This story is brought to you by Zac Chidgey, our writer and A&R and Label Assistant for Heist or Hit, pushing grassroots artists and shining a light on the best new talent.
The music industry is a foggy place, with no real set route or way to achieve success. From viral content creation to being in the right place at the right time, we’ll talk through ways you can increase your chances of being noticed and help turn your passion into a career.
In the age of streaming A&Rs are looking for a variety of things, an artist that stands out with great music, visuals and ideas they’re actively bringing to life. Amassing listeners and fans states a good case to A&R as it shows you have a proven brand and people are willing to invest in you, but isn’t completely essential as the A&R’s job is to find artists with potential to gain fans through the label's facilities. Criteria for an A&R changes depending on what type of artist they want on the roster, this can vary from:
- Signing an Artist who has fans and can sell tickets
- Signing a new comer with heaps of potential for a development deal
- Signing an artist for the love of the music
Now A&Rs will always chase the next big thing whether that’s in Streaming or Social Media as it’s considered a safe bet, but some of the biggest artists ever were small unknown artists before they were spotted and showcased to the world, so don’t think because you aren’t getting hunted down you don’t have what it takes.
Below breaks down ways in which you can increase your chances of being noticed by the industry and effective ways to reach out and showcase yourself.
The Music: make it great
Firstly, the foundation to everything you are as an artist is the music, so make sure it’s great. Focus on improving your craft over time and taking feedback on board to revise and improve, not many people are born lyricists. Having a portfolio of great music will help you stand out to any industry as they’re hearing your versatility and the passion you have put into your craft. No one will be interested in you unless you’ve got a one-in-a-million voice, so make sure the music is great.
Lewis Capaldi was first discovered by A&Rs through great sounding demos on SoundCloud, so you never know where they are looking.
Play live as much as you can
So, whilst you’re writing new tracks and improving your skills, it’s a great idea to start playing live, whether that be open mics or professional gigs. This allows you to become comfortable as a performer and build up your stage presence whilst testing out new material. This can make you stand out to the industry as you can create an exclusivity to your live shows being the only place to hear you, you want the industry to become invested in you rather than you reaching out to them, make them feel like you’re going on the up with or without them.
Playing live shows will also help you build connections with people from other musicians to A&Rs to the audience, each of these connections is valuable so you should make an effort to build a relationship for the long term rather than a quick punt at success. Some of the biggest artists today, such as Tom Grennan and Sam Fender, were discovered by their future managers and labels through playing at open mics, showcasing their raw potential.
Learn the best and most effective ways of promoting yourself
Once you’ve got a bunch of great tracks and you’ve built up a strong performance it’s time to promote yourself, whether this be recorded tracks or just live videos. Now, this part may take time but it’s important to try out various different styles of promotion to work out what’s the most effective for you. Whether it’s a TikTok or a more formal ‘How I wrote this song’, just make sure the music is the focus, or else the attention will be meaningless. This will not only allow you to build up your own hype, pushing ears to your live shows and the industry’s attention towards you, but it also puts you in a strong position when talking to a label to know in yourself where a label could benefit you and help you gain more control.
Take the recent success story of Chloe Slater as a prime example, the new indie artist saw millions of impressions on her TikToks, which translated into views and ears on her music; this has led to her signing a deal with AWAL, which will surely take her to superstar levels or even Casey Lowry, whose skit type songs gained him millions of listeners and fans, allowing him to make a full-time career in music.
Reach out to appropriate Labels with straightforward information
If you still haven’t had any outreach from the industry at this point, it’s time to contact them directly, making sure the label is an appropriate fit for your artist, and approach them with a plan. A simple or detailed roadmap, EPK or one page with private links to tracks is a really quick and easy way to let audiences and the industry know who you are and what your plans are. It will look professional and like you’re taking your role seriously, which is a green flag for the people who will be working for you.
These are the best tips to get the industry's attention; this is without a manager or any existing contacts, with the biggest points being to make sure the music is great and be nice to everyone.
It might not happen straight away, but as long as you’re passionate and welcoming to every person you meet, then you never know when or how it will pay off.
So, here’s a quick breakdown of what we’ve spoken about:
- Make great music
- Play live as much as you can
- Make the industry want you
- Work out how to promote yourself in the most effective and enjoyable way
- Know how a label can benefit you
- Have a plan/ timeline
- Reach out to A&R’s/ Labels with similar genres to you
- Build relationships. It might not happen now, but it might in the future
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