Top 10 Things about Artist Management
Nowadays, every artist knows that they need a manager to organize their non-artistic needs to allow them more time for his creative task. Although the tasks of an artist manager are not easy. They seem like just organizing personal stuff & reaching out to people, record labels, and event organizers but on a whole, they are a lot more complicated and tiring.
Among the whole bunch of attributes a manager must have, some are listed below:
1. The Code:
Artist Management does seem like to be more of a professional task rather being indulged with the artist personally but on the contrary, managing artist is a fine balance between friendship and business.
Yes, of course, it requires business & marketing skills but the artist will always look to you for an advice. The manager must be aware of all the little things that might interfere in the regular course of artist’s work & mitigate them.
2. Working Hours:
A common misconception that people form is that being a manager you are bound to the office hours. You may imagine a manager sitting behind the desk making calls, and going home after a 9 to 5 job.
But the reality is starkly different. The working hours are never fixed. You can get a call at any hour of the day and it must be attended or your client may lose an important deal. Your phone becomes an inseparable part of your body.
3. Work of an Artist Manager:
Unpredictable, that is the only word which has the potential to define everything that an artist manager does. You always have a lot of things on your plate.
Your tasks also depend on what point your client is at in their career. If an artist is signed to a record label, you’ll need to keep in mind what they want to achieve for the musician. If you’re managing unsigned artists, your priority will be to generate as much work as possible to get them noticed and paid.
Contacting right person, preparing deals, heading agendas, promotions, booking agents and all of those tasks must be done as soon as possible. Creating right timeline becomes a challenge at times. It’s down to you to ensure all projects run smoothly, deadlines are met and campaigns come together. One must plan their work carefully to be in the right spot on most of the time.
4. Never loose your Cool:
You will also need to be able to cope well under pressure. Dealing with a range of different characters and organizations, all with their own pressure, can be a challenge. When someone loses their cool you have to make sure you don’t — it’s your job to keep calm, see the strategic picture and put out the fires that other people start.
5. Continuous Rejection:
Working with a developing artist may put you on the path of constant rejection. Managers need to truly believe in their artists. It’s necessary for the job. To endlessly sell and receive NO for an answer most of the time is a part of the business.
To be an objective sounding board for the artist & being able to say so when a product or track isn’t good enough is very important. It is his duty to constantly sell his product with seamlessly endless rejections and maintain the belief in the inevitability of success coming forward.
6. Know-it-all makes terrible managers:
Never assume you know everything. If research isn’t being done — even in the form of skimming through the new Billboard — then the manager is doing a disservice to their artist. Research about the bands, the label, the management company, and compare and contrast the paths these bands take. Listen a lot, research a lot, analyze and make efficient decisions.
7. Types of Management:
Managers working from the initial phase of an artist will have to do all the work from marketing, booking, promotion and what not. But as it comes to a rich and popular musician, the scenario is quite different. The workload becomes so heavy that the work needs to be divided into parts. Here it gets divided into music management and business management.
The prior is already discussed whereas the later deals with financial spin like how much money is being made and how it is being spent.
8. The Deal:
Beginning managers work on the basis of gentlemen’s agreement whereas the serious managers sign an artist with the commission of 10% to 20% of the gross revenue excluding costs. Moreover taking commission over gross revenue does not support the healthy idea of team building as already discussed managers and artists need to keep a balance in their friendship and business aspects. Managers working without keeping the best of an artist in mind will never be able to work at its most.
9. Being a big fish is not necessary:
Back in the day, an artist would stay with a manager until reaching a certain level of success and then move on to a more established manager. These days, people actually stay with their original managers. “There’s not this notion that going to somebody who has a big client roster will benefit you,” said one of our interviewees. “It’s more about the artist these days than ever, and if the artists can’t articulate their vision and can’t help execute their vision, they’ll probably struggle no matter who will manage them.”
10. Conversations:
Being an artist manager simultaneously makes you part of the conversation that you will enjoy. Be it how to convert an idea into tangible form or brainstorming sessions with a record label deciding the marketing theme and feedback sessions. The company of artist is most natural feeling that you will enjoy. An artist never loses his artistic side when he talks or makes any argument which seems unrealistic to most of the people around.
