by Richard Leigh

Created on: September 22, 2008

The best way to become an A&R coordinator is to eat, sleep and breath music. As an A&R coordinator you need to know a lot about new music and be aware of what is presently the "hot" sound to be creating. You need to know a lot about music and you also need to be highly passionate about it.

The job of an A&R coordinator is to find new and exciting artists or to scout already established artists and convince them to sign for the record label. As an A&R coordinator there are two skills that are therefore highly important to have; a keen ear for music and to be proficient in the art of persuasion. You need to be confident and be able to go out there and scout artists, go to gigs, see bands/artists live, pick up those that are talented, and be able to speak to them afterwards with enough confidence and persuasion to convince them that the record label you work for is the best record label for them.

Proficient musical knowledge is vital so you must make sure that you're always around music and constantly keeping up with the latest trends and styles. If you're not always up to date with what's hot in music then you will ultimately fail as an A&R coordinator as it is your job to do this and vitally important that you know what people are listening to and what artists people would currently absolutely love to hear.

Try to go along to as many gigs and concerts as possible and whilst at these concerts always be thinking about what you like about bands and what you dislike; if you were an A&R coordinator then what bands would you want to be signing. If you always think like an A&R coordinator then when the time comes you will therefore have no problem in becoming one; if you already have the mindset then you're already nine tenths of the way there.

Keep up with all the latest music news, be confident, and this will put you in great stead for becoming an A&R coordinator. If you can approach record labels and demonstrate your confidence to them, show them how much you know about music, and tell them what sounds you feel are fresh at the moment; the record label will be very impressed and may well give you a spin as an A&R coordinator. They may only give you a trial run at first, if you can prove yourself to them however and show them how excellent in the job you can be then there's really no reason why the record label shouldn't take you on as their brand new full time A&R coordinator.

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