Artist Management 101: A Manifesto

Posted by Pinky on Oct 19, 2010 in Blog | 15 comments

My very first “real” job in the music business was managing a band from Petaluma California called Strangewood.  They were a pop/rock outfit that played around the Bay Area on a regular basis.  Zach Hammer and Jed Friesen, the vocalist/lead guitarist and drummer respecitvely, are still playing together in a group called Five AM.

I had no idea what I was doing.  I wasn’t sure if my job was to book the band, get them a record deal or drive the van. (The correct answer was ‘yes.’)  I just wanted to be of help as we all stumbled our way through this great and mysterious business of music.

That was many years ago.  Since that time I have had the joy of working with people in all facets of the business – agents, promoters, publicists, publishers, licensors, label execs and the like.  Twelve years on, I think I finally have a handle on what it means to be an artist manager.  Though ironically, it was working OUTSIDE of the business that taught me to think like a ring-master.  These are some of the lessons I have learned along the way.

Lesson One: Don’t call it commission.

Managers are famous for taking 10% – 20% of the gross revenue from the artists they represent.  This is considered a fair sum as the manager is ultimately responsible for the overall strategic direction of an artist’s career, including the hiring (and firing) of additional team members.

In business, we call that equity.  If I was hired to run a new company that had very few resources and required a great deal of my time, it would be perfectly appropriate to take a piece of the business as part of my compensation.  HOWEVER: It should not be confused with “commission,” which is a percentage of whatever you went out and sold.  When you’re a business owner, you are responsible for sales, but you’re also responsible for marketing, infrastructure costs, HR issues and the overall performance of the company.  None of that earns a commission, but all of it matters to the bottom line.  You must think holistically about your artist’s business or you’re missing the entire point.  If you want to avoid all of those headaches and just get paid a piece of what you sell, become an agent or a promoter.  It’s a much different gig. (And an important one at that.)

Lesson Two: Experience Matters.

This one hurts if you’re in the position I was in when I started out.  I had enough passion to light up the city of San Francisco and absolutely no idea how it should be directed.  The resulting insecurity led me to ask my artists to sign multi-year management contracts just so a “big-time” manager couldn’t swoop in and take me out of the picture.  How sad is that?  I was limiting my own friends in the name of personal security… which in the end, those contracts did not provide.  They created animosity and frustration on all sides when I couldn’t deliver the holy grail of indie super-stardom – a major label record deal.  The paper was worthless and made us all feel trapped.  Don’t do it.

Lesson Three: What your professor doesn’t want you to know…

There didn’t used to be such a thing as a college degree in “music business.”  The very notion was so uncool you would literally have been at a disadvantage up to and through the ’90s if you had one.  But as this ship has begun to list, the rules are changing and the roll of the artist manager is as well.  I am very fortunate to teach at Belmont University, which is famous for its music industry undergrad and graduate programs.  But if I may be so bold, I don’t think that we are teaching the skills required to succeed in the music business.  We’re teaching the mechanics.  We’re teaching WHAT it is, not how to bend it to our will.  Our students should out-perform anyone that lacks a formal education in our industry, but the fact is, it’s mostly trial and error, and you pretty much start at the bottom and work your way up with or without a degree.  It’s called “on the job training,” and it has historically been the only way to make it in this business.

But there is a solution.

Today’s managers should learn how to develop talent.  To refine performance.  To create a spectacle.  To produce a show. And to sell tickets to high quality entertainment events.  Those are things that can be taught.  And in tomorrow’s world, where CDs no longer exist and the only reason to buy a download is out of sympathy for an artist, tickets to shows and souvenirs are all that will sustain us.  If a manager doesn’t know how to produce an event that is worth paying for, they don’t know the first thing about the business they’re supposed to be “managing.”

Mötley Crüe knew that 30 years ago.  The Grateful Dead knew it 40 years ago.  And Lady Gaga will make a billion dollars in the next decade because she knows it now.

Let me rephrase that…  It works in heavy metal, it works in psychedelia and it works in pop, and it always has.  Don’t tell me it won’t work for your artist.  If it doesn’t, you’re in trouble.

Lesson Four: Be bigger than the sum of your parts.

Even the best manager in the world would be worthless if it weren’t for the team of people and companies that surround them.  The most important thing a manager can do is hire the right people to play their parts.  This is a basic list of the professionals a manager needs to be able to wrangle:

• Booking Agent – Everybody knows this but most artists will hire anyone that promises to book shows.  An agent that believes you’re the next U2 will put dollars in your pocket.  An agent that doesn’t know what they’re doing will waste your time and give you 100 excuses for why the shows aren’t coming in.  A great agent has connections and calls in favors for their most important clients.  A manager that doesn’t have access to serious agents isn’t a serious manager.
• Promoter – These are typically selected on a tour-by-tour basis, but developing acts don’t have to wait until the 80 city world-tour to find and take advantage of the skills a promoter brings to the table.  Re-read “Lesson Three.”  A promoter should know what an audience wants, what they’ll pay and how to advertise and evangelize an event.  This can be an individual or a major corporation, but they should be just as excited about your events as you are.
• Road Manager - This person is your protector, your babysitter, your travel agent, your assistant, your best friend, worst enemy and often times, your driver.  Trust me when I say that you don’t want just “any” road manager.  They should be 5x more responsible than you are on 1/5th the sleep.  They should also smell nice.  (You’ll thank me later.)
• Publicist – Be careful with this one.  Many publicists think that their job is to write press releases and send out mass mail to journalists that get 400 requests a day and don’t give a rip about your new album or local event. A  great publicist, above all, knows people.  They get ink.  They get blog features.  They work with you to develop a market-by-market strategy.  If yours doesn’t do ALL of those things, you’ve got an expensive spammer on your hands.
• Business Manager – The money miser.  This person handles everything from taxes to pay roll to long term investments.  They are your financial advisor and very best friend.  This is the scariest position for a manager to hire, because they have direct contact with the artist and can tell them if a manager is acting irresponsibly – either in terms of what they’re being paid or what they’re turning down.  Never trust a manager’s “best friend” to be your business manager.  It’s a highly skilled occupation and is best managed by a firm such as Flood Bumstead McCready McCarthy.
• Attorney – Where would the world be without lawyers?  Ya can’t live with ‘em, and you certainly can’t protect and/or defend yourself without them.  Yours should have gray hair.  They should understand intellectual property.  They should be respected.  And your manager should know several and give you the choice of who to work with.
• New Media Manager – If you’re really lucky, your manager will be an HTML 5 wizard, a social media guru and have drinks with Steve Jobs every Thursday night.  What’s more likely however, is that your manager knows who to call when it’s time to build an effective web strategy.  There are several reputable companies out there to choose from and I’d be glad to make a recommendation if you need one, but your manager should have a 100% solid grasp on the importance of digital media in today’s music industry.  (Hint: It IS today’s music industry.)
• Oh yea… and a record label.  Yes, they still matter.  If any of the above-listed professionals are going to get paid, you need to be famous.  You’re only going to get famous if zillions of dollars are spent marketing you to the masses.  Record labels are the only investors stupid enough to risk millions of dollars on 20-somethings with no clue about how the business works and zero interest in anything but hot chicks and guitar licks.  It’s quite a model.  There are 101 ways to get a deal, but the more people your manager knows, the easier it is to get a serious shot at a contract.  No one knows EVERYONE, but a manager that can assemble a solid team will know someone that knows everyone.  And everyone is everything.

So now that I’ve written a 4,000 word essay on what management *should* be, let me take it all back and say this…

If you are a developing artist, you need to be your own manager until someone fits the description above.  You need to build, book and promote your own shows. (Just like Mötley Crüe did way back when.)  You need to create a spectacle.  There is nothing more attractive to a hot shot executive than an artist or a band that is already making money.  You want them competing for you.  You want to be their priority.  You want to find someone who has been around the block but isn’t over-worked with their existing commitments.  This person is nearly impossible to find, but they will find you if you’re building a scene.  If the idea of managing your own career does not appeal to you, I’m really sorry, but you should quit now.  There is a profound difference between crafting emotional works of art and making a living selling them.  Anyone can make music but very few can make it their living.  And that’s what makes those who do so special.

Happy hunting!