Eren has a few pieces of advice. First, he recommends taking things one step at a time. “You set little goals for yourself that will build up and pay off in the future,” he says. Success won’t happen overnight, but building up those skills and a background with transferable skills can make a huge difference in the future.
Another important aspect Eren recommends is to have a good balance between working hard and making time for yourself and fun. It helps to have friends in the industry that you can have a real human connection with. Then, you’re not working with strangers everyday. “You need good people in the industry because you can’t tackle it alone,” Eren said.
Eren also recommends taking breaks and disconnecting from the music industry every once in a while. However, when you do disconnect, you don’t want to lose sight of your goals and why you’re working so hard. This is another area where having good people around you can help keep you on track and remember why you love it in the first place.
Lastly, the one piece of advice he would share with aspiring A&Rs is:
“Just keep your head down and work. I don't think there's anything else to it. And do your best to remain humble. There are going to be moments in this shit where you're up and you're down, right? So when you're up, it can be very easy to get an inflated ego. But just stay humble, keep working, and it'll come to you.”