Most labels recruit people to become A&R’s through internship programs. Def Jam has one, my cousin and one of my friends did the program. Here’s the link to their application

Other labels have similar programs. However, many companies are doing away with their A&R departments due to downloading loosing money. Also the Internet now tells who is hot, so they don’t have to spend money looking for talent.

Nielsen SoundScan tracks whose downloaded most and online music communities like MySpace and Facebook report page views and how many times people listen to their songs. They no longer care that much about live performances because the studio can fix their voice—-that is why so many artists are terrible performing live.

Visit record labels websites and see if they have internships available.

Good Luck.

You want to be an agent? A record company exec? A vampire?

Some agents are really good and helpful. Record companies used to call this job “artist development” but they don’t do that anymore, they want to sign an act, bleed it dry, and discard it before they have to pay it any decent dollar amounts.

To be an agent, you simply have to learn the business, get to know local bands, and work your tochus off trying to get work for the musicians you represent. Assigning people who can sing is something you might do if you work your way up to producer, but that would be ‘way down the road.

Frankly, the record industry is in steep decline because they’re stupid and don’t figure out how to keep up with technological advances nor how to serve niche markets. But good luck–maybe you’ll find yourself properly placed to exploit the future we can’t predict.