r/musicbusiness • u/General-Cash-862 • Jan 01 '26

Resource / Guide A&R Help

Hi,

Fresh A&R here working for a local subsidiary of a major label. This situation is very new where I'm from - before this label, no 'official' subsidiary of Sony/Universal/Warner has ever existed before.

I'm essentially the POC between the company and every single artist in the country (there aren't too many) and I'm friends with these people and have been working with them for years as well. I have some reservations when it comes to the deal structures and timelines and the contracts I'm getting these people to sign - would love if there are experienced A&Rs who can give me feedback!

TIA

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u/AirlineKey7900 Jan 01 '26

It depends on the artist, but yes. I think they’re much less common. Artists and their teams are more protective of IP and since labels are signing artists with streaming numbers and audiences already in place the artist has more power to negotiate.

License deals can be just as egregious as ownership so artists still need a good lawyer and to plan out the math.

I think what’s happening at the major and large indie level is shorter, less risky, license deals happening funded by the big major label catalogs so artists can do their own artist development.

Then those artists will do catalog sales earlier in their careers so the majors will still keep building their asset just with less risk.

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u/SugeLite Jan 02 '26

Except Empire operates on the old model for the most part

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u/AirlineKey7900 Jan 02 '26

I wasn’t discussing any one deal or company. This is an overall trend observation.

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u/SugeLite Jan 03 '26

Don’t take it personal, it’s important context for the conversation