RECORD COMPANY
Manager A&r Administration • Director Of A&r Administration
JOB OVERVIEW
The job of A&R administration begins when the producer and the artist are in the recording studio. You must track recording costs and process invoices, and receive and log in all masters, parts, multi-tracks, mixes—all tapes and CDs—from the recording session. Other duties include arranging for production parts to be cut and sent to the manufacturing plant; logging in and archiving all master tapes, videos, CDs, and so on, and overseeing the archive of recording and video masters.
PREREQUISITES
To succeed, you must have computer data entry skills and be detail oriented with strong organizational skills. You need the ability to communicate clearly with both business and creative individuals.
CAREER TIPS
“Have a good, well-rounded music background—knowing all types of music.”
Listen to songs by staff writers and become familiar with their catalog. Even though you're not responsible for pitching songs, knowing the catalog will open up opportunities for you and earn you the respect of the writers and others you work with.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
A major portion of the day for RCA's Lawrence Loring is devoted to processing bills from studios, producers, engineers, and others. “There are always requests for video or audio masters from the vault and I control that like a librarian. All of our tapes are bar coded, so when I get a request that someone needs a TV track to a certain song—Martina McBride doing Letterman or something—I'll go through our vault tracking system and find those tapes [which are sometimes stored offsite or even out of state].” Loring also accepts delivery of recording projects as they are completed, logging in all the mixes, masters, multi-tracks, and so on. He also ships video or audio masters, and orders master parts for manufacturing from various mastering facilities.
POINTERS FOR THE JOB SEARCH
“Go to school locally and become familiar with people, companies, and artists. Nashville is a big family and everybody knows everybody.”
LAWRENCE LORING, MANAGER A&R ADMINISTRATION, RCA LABEL GROUP/NASHVILLE
“Music has always been a hobby of mine. I grew up in Strongsville, Ohio—the home of rock and roll. I made a point of becoming familiar with all types of music, whether it be classical or country or pop or rock, and I enjoyed all types of music.” Two years into the premed program at Miami University, Loring decided medicine was not his passion. He returned home and enrolled in a community college, where one course sparked his interest: an introduction to the recording industry. “I took that class and fell in love with the thought that there was a way for me to take what I like doing in my personal time and make a career out of it.” Loring researched colleges that offered a four-year degree in music and chose Middle Tennessee State University because of the school's relationship with Nashville's music community.
When it came time to intern at a music company, Loring focused on record labels, interviewing at Capitol and RCA, where he landed a slot. Begun in 1989, Loring's internship was split between the A&R administration department and the production department. He completed a second internship at producer Brent Mayor's publishing company.
THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS JOB:
“Although the job description may be specific, there have not been any two days exactly the same. I think part of that is because our product is really people and every person, every artist, is different. So every situation is different; every studio we work with is different, and every producer is different. That always keeps it interesting.”
It took Loring nearly a year after graduation to land a full time job in the industry. He had remained in touch with contacts made at RCA and when a position became available in 1992, he got a call. In his new job, his time was divided between the production department, where he had interned, and the finance department/building operation. One of his primary duties was working as an assistant in the tape vault. He was promoted through the ranks over the course of eight years to assistant to production, production coordinator, manager of production, and currently, manager A&R administration. “I like the whole recording and production side of the business. The next step for me would be to move up to department head.”
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