How recording artists should pay their team members

Casey Graham
Nov 6 · 5 min read

Announcements

Listen to the Music Money Makeover podcast on spotify after the live show every tuesday.

Don’t forget, follow me on Instagram @CaseyGraham_24 and @district24music and on facebook and LinkedIn Casey Graham

I am working on an independent film here in atlanta we are currently casting go to http://www.jezebelthenewsupply.com/

I need music for the film so be sure to send music over to www.district24music,com/submit music

Lawyers

I want to start first with the Lawyer. I feel that they are the most important player to have on your team first! They will be helping you negotiate everything from the creative aspect of your business including the people who represent your creative endeavours. Let’s take a look at their fees.

Retainers can vary vastly $1000 to $10,000 or hourly at $100–300.

Percentages easily can go from 5%-7%

Management

Management will be the second stop when it comes to these fees. Most managers starting out will be anywhere from 12%-15%. I highly suggest that upon looking for an inexperienced manager do not hire them at the max rate of 20%. 20% is a bit high for any manager especially when they are using the Lawyer to close your deal at 5–7%. Now you see why it isn’t wise to hire a manager at 20%.

You can also hire a manger on salary if you’re big enough to do so because all of those closing fees add up taking money out of your pocket. Let me ask you, if Person A, the manager, brought the opportunity and deal to the table but Person B, the lawyer, will negotiate and close the deal, who should get closing percentages? The Lawyer right?? Right! Maybe if management is just that good they should get some closing fees as well but that should be determined on performance.

Agent

Booking agent or Agent as some call them. Their closing fee is 5% standard. I have no arguments here. The 5% give room for the record label to take a piece of your shows if you sign a 360 deal. When you get good enough graduate to a bigger agency or just start off with the agencies from the get go, William morris, CAA, Roc Nation, UTA, ICM the list goes on and on.

Publicist

Outside of you self promoting and showing up at events yourself, your publicist will be responsible for understanding you as and your image as an artist and what will be the best key events for you to show up to in order to maximize your exposure. Their fee is $1200–2500/mo.

Publisher

If your publishing operations are kept in house then your publisher will be responsible for getting all split sheets registering all material in the 20 some odd places they are needed to be registered in order to keep all of your operations in house. If this is your set-up then your fee for them should be monthly for administrating or 20% of all net income as you receive it, only if your in house staff is actively exploiting your compositions (songs). If they are just registering them then they should get 12–15% of all net revenue from your inhouse operation.

This can be shifted out of house but when you’re just starting out your operation needs workers you can do a major deal later but if you act like a major label when starting out you might not need one when the time arises.

Lastly let your inhouse publisher take care of administering the record sales as well because those are easy.

Marketing

Marketing will be a joint effort if money is to be paid out the attack the marketing strategy when the times arise.

Below the line workers:

Assistant

Your day to day assistant not manager because the manager is supposed to by definition be responsible for maintaining, handling, keeping control of or administering all or part of a company or similar organization. Do not confuse your assistance with managerial activities.

Your assistant will be tasked with your day to day needs and requests. They must do a great job at it or you will be wasting your money. $2000-$2500 max

Camera Guy/Photographer

With all of these photos and videos you will build thy estate. All of this footage becomes your property and you will license it out for whatever reason at the rate you choose.

Bonus fees

Taxes

I your deal in america will bring you an artist advance of over $200,000 into your pocket then you will be required to pay taxes at a rate of 32–37% set this aside immediately!!

Savings

Savings set aside 10% of your income from all of you endeavours so you can have cash left to re-invest the name of the game is to not have to go back to any label for advance money butto pay for their promotional services.

News

Donald Passman Talks New Edition of ‘All You Need to Know About the Music Business,’ and What’s Next

Deezer introduces ‘Shows’ hub for non-music audio content

Sony Music enters original podcast content partnership with The Onion

JACKSON ESTATE ROLLING WITH STONE

What’s Facebook’s game plan in music?

The NFL Is Opening ‘Official Hubs’ on Spotify, Pandora, SoundCloud, Tidal

Copyright 2019 Music Money Makeover Show

Casey Graham

Written by

Grammy Winning Producer Engineer, Owner of District 24 Music Library, and creator of the Music Money Makeover Show

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade