MANAGER, WHEN DO YOU NEED ONE?
The reason I decided to write this post was
because I’d been recently approached by a
few artists who asked me if I could connect
them with good managers. There are a lot of
misconceptions about what an artist manager
does, and there are several types in the
music business. I won’t go into all of them
in this post. Most of them you won’t need
until you’re touring and making some heavy
cheddar anyway. The two primary types are
the personal manager, and the business
manager.
Most artists who are trying to
get their careers off the ground are
usually looking for a personal manager.
Many artists look for managers before
developing anything to manage. The more
developed you are as an artist, the better
your chances are of attracting a good
manager’s interest. There are however, some
of the major misconceptions about artist
managers and what they do.
Here are a few:
1. Mangers should invest lots of money
into the artist. It’s not a managers job
to pay the costs for your recording
projects, travel, or promotional material.
While it’s not uncommon to find a manager
thats willing to pay for the needs of an
artist, they are not obligated to. Some
managers feel that dropping cash to help
their artists become successful is a worthy
investment. Because this is not the
manager’s role, he or she will usually make
an agreement with the artist that this
investment be repaid once the artist starts
making money. This is outside of 15 to 20
percent commission managers already
receive from the artist’s earnings. This
commission is usually but not limited to,
performances, merchandise sales, and in
some cases money advanced by record labels.
It’s rare that managers make agreements to
receive percentages of the artist’s song
publishing or writing. You should avoid
these types of agreements if possible.
2. Another misconception is that
managers should have lots of
experience in the music business.
While this is definitely an asset, it’s
much more important that you have a manager
that’s willing to hustle hard for you and
be ambitious about learning the parts of
the business that he or she doesn’t know.
Your manager should be someone you have a
tremendous amount of trust in because they
will play some part in every facet of your
music career. This is why it’s not uncommon
to see artists with relatives as managers.
Sometimes they are the best choice.
3. Managers are not attorneys! Unless
your manager has an entertainment law
degree, it’s not wise to have them
negotiating contracts that can affect you
for the rest of your life! Get an attorney
to look over any complicated contracts.
4. Managers are not publicists.
Publicists handle your PR (public
relations), expand you visibility and help
develop a marketing strategy for you. Good
managers will do some of this for you until
you’re signed or able to afford a
professional publicist.
It a nutshell, good managers want to
minimize the chaos that can surround an
artist so they can concentrate as much as
possible on their music. Good managers are
a trusted foot in your rump to make sure
you make it to your appointments on time,
and make sure that everything you need is
there before your arrive. My advice is
give managers a few months trial before you
decide to make a long term contractual bond
with them. This provides an opportunity for
the both of you to see if theres a
chemistry.
