HitQuarters was an international music industry publication and contact database founded in 1999. It was noted for its in-depth interviews with industry figures, as well as its A&R and manager contact directory, free artist promo pages and song sale facility, demo reviews and A&R chart,
["A&R Star Makers: The Vanishing Gatekeepers"](_blank)
''LA Weekly'', 11 February 2010. and was the sister site to the songwriting tip sheet SongQuarters. The site was sporadically active from May 2017 up until September 20, 2020, and no posts have been made on its Twitter and Facebook accounts since March and May 2015 respectively.
Focus on aiding unsigned and independent artists
The website had a strong focus on offering unsigned and independent artists, songwriters and producers with tools to help develop their music careers, whether through attracting the attentions of record label A&R and management, pitching songs and tracks, releasing and marketing music independently, or just learning more about how the music industry works.
To this aim the website featured an extensive contact database known as HitTracker, where users could find contact information for A&R, publishers, managers, producers and songwriters based on their track records, a news bulletin service, free artist promo pages, demo review feature judged by A&Rs, producers and managers, and an archive of several hundred interviews with industry figures that were geared towards offering constructive career advice and industry know-how.
''Sound On Sound'', November 2000.
Members of HitQuarters that had gone on to find success include
Christelle,
The Knife,
Dominique Young Unique,
Bobby Creekwater,
Lesley Roy and
State of Shock.
Interviews and features
One of HitQuarters' most prominent features was its weekly in-depth interviews with major industry figures such as
A&Rs, producers, managers, songwriters, promoters and publishers. Interviewees included pop impresario and entertainment mogul
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality and businessman. He has judged on the British television talent competition shows ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003), ''The X Factor (British TV series), The X Factor UK ...
, industry executives and A&R
Martin Kierszenbaum,
Mike Caren,
Jason Flom,
Peter Edge,
Chris Hicks,
Richard Russell,
Miles Leonard and
Ron Fair, managers
Jonathan Dickins,
Dumi,
Louis Walsh and Eric Härle, songwriters
Diane Warren,
Wayne Hector,
Rami Yacoub and
Andreas Carlsson, producers
RedOne,
Chris Braide,
Steve Mac,
JR Rotem,
Richard X and
Phil Ek, and songwriter, producer and A&R
Linda Perry.
The website also ran a regular demo review feature where a changing panel of industry experts reviewed songs uploaded to the site by unsigned artists, assessing their hit potential and offering advice on how the tracks can be improved. Judges included
Visible Noise
Visible Noise is a defunct British independent record label that focuses exclusively on British bands. They are best known for the rock bands Lostprophets, Bullet for My Valentine, Bullet For My Valentine, and Bring Me the Horizon.
History
Vis ...
CEO Julie Weir, and producers
Colin Richardson and Eddie Galan and producer and publisher
Steve "Blast" Wills.
A&R chart
HitQuarters founded the world's first A&R chart that measured the success of individual A&R representatives based on points accumulated from their respective artists' chart success. Most notably, 2004 saw Wind-Up Records'
Diana Meltzer become the first woman to top HitQuarters' World Top 100 A&R Chart,
["Women in music industry...kind of"](_blank)
, ''Feministing.com'', 12 April 2004. a considerable achievement in what is traditionally a male dominated field.
'' Billboard (magazine), Billboard'', 19 Jul 2003.
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', 23 July 2009. Previous number 1s included Clive Davis, Tommy Mottola, Dr. Dre, and Mark Williams.
SongQuarters
HitQuarters was a companion site to SongQuarters, an online tip sheet for "songwriting leads to major and developing artists". It shares the same contact directory as HitQuarters and its members automatically had access to the HitQuarters site. It was also a subscription-based service with 7-day trials available for those wanting to try it out first. The songwriting leads were split into three categories according to the level of the artist they relate to: 'Top 500', 'Newly Signed and Developing' and 'Unsigned and Up-and-coming'.
References
{{reflist
External links
Official HitQuarters Facebook page, no posts since May 2015Official Twitter, no posts since March 2015
Internet properties established in 1999
Online music stores of the United States
1999 establishments in the United States