Job Description
About SonicCritic
SonicCritic is a direct-to-fan music streaming platform built on a simple premise: artists should own their audience and keep the majority of what they earn. We pay independent artists 88% of net subscription revenue directly, run a privacy-first model with no listener-data harvesting, and are live on iOS and web. We're early, founder-built, and New Orleans is our first market.
The Role
You're our first regional A&R Lead, and you're building it in New Orleans. This is a boots-on-the-ground role: you live in the scene, you're at the shows, and you know who's about to break before the algorithms do. You'll own artist discovery, signing, and onboarding across the New Orleans and Gulf South ecosystem, and the playbook you build here becomes the model we take to the next city. This isn't traditional label A&R; you're not developing acts for a catalog we own. You're finding artists who fit a direct-to-fan model, earning their trust, and getting them live and earning on the platform.
What You'll Do
- Own New Orleans as a market - bounce, hip-hop, jazz, brass, R&B, indie, and everything the city does that no one else does
- Be physically present in the scene: venues, studios, second lines, open mics, local showcases
- Source and evaluate independent artists who are a strong fit for a fan-funded, ownership-first model
- Own the pitch to artists - clearly communicating our payout structure, splits/co-ownership model, and rights requirements (artists must own or clear their masters and compositions; no covers or uncleared samples)
- Guide artists through onboarding if necessary: catalog upload, splits setup, and their first release
- Curate what gets featured from the market and shape early artist-development priorities
- On-the-ground artist feedback
- Help define the regional A&R playbook we'll use to launch the next market
What You Bring
- Deep roots in the New Orleans music community - real relationships, real credibility, and a phone that people actually pick up
- A track record of spotting talent early and closing artist relationships
- Comfort operating in an early-stage, pre-revenue environment with limited process and high ownership
- Fluency in the economics of streaming and artist payouts (or the appetite to get there fast)
- Clear, honest communication - you can explain rights and revenue terms without overpromising
- Bonus: connections beyond New Orleans into the broader Gulf South (Baton Rouge, Houston, Atlanta, Memphis)
Compensation
Meaningful equity, cash when funded (raising pre-seed). I'm transparent about where we are. This is a build-the-function role, not a maintain-it one. You get in on the ground floor of the market that defines the company.
Why This Role
New Orleans has produced generations of world-defining music and been systematically underpaid for all of it. SonicCritic is built to flip that. If you want to be the person who brings a genuinely artist-first model home to the city that gave the world so much of its sound, this is it.