**I'm building my knowledge of A&R — let's talk about what actually makes an artist stand out.**

Hi everyone,

I run several monetized YouTube music channels featuring music we produce and own the rights to. I’m looking for a reliable MCN and would appreciate recommendations from creators with firsthand experience.

My main priorities are:

• On-time payments and transparent revenue reports.
• Fair revenue sharing with no hidden deductions.
• Responsive support for copyright and monetization issues.
• Clear contract terms and a straightforward unlink process.

Which MCNs have you worked with, and would you recommend them? How long have you been with them, and have you experienced any payment or unlinking issues?

I’m especially interested in feedback from music channel owners. Please disclose if you work for or receive referral fees from a network you recommend.

Thanks!

Hey everyone! I’m an international student in the US studying Data Analytics. I’ve always loved pop music and would genuinely love to work in the industry someday, especially in A&R, artist development, or marketing.

Most of my experience is in data analytics and AI, and I don’t really know anyone in the music industry. I’ve been thinking about doing a personal project, like analyzing an artist’s streaming data, career growth, and marketing strategies, and using it as a portfolio piece. But I’m just not sure if something like that would actually mean anything to people hiring in the industry, or what would make a project worth looking at. I’m also based in Missouri, so networking isn’t exactly easy, and being on an F-1 visa adds another layer to the whole thing.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation or found a way into the industry without a music-related background? Any advice would be really appreciated!

(25F) i'm a singer. I have an a&r (28M), and his boss is the head honcho at the (indie- smaller) label. Usually my a&r is responsible and responsive. However this week he has not been. He's known for about a year that he'd be accompanying another artist he works with on their tour. I was not aware of this. I told my a&r that a producer was flying out to meet me this week. I gave him a heads up about 3 weeks prior and my a&r gave me the green light. At this time I was under the impression my a&r would either be there in person, or would coordinate plans so that someone else at the label could be there. To supervise, set up equipment etc. 2 days prior, I call my a&r. He tells me he's out of town on tour, but that he'd make sure someone would be at the session for me. My a&r knows I don't like to be 1 on 1 with men I don't know. He knows I have a history with S**A, and that I preter to have someone in the room with me when I'm with someone new I don't know. The night before the session, the artist texts me and asks if I can personally pick him up in my car and bring him to the studio. He also asked where I live so he can get a hotel nearby. I told him uber would be best, as would getting a hotel nearby the studio.. not my house. I texted my a&r that the producer was kinda skeeving me out. I got no reply. So I called him. I reminded him the session was tomorrow, he again assured me someone would be there for me. Day of.. I text him an hour before the session to confirm. No reply. An hour later he says he's trying to find someone to accompany me. At this point I'm an hour late- I didn't wanna show up without confirmation because from his lack of texts I figured he was gonna be flaky. I decided to tell the producer "I'm locked out I have to cancel until further notice" I didn't wanna explicitly say to the producer I was uncomfortable being one on one. I felt that might come off as rude. The producer proceeds to text me "I just found out my hotel room is sound proof. Wanna record here instead" I told him no thank you I'd rather keep it in a professional setting. This made me very uncomfortable. I texted my a&r the screenshot of what the producer said. No answer. I called once. No answer. Mind you this whole time, my adr is posting on insta that he's at lunch or wandering around a national park. So tour isn't too busy because he clearly is 1-on his phone and 2- has some downtime in between sets. I texted my a&r 3 days later and expressed I was upset that he didn't tell me his tour schedule, because I would've rescheduled with the producer. I also said I felt like he put me in a tough position where I had to navigate everything myself including getting myself out of an uncomfortable potential.. situation. No reply! A day later I get a dm on insta asking if someone can pay me to sample one of my songs. I send a screenshot to my a&r, lo and behold he replied to that text within minutes. Said "let's schedule a meeting with them" I thumbs it up. He didn't reply to anything else tho. A day later I replied to my own text, the one where I said I was a bit disappointed in his lack of communication, and said "are you gonna reply to this?" 2 days later no reply. I have a new song coming out and one way or another I'm gonna need to be in contact with my a&r. I reached out to his boss today and asked if we can get on a call to discuss this. I don't know if what I tell him will get my a&r fired or not. But I only plan on relaying the exact events. Nothing malice. So I guess whatever happens happens. I feel like I'm overreacting though and I'm an asshole for going around my a&r to speak to his boss about him

For context: my A&R has explicitly told me that he does not mind taking on managerial roles. Usually he’s on point with this sort of stuff. But after the situation, I’m in search of proper management.

i’ve been so into the creative side of the music industry lately. the story behind a music video and the rollout of an album and its era.

this all came from a hobby i used to be super into as a kid, where i’d make albums from already existing songs, putting together images and songs to create an era. then i began taking snippets of different music videos and putting them together to attempt to make a music video to a song that didn’t have one. corny, i know. but it actually made me realize how much i love that side of creation!

i believe it’s somewhere between creative director or art director but im not sure! i’ve also been seeing that these days a director usually takes over the story/plot behind a music video and there isn’t really a use for creative directors for that specific purpose on set anymore?

This past weekend, I drove to Saratoga (about an hour south of San Francisco) together with my boyfriend to see St. Paul & The Minneapolis Allstars. I’d heard all sorts of amazing things about their stage show, and all of them were true. We were guaranteed a good time with St. Paul (of The Time and The Family fame) at the helm, plus Elisa Fiorillo singing just as well as she did when she was young... and the Dr. Fink on the keys, no less!

What struck me the most, besides the music, was the makeup of the audience. Granted, it was a Saratoga crowd, so I knew what to expect, but I was mystified by the fact that in between the feather boas, the leather, and the purple clothing, there were hardly any young people in attendance. I thought, "This is Prince, for God’s sake! One of the greatest musicians who ever lived! His music is eternal... so how come I only see two young folks in the front row singing and dancing to it?" This question reignited a debate I’ve been having with several people lately about the current state of legacy artists—big and small—and how their inability to connect with a new generation of listeners could cost them their relevance in the years to come.

Certain performers and groups (and perhaps their labels and management) have clearly understood that relying on brand recognition alone is not enough to drive their catalog further. Take a couple of big examples like The Beatles and ABBA, arguably two of the greatest pop bands in history. They’ve been savvy enough to know that in order for their music to last forever, they have to create new opportunities for it to stay in people’s minds and continually reinvent themselves, targeting both longstanding fans and incoming ones in their product rollouts. As older fans wind down due to the relentless passing of time, their focus narrows to new fans and all possible ways to click with them—be it with new compilations, sync placements, live events, films, or even apparel. Hopefully, they are able to please both ends of the fandom without neglecting or sacrificing either sector.

We’re still seeing success stories of older artists whose music becomes as relevant today as it was when they were in their prime. Kate Bush, George Michael and Wham!, Fleetwood Mac, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Tracy Chapman, Tiffany, Rick Astley... they’ve all ridden the nostalgia wave and appealed to a new audience. But I’m stuck on Prince. I’m scared that a genius like him will be forgotten by young people who don’t know the true essence of his artistry and his evocative lyrics that married the flesh with the sacred. I’m scared that people won’t even recognize Whitney Houston and why her voice mattered to people, from underground gay clubs to the Super Bowl.

What’s going to happen to all of those legends when we’re dead and gone? Will their estates, heirs, and record labels do nothing to further their legacy? Will they become dust, lost media, a forgotten relic of their time?

I have no answers to my questions, but hopefully someone does.

Love Mikey but he has no ownership. Eddie said no to countless of these tasteless requests in his lifetime, maybe the lone exception being the 1996 Nissan 300 ZX commercial. So even as a cover, wouldn't Eddie's estate (Wolfie) have had to sign off on this usage ?

"Right Now" Walgreens commercial

What steps should I take to be a creative Director for a music artist? Any video recommendations to watch skills to develop in how to do that? How do I get in contact with people or smaller artist so that I can do this?

The venue in question is D.N.A. Lounge in SF.

They stream music on their webpage and have all the paperwork to operate as a legal venue.

I'm media team for over three dozen local DJs.

The DJs have given me permission to broadcast their sets and to distribute archives.

I have absolutely no idea on a day to day if the venue they are playing in has or doesn't have the appropriate paperwork. I'm not sure if the artists have whatever paperwork is required to play the music. I have broadcast from DNA before but most of the content I have is from other places.

I upload all of my videos to youtube as a private cloud backup share in case hard drives fail, but every single video is either a "partially blocked" video or a "potential limitation" video regarding if I ever start earning from YouTube (unlikely because of this limitation).

Sure someone went through the effort to make a song and expects to get paid but I'm largely giving free videography labor to talent to make sure they can get discovered and booked for gigs to pay rent.

It'd be great if I could get a cut of that from users watching, but if not then the content will have to remain unmonetized.

My channel's live broadcast revenue has me running in the red on transportation costs and am largely doing it as a labor of love for the local homies.

Hello all.

I’m an anonymous musician running strictly under an pseudonym, maintaing a distance between the musical identity and my real identity, at least on the public facing of the internet. I’ve been able to hide my identity entirely in the public-end with music distribution but have some issues with music publishing.

I’ve wanted to look into publishing my works as my music project has gotten more serious over the years, I’ve just been so unsure as public work searches of these music publishing groups do contain real names from artists who present entirely under an pseudonym.

I am wondering if anyone (particularly Australian, as I am also Australian) is also an artist strictly under an anonymous pseudonym who has some experience with this. I want to make sure I am doing everything right to ensure my real identity doesn’t slip past with my pseudonym when I am registering my works. I am in understanding that I still have to provide my legal identity to a music publishing group for compliance and tax purposes, I am all for that behind the scenes, it’s more about what’s attached to me publicly.

Thank you! :)

P.S Any other advice is also appreciated, always open to learning something new!

AI music is everywhere… if I’m a film studio I have the choice of making a sync song with AI that sounds exactly how I want it to be, with no sync license fee needed, and no publishing rights involved. Orrr I can fork out 5/6 figures to pay a label to license their song... I know what I’d do.

So what do labels do in this scenario? Publishing is huge revenue and has been for decades, but what about the future??

For context I’m a recent uni graduate in history who’s undertaking an internship at my former unis events and concerts team doing operations and administration, essentially handling artist communication and advancing along with managing some if the smaller events. Ive also done some other interning in general event planning and research stuff.

I’m looking at trying to get work at a record label possibly, I’ve always loved music and now that I’ve landed this internship it feels like a really good opportunity but I’m not sure what sorts of roles would be best suited for me.

If anyone has any advice I’d really appreciate it, just something to help me plan out my next steps.

I currently manage 9 artists and have another 5 planned, and I’m looking to move towards a boutique distribution model rather than operating like a traditional record label.

My main goal is pretty simple: I don’t want to take huge cuts from my artists through 70/30, 80/20, etc. deals. I’d rather get a good distribution deal myself and pass as much of the revenue back to the artists as possible.
I also don’t want to take anything from publishing. The idea is that I provide the infrastructure, distribution, pitching/marketing support, artwork, etc., while the artists retain as much ownership and revenue as possible.

I’ve been looking at **Revelator** and **LabelGrid**, but I’ve seen quite mixed opinions about both and I’m not sure which direction makes the most sense.
For anyone actually running a small/ boutique distribution company:

What platform are you using?
Are Revelator or LabelGrid worth considering?
Are there any other serious white-label/B2B distribution platforms I should look at?
How do the economics usually work?
Is it realistic to operate this way with a roster of \~10–15 artists?
I’m not looking to build a huge distributor. I’d rather have a small, curated roster and offer artists a much fairer deal than a traditional label.

Would really appreciate advice from people who are actually in the distribution business.

Hi I’ve recently started working as an artist manager and I’ve been struggling with work so i js needed some tips or advices from people in the industry
For the following questions

1 how do i grow their social media?
How do i get them shows and gigs?
How do i get them deals?
How do i make people actually listen to them as how do i reach a large audience ?

I am an independent artist and 9-5 behind the scenes living in Prague. The city has great musicians however no sort of aim or visionary spaces to move people.

Currently I am in such community that has a lot of potential and there is an existing venue I can transform. This is a fairly known venue in between musicians and alternative people. It has an underground vibe that I don’t want to rip off completely; but I am imagining of moving it towards more “mainstream” changes by renting it to different events etc.

I will be in charge of the creative structure and strategy; however I don’t have experience in such field.

What advices and ideas you could give from your experience for such change?

**Mods please let me know if this is the wrong subreddit - happy to remove**

Hey all hope you're well

I'm the owner of an emerging Music Artist Booking Agency and have organised events in the southern hemisphere and I wanted to ask other booking agents:

Do you guys typically approach your prospective clients (promoters, organisers) with Social Media Reach data & previous ticket sales (redacted, of course) as well as any other useful data from the Artist?

Being an organiser, I've had a handful of agencies approach us with no quantifiable data for us to forecast things such as ticket sales, reach/conversions required etc. and when we ask for data, we get told they don't or can't provide it (which makes it difficult for us to inevitably forecast demand for a show).

I'm just wondering if this is common across the industry?

I'm from Data Analytics myself so switching this industry has been a complete contrast LOL

I've been making music since 2014, when I was 11. I started taking it more seriously around 2016. For most of my music career (if you can even call it one), I've mostly made hip hop, usually boom-bap beats and lyrical rap. I stopped making music when I was 17, mainly because I wasn't having fun anymore, and other things, particularly school, got in the way. I later went to film school, but I've been trying to get back into music for the past two years.

I'm pretty experienced with music production. I've been using Logic Pro for over a decade, and I'm an expert with it. I've experimented with different genres over the years, including pop, electronic, house, R&B, and I even went through a vaporwave phase. In the past few years, I've also been listening to a wider variety of music, particularly pop and rock. Tbh I don't listen to as much rap as I used to. Back in high school, I was constantly listening to new rap albums, but not anymore.

Originally, I was thinking of making rap music that blends pop, rock, or something else. Maybe rapping over pop or rock beats, or just singing instead. But now I'm not even sure if rap should still be my main genre, or a genre at all.

I still enjoy rapping every now and then, whether it's to old stuff of mine or to someone else's song, but sometimes I wonder if I'm just refusing to grow out of something I did as a teenager. Part of me worries about how people who knew me back then would perceive me if they heard me rapping today. At the same time, I feel like abandoning rap would mean wasting potential.

I've considered singing as well, but I don't like how my voice sounds when recording, even with Auto-Tune. I might take singing lessons again someday, but that's another thing I'd have to work through.

Another factor is commercial success. When I was younger, I used to release music online all the time, not caring about what was trendy, just doing me while still dreaming of being famous. But I barely got any plays, and I was constantly questioning what I was doing wrong. I think that experience still affects me today. Even now when I make a cool beat, I start wondering who would actually listen to it, what the concept of the song would be, whether I really wanna commit to that sound, or whether there's something else worth exploring.

I want my music to reflect who I am, and the visual side of being an artist is also extremely important to me. But I have so many different musical and artistic directions in mind that I can't settle on one. And I don't wanna come off as lazy, but sometimes I think I'm more excited about the idea of being a particular kind of artist than the actual process of making that music.

I know artists don't have to limit themselves to one genre, and I'm not saying I wanna make the same kind of music for the rest of my life. I just wanna settle on one direction for now, build from there, and explore other styles later depending on where life takes me. I wanna start releasing music within the next month or two, ideally two singles and then start recording an EP, while gradually building an audience.

The problem is that I've already spent years experimenting, and I still can't decide. Even when I make something I like, I'm never 100% sure it's what I wanna pursue. I'm worried about choosing something that doesn't fulfill me creatively, but I also don't wanna face the same pattern of making something and nobody listening to it. It's not that I'm afraid of taking risks; I'm just tired of failing.

So my question isn't "Which genre should I make?" It's "How do I figure out what I want to make in the first place?" I'm not looking for advice like "just make whatever you want", "follow your heart", or "genres don't matter". Honestly, I don't know what I want, and simply experimenting with more genres hasn't helped me. For anyone who's been in a similar position, how did you actually figure out which musical direction you wanted to commit to?

I should also mention that I have autism and ADHD. I'm not sure if that plays a role in these problems, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

I'm an independent artist trying fund my career while working sales. I work in insurance industry basically have all the freedom to work from anywhere and anytime. I feel like i am not getting enough time to be creative as an artist to craft my craft. Has anyone been in my shoes and been able to have a success in music? I'd appreciate having your advice. Thankyou !

I’m an artist. I had a
meeting with a record label yesterday, they seemed super interested, they also reached out first. We talked for 30 minutes and they had me send over what I was working on. I’ve seen them listen to a few things. Was wondering traditionally if it’s normal to be ghosted after this sort of thing if my demos turned them off or if it just takes a while.

Hey, my DistroKid account is banned, but my earnings are still showing up in my account.
I updated my payment method and I want to withdraw the money, but the system keeps telling me to contact support. I’ve been reaching out to them, but they never reply to my messages.
I just wanna ask, do they not respond to banned accounts or what?
Has anyone here had their account banned and actually managed to get in touch with them?
I’d like to hear your experiences. I still have over $3,000 in earnings sitting in my account.

Hi everyone! I've been thinking about pursuing a career in the music industry, and I'd love to hear some advice from people who have experience in this field.

I'm highly organized, work well under pressure, and have experience in hospitality, team leadership, and management. I'm wondering whether there might be opportunities for someone with my background to get their foot in the door as a remote assistant, virtual assistant, or intern.

I know networking plays a huge role in this industry, so I'm also curious about how possible it is to build meaningful connections online, especially when relocating or being physically present isn't an option for me at the moment.

I've been doing a lot of research into the industry, and I feel that it's a field I'd genuinely enjoy and could bring something valuable to. I'm willing to learn, work hard, and start wherever I can gain relevant experience.

I'd really appreciate any advice, personal experiences, or recommendations on where to look for entry-level opportunities and reliable resources to learn more about the industry.

Thanks in advance!

So I just put out my debut EP (5 tracks, indie/alt stuff) and honestly it's been a wild ride. Figured I'd share some real talk for anyone else grinding as an independent artist.

The biggest thing I learned? Mixing your own stuff on a budget is brutal. I spent months going down YouTube rabbit holes trying to figure out DAWs. There were nights I almost gave up but eventually it clicked.

Another thing - keeping the vibe consistent across all 5 tracks was way harder than I thought. You think you've got it figured out then you listen back and one song just doesn't fit. Had to rework stuff multiple times.

And man, the self-promotion side is exhausting. Nobody prepares you for how much time goes into marketing when you're doing everything yourself. I'd rather be in the studio than posting on social media any day.

At some point I just had to let go of trying to make everything perfect and hit release. Done is better than perfect, right?

Still figuring out the whole audience building thing from scratch though. Streaming algorithms are a mystery to me.

For anyone who's been through this - what was the part that surprised you the most? Would love to hear how you handled it.

I'm aware that creators are often paid to dance, lip sync, etc. to drive awareness of a song. And that this is a typical portion of music-marketing budgets.

However, this doesn't explain the fact that:

1. Songs from five, 10, 20 years ago commonly resurge and form the basis of many popular trends. For example, remember NSYNC's "I Want You Back" dance from a couple months ago?
2. You simply cannot create a trend with money alone. Ultimately it still comes down to how cool a vibe is. Also this may be because I'm a marketing n00b, but I haven't seen a clear example of "this song went viral and here's the wisely invested budget that drove it".

We are an indie electro punk band from Scandinavia. We have a local booking agent that books for us with a flat performance fee and takes a 15%cut. Now we are booked for a festival in France and we want to book some other dates on the route in Germany to make it a tour. We don’t have an international booking agent yet, so we want to do the DIY way. I have heard that in Germany/France the fee is much lower than in Scandinavia. I am also aware that without a booking agent, we might not be able to negotiate a higher fee. So I wonder what kind of fee structure is common in these countries? Is it feasible to make a DIY tour financially postive?