By: Monique T.M. | September 24, 2021
AudioDream Records, an independent urban genre music label, signed a highly anticipated digital distribution deal with We Create Music Group, who offer the best in-class technology for artists and labels. With the focus on artist development, creative strategies, music production and music business education for its artists, ADR provides dedicated A&R, marketing and branding resources that cater to each artist’s sound.
Founded in Toledo, Ohio by A&R executive Julius Darrington, ADR’s mission is to create a home and platform for artists where they have an opportunity to branch out their artistic visions, learn the music business, and become entrepreneurs. “I had a hunger for entrepreneurship and a passion for helping creatives,” Darrington stated.
Darrington got the music bug at the early age of 12 sitting through rehearsals of his late mother’s musical group. Highly inspired, he formed his own singing group with relatives, where he sang and co-wrote some of the tunes and later he began a solo career as an R&B singer, gaining success on UK’s Breaking Artist Charts, where he caught the eye of major record labels.
It took a few failed negotiations that began to position the then rising star turned businessman. After successfully orchestrating his own personal music projects,he became so intrigued with the business side of music that he signed himself. In 2008, he and a partner launched a local record label called Madness Entertainment, later renamed AudioDream Records, the beginning of something magical.
“What makes ADR unique is we take the full holistic artist development approach from top to bottom,” said Darrington. What he calls an “old school approach” is a necessary element within the music industry that is a lost art, what he recalls is missing today. The ability to develop talent from a branding perspective, media training, as well as create the music is what separates ADR from a lot of newly-formed record labels.
For Darrington, this approach was inspired by influences like Barry Gordy, one of the first powerful black entrepreneurs in the music industry who created a sound that captivated an entire era, independently. Other influences in the music business that come to mind for Darrington are Clarence Avant, known as “The Black Godfather,” an American music executive and entrepreneur; Master P, who is an entertaining personality, producer, and A&R; and P-Diddy, who transformed from executive to producer and cultivated the idea of an executive while also being a talent. All of them have played major roles behind the scenes and on the big stage while inspiring generations of other black entrepreneurs in music.
In 2019, ADR relocated to Los Angeles, CA, signing new emerging artists such as Cocaine Papii and SUWAYT in 2020. “We empower them to turn their artistic & creative vision into a musical brand,” said Darrington. ADR is for the true lovers of hip-hop, R&B, and pop music.
With a firm belief in the process of nurturing dreams to greatness, ADR is looking to make intelligent business moves, expand the company and build unique partnerships with other brands in the coming years.
