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Anyone heard of A&R Select?


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I just checked my band's myspace inbox and we got a message from one of their reps saying they were interested in our music and wanted to offer us a publishing deal and all that stuff. I was wondering if anyone here had received the same thing and if they have and went with it if it was legit because it seems kind of iffy right now. Here's their myspace page if anyone wanted to look.

A&R Select

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A&R select strikes me as a "dream merchant" operation like Taxi. A lot of these kinds of businesses are popping up now because there are a fair number of displaced people who used to have a real job in the record industry.

To make money in the music business, either you engage in legit commerce because you have the resources to do so, or you engage in selling "services" to the multitude of hopefuls who get a placebo effect that they are being presented to real decision makers. The dream merchant business is nothing new, but there is more money in it now than ever because as a smart man (who often posts on HC) says, "Every swingin' d*ck with a guitar and six months of lessons thinks they have what it takes to be a star".

There are no real shortcuts. If you pay A&R select or Taxi, or whoever to "get your material in front of label execs" you are rolling the dice. From what I've seen, about the best you can hope for are smaller deals here or there for a song in a low budget movie, etc. IMHO most of these businesses promise way more than they can actually deliver to hook you in and have every excuse in the world to placate you when it doesn't happen ... just like any A&R weasel.

Is it a scam? Technically speaking, no it isn't.

Do you need them? No.

Does it hurt your credibility? I don't know.

Do they have an inside track to the real big time decision makers? Very doubtful.

Do they have their ear to the ground and know what people are looking for? Probably.

Is it worth it? Maybe... so long as you can afford it, have your eyes open, and realistic expectations of what they can do for you.

No matter what, if these people put any kind of paper in front of you, get an experienced reputable music business attorney to review it and advise you before signing anything.

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Originally posted by Offspring992
I was going to post this in the music biz forum but that one doesn't kove as fast as this one.
ummm Offspring...look up...this is the Music Biz forumrolleyes.gif

gtrbass is right on...if these people were really able to do everything they claim, they would not be slumming in myspace, would they? People would be flocking to them...cool.gif
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I got the same message. found myself here, amongst other blogs, trying to find info from people who've dealt with them. I'm reading some horror stories, and some success stories.

What bothers me is, if I understand at all how things work (and I probably don't, but here goes) people who do this kind of work get paid when you get paid. When a company like this claims to do the same work but want you to pay them first, it makes me skeptical. Maybe I'm wrong.

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Originally posted by gtrbass
Is it a scam? Technically speaking, no it isn't.

Do you need them? No.

Does it hurt your credibility? I don't know.

Do they have an inside track to the real big time decision makers? Very doubtful.

Do they have their ear to the ground and know what people are looking for? Probably.

Is it worth it? Maybe... so long as you can afford it, have your eyes open, and realistic expectations of what they can do for you.
I've been wondering about this kind of thing, especially about TAXI, which advertizes in Electronic Musician and a couple other rags that I get. I've subscribed to their newsletter (without having become a TAXI member) and have not had any red flags go up yet - I consider myself sensitive enough to potential problems to get at least some inkling of that problem before it affects me.

I have questions: "Do you need them? No." So what better way exists to get a song in front of someone who might use it? Especially in light of the question, "Do they have their ear to the ground and know what people are looking for? Probably." If they know what people are looking for, wouldn't that be a better "in" than I can do on my own?

I'm sure TAXI and the like have thousands of submissions per month that they have to wade through, and those submissions are probably awful, as BlueStrat has pointed out very effectively in other threads. I've considered joining TAXI, but having read this thread so far, the question I'd want to ask them is, "After TAXI has sorted out the few songs that are worth considering for further promotion, what percentage of those songs are eventually placed?" That percentage would give me a measure of the relative effectiveness of the work they do. For example, of 10,000 songs submitted to them, and maybe 100 selected for promotion, do they place 50 of them, or 5, or 1? It would tell me something about whether they select effectively, or promote effectively, or are just assclowns taking membership fees to pay for their limos. But I don't know if they'd give me or anyone those kinds of numbers.

On the other hand, I've received letters from independent A&R companies soliciting my songs triggered by my copyrighting some songs. Is working with such companies worth my time moreso than a group like TAXI (other than not having to pay a membership fee)?

And yes, I've taken it to heart that any paper needs to be reviewed by an entertainment attorney, although whether such attorney wants in on the rape is also open to question. (I always keep in mind the old joke, "If you laid every lawyer in the world end-to- end, that would be a very good start...")
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I know a guy that likes TAXI . I don't really get what they do but he says they give you the contacts and you submit the stuff . After that you don't need them anymore for that particular contact . He says sometimes a contact would have very specific demands regarding length , tempo and instrumentation .

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ALL these services rely on people not understanding how the music business works.

Record companies are there to turn a medium success into a major success. They are NOT there to discover talent. They do have A&R people at festivals and major venues to see who is drawing a crowd and they do buy acts from minor labels that have already had some success.

In other words, if you have had some minor success such as playing 'Stage Two' at a larger festival or opening for a larger band in your home town, then 'they'will have looked at you.

And if they did not talk to you, it was because they did not like what they saw.

If someone ask you for money, no matter how small a sum that might be, in order to somehow gain the attention of record companies, then it is always a scam.

It really is as simple as that.

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I just wanted to clarify that my friend is submitting music for commercial use not as a band or songwriter . He is not looking for a record deal or chart topping hit . I think TAXI gets him in touch with add agencies for radio/tv/film etc.. type projects .

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I just wanted to clarify that my friend is submitting music for commercial use not as a band or songwriter . He is not looking for a record deal or chart topping hit . I think TAXI gets him in touch with add agencies for radio/tv/film etc.. type projects .

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It's not just A & R Select and others like this.. Yes what has been said makes plenty truth but if you are not tight, if you aren't sellable don't hold your breath.. There were 100,000 records released online in 2009- 228 sold more then 10,000 records only 15 of those 10,000 records were independent labels.

I don't think that A&R Select is going to make or break you.. $100.00 ain't too much to take a risk...

www.msparrelli.com

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Quote Originally Posted by msparrelli View Post
It's not just A & R Select and others like this.. Yes what has been said makes plenty truth but if you are not tight, if you aren't sellable don't hold your breath.. There were 100,000 records released online in 2009- 228 sold more then 10,000 records only 15 of those 10,000 records were independent labels.

I don't think that A&R Select is going to make or break you.. $100.00 ain't too much to take a risk...

www.msparrelli.com
Um....you just joined HC, and your first post is to dig up a nearly 3 year old thread to say that 100 bucks isn't too much to gamble on what's essentially a dream merchant?

Sorry, but this doesn't pass the smell test.
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Quote Originally Posted by msparrelli View Post
It's not just A & R Select and others like this.. Yes what has been said makes plenty truth but if you are not tight, if you aren't sellable don't hold your breath.. There were 100,000 records released online in 2009- 228 sold more then 10,000 records only 15 of those 10,000 records were independent labels.

I don't think that A&R Select is going to make or break you.. $100.00 ain't too much to take a risk...

www.msparrelli.com
Um....you just joined HC, and your first post is to dig up a nearly 3 year old thread to say that 100 bucks isn't too much to gamble on what's essentially a dream merchant?

Sorry, but this doesn't pass the smell test.
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Hi I'm Nick, I'm from a band called The Plague Awakening, from palm Coast Florida, we just encountered a problem from this west coast asshole&****** place, they just said this to us...(exact copy and paste)


Hey, this is Josh with A&R Select. Right now we're looking for a band in your genre, and my scouts came across your page. If you're interested in working with someone to further your music career, feel free to give me a call, 323-988-5734.

Josh
arselect.com


well thats what he told us, and we were really interested (who wouldnt want to further there music career) so me, seeing nothing in this world is free or easy, went to there page, and saw it, it looked very legit, sow i went to there myspace, also quite legit, sow i watched the videos and caught the catch that you had to pay a (1 time small fee) well here was the next message from the guy (josh)
:

I'm expecting to be in around 11 and out around 6 on Friday. That's Pacific time.



so we called the guy, he was telling us that if we just gave him our cc information and bank account information and made 4 easy payments of 225 dollars that we would have our music sent out to over 400 college campuses and that we would start doing press confrences and radio hostings and take the first step to stardom, and thats when i said can we just do this in a month from now we just got done recording and need to save up some more money so that we can get with you guys and he said "no you need to sign with us now or we wont be interested blada blada" sow yah, anyone got any information on these guys because we are all quite unsure what to do about them atm, please contact us at

www.myspace.com/theplagueawakening

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Quote Originally Posted by Poker99 View Post
bahahahaha!

Quote Originally Posted by BlueStrat View Post
Um....you just joined HC, and your first post is to dig up a nearly 3 year old thread to say that 100 bucks isn't too much to gamble on what's essentially a dream merchant?

Sorry, but this doesn't pass the smell test.
I don't think any of these sort of *coughscam* marketers pass the smell test.
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Quote Originally Posted by Poker99 View Post
bahahahaha!

Quote Originally Posted by BlueStrat View Post
Um....you just joined HC, and your first post is to dig up a nearly 3 year old thread to say that 100 bucks isn't too much to gamble on what's essentially a dream merchant?

Sorry, but this doesn't pass the smell test.
I don't think any of these sort of *coughscam* marketers pass the smell test.
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They sent me an email and I told them they could call me. I talked to a dude from "A&R Select" and he was SUCH a douche. There is a lot of {censored} like this out there. From people wanting you to pay to be on a compilation album to bull{censored} companies like A&R Select. I get random emails from this type on Sonicbids.

Taxi is legit though.

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