There has been a tremendous amount of activity and movement within the A&R community over the last two months. Alex Luke and Michael Howe both join Dan McCarroll’s West Coast A&R team at Capitol while writer/producer Mike Elizondo joins Rob Cavallo’s A&R team at Warner Bros. The other addition to the Warner Bros. A&R team is former Jive A&R veteran Jeff Fenster who is returning to Los Angeles after nearly two decades in New York. Two additional transplants from NYC to LA are former J/Arista Sony Executive Larry Jackson who joins Jimmy Iovine’s team at Interscope and Atlantic’s Sam Riback who moves to the LA office. Meanwhile in NY, Adonis Sutherin joins Jive, Steve Lunt exists Atlantic and Ian Dench exists Epic. Longtime Motown A&R executive Lionel ‘KK’ Rosemond leaves to join indie powerhouse label E1 while in the UK, Mercury A&R executive Thomas Haimovici leaves to join the Warner Bros.-UK team.
 
Looking back at the activity within the A&R/Record Label community this past year, only twenty-three A&R executives were hired in 2010 and only two of those (Mark Williams and Vlad Bar) had ever been in A&R executive jobs before. Compare the twenty-three hired in 2010 to the fifty-eight hired in 2009 or the eighty hired in 2007! Only ten A&R executives in 2010 (compared to fourteen in 2009) were fortunate to leave one A&R job for another. That list includes Jeff Fenster, Larry Jackson, Michael Howe, Chris Anakute, Lionel ‘KK’ Rosemond, Thomas Haimovici, Qiana Conley, Lindsey Cook, Dan McCarroll and Gary Overton (while Dan McCarroll and Gary Overton are the Presidents of Capitol and Sony Music Nashville respectively and are not A&R executives per se, we’re including them because of their leadership role in driving their label’s creative departments and Conley is included since she joins Simon Cowell’s SYCO in an A&R capacity from her creative position at Notting Hill Music Publishing).
 
Sadly, there were 40 A&R executives who exited their A&R positions in 2010 and not one of them has landed another job in the A&R field (we’re including the three Major Label Presidents who have exited from their jobs since October: Tom Whalley from Warner Bros., Amanda Ghost from Epic, and Rob Stevenson from Virgin). While forty exits from A&R in 2010 was less than the fifty-one exits in 2009, the sixty-four A&R exits in 2008 or the one-hundred, twenty nine who exited in 2007, we’re still moved by the sheer numbers and the loss of talent our industry has endured over the last several years. And as we head into 2011, it’s with a sense of sadness that for all intents & purposes EMI will most likely be sold or closed (of course, we realize we’ve been saying this for the last two years). If and when this legendary label falls, it will mean the record industry as we knew it has shrunk by 50% over the last decade. But, the reassuring and enduring aspect of the Music Industry is that it continues to be filled with visionaries, forward-thinkers and immense talent that will always find a way to prevail, inspire and entertain.

Lots of A&R personnel moves to report: fourteen A&R Executives left their jobs within the last eight weeks while only five new A&R Execs were hired. Among the transitions were Shawn Barron (Atlantic), Steve Allen, Ben Durling and Bill Holland (Warner Bros.), Sam Mumford (RCA), Ericka Grayson (A&M), Durius Jones (Capitol), David Wright and Angelo Sanders (Def Jam) and Jamie Nelson (Mercury).

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Out of Step Entertainment

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There have been massive changes on the A&R front over the last few months. Among the most notable changes were former RCA A&R Executive Matt Marshall and EMI Music Publishing Executive Ed Jefferson who both join Tom Whalley’s A&R team over at Warner Bros in Burbank. In New York, A&R Veteran Steve Ralbovsky has brought his Canvasback Music label to Atlantic from Sony. Georgina McAvenna joins Rob Stevenson’s team over at Virgin, while Julius Garcia joins Jove and Daniel Mitchell joins Bad Boy. Meanwhile, Ben Adelson exits Universal Republic. Across the pond in London, Columbia’s Nick Huggett joins Island while Philipe Ascoli and Zack Strubel both join Columbia’s A&R team. Former Sony International A&R Executive Ricardo Fernandez joins Geffen. Phil Christie exits Virgin, former Sony Urban A&R Veteran Kawn Prather joins Def Jam South in Atlanta. Also joining Def Jam South is DJ Khaled. In a massive reorganization, Bill Bennett is exiting Warner Bros. Nashville and is being replaced by John Esposito (WEA’s current Ex VP Distribution).

There have been massive changes on the A&R front over the last few months. Jeff Levin joins Atlantic while Sunny Lee joins Motown and Tom Lee joins Mercury. Max Gousse, David Wright and Angelo Sanders all join Island’s West Coast office. We’re always sad to report exits from the A&R World. Kenny ‘Tic’ Salcido and Joseph Weinberger exit Warner Bros., Lorne Behrman exits Blue Note, Susan Riley exits Word in Nashville and Steve Buckingham exits Vanguard. – A&R registry