Ben Maddahi – Columbia Records/Unrestricted

Ben Maddahi has been immersed in the world of A&R since 2006, when he joined Atlantic Records as an intern, but music has been a part of his life for far longer. A former drummer for the LA junior philharmonic, he spent his late teen years producing and writing, and still DJs now.

In the industry, he has commanded respect in the major label system, publishing, and management, while making hit records with the likes of David Guetta, Flo Rida, Charlie Puth, Ariana Grande, and tons more. Maddahi spoke to NME about understanding artists and not letting your creative bar slip.

1. HAVING EXPERIENCE PLAYING MUSIC IS CRUCIAL FOR WORKING IN THE INDUSTRY
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   The biggest complaint I hear from the creative community is when people in A&R are not well versed on what goes into being a successful artist, producer, or songwriter. When commentary comes from a record executive and it’s ill-informed, it reinforces the stereotype of a ‘suit.’ It’s crucial for an effective executive – whether it be label A&R, publishing A&R, or manager – to really understand the lives of the creative they’re working with and what goes into the creative process.

   An A&R may not have toured or know how to produce a hit record on their own – although it helps – but having that understanding helps you raise your level of guidance to artists in a way that they’ll understand and respect, and helps you create trust and credibility with them.

2. IT IS HARDER THAN EVER TO BREAK NEW ARTISTS

   “It’s true that it’s harder to break new artists, but that term, ‘new artist’, has also changed over the years and there are many contributing factors as to why it’s harder. Labels are signing artists earlier than ever, and a large percentage being signed today were hobbyists three months ago.

   As an industry, we’ve ended up signing people who are talented but under-prepared, and once signed, it becomes apparent that most need a couple of years just to get up to speed. If you’re signing a 15-year-old kid off TikTok, they’ve likely never toured before, performed before or even been in a real studio. The time horizon of breaking an artist ten years ago used to be 18 to 36 months once they had signed to a major label; now it’s more like three to five years. It’s not going to happen quickly.”

3. THE “AGE OF DISTRACTION” IS PUTTING MORE IMPORTANCE ON EMOTIONAL CONNECTION

   “It’s a challenging time right now – you’re getting pulled away by text messages, emails, tweets, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, homework, family stuff… Life is a lot more hectic [than ten years ago]. We’re inundated with, I’d venture, ten times more information and there’s an endless array of music and artists to pick from.

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   So it’s no longer just about a song, mixed with an amazingly constructed artist proposition delivered through a music video, article or great performance, because you’ve seen 1,000 of them in the past week, and the likelihood you even got through an entire music video is super low. Fans have gravitated to artists who they authentically connect to emotionally. That connection happened in the past but it’s so much easier to emotionally connect with artists now that the walls have come down via social media.”

4. A&R IS STILL ALL ABOUT AUDIO AND AUTOGRAPHS

   “That was [Atlantic Records co-founder] Ahmet Ertegun’s famous thing – audio and autographs. It’s all about getting the songs done and getting people to sign on the dotted line. It’s cool to say, ‘I found so-and-so first’, but to be able to negotiate the right deal and convince a lawyer, or a manager and artist, or the rest of their team, to close the deal is 99 per cent of the work nowadays.

   There’s a lot of different styles of A&R – data[-driven], record-making, relationship-driven, song finders or pluggers, and the closers – but you have to be a little of all of them. The closers are negotiators, and that’s just as valuable as identifying who should be signed. You’ve got to be able to close, or at least manage up to your boss or chairman.”

5. YOU HAVE TO KEEP THE CREATIVE BAR HIGH

   “That is absolutely key. There are a lot of times where I’ve declined session suggestions because they’re not good enough for the artist. You have to protect your artists by doing that. Your creative reputation needs to be sterling as well as your business reputation. As an A&R, I pitch very selectively because when people do get stuff from me, I want them to say, ‘Oh my god’, and to immediately be on board.

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   If you’re going to ask somebody to get on a song, you’ve got to send them a jaw-dropper – there’s no point in sending out B-level music. You have to come off as impressive every time – do take risks, but only be associated with incredible music.”

This article was originally published in the Sep/Oct 2023 issue of NME Magazine.