PART 1: THE ROLE OF A PERSONAL MANAGER IN YOUR CAREER

By strict definition, a personal manager advises and counsels artists in all aspects of the new music business. This may include artist development, project management, touring, contracts and income streams, and so much more.

A. Artist Development

The manager may assist with the development of an artist’s career via the following activities:

• Encouraging You to Get Your Brand Together: Inspiring you to polish up your brand—from your artist name and logo, to what you wear and say in public, to the charities and other organizations and brands with whom you associate.

• Assisting with Your Sound and Songs: Inspiring you to polish up your compositions and musical sound. If needed, the manager may even help set you up with songwriting consultants, cowriters, and producers, and help you find complete songs to record and perform.

• Helping You to Improve Live Performances and Merch: Inspiring you to perfect the quality of your live performances (set list flow, presence, etc.) and merchandising designs (T-shirts, hats, stickers, etc.). And finally . . .

• Helping You Build—and Monitor— Your Fan Base: Encouraging you to strengthen your connections with fans, including improving your social media content strategies on sites like Instagram and TikTok (or other), finding ways to get fans’ assistance with promotion and spreading the word-of-mouth, and ultimately getting fans to engage with you more personally through monetized crowdfunding platforms and Patreon. Additionally, your manager will help you to monitor fans through the use of various analytical tools and artificial intelligence to gain insights and make smarter decisions.

B. Contracts and New Income Streams

Your manager may also help initiate various business deals by doing the following:

• Setting Up Meetings and Seeking Out Future Opportunities: Setting up meetings with potential co-writers, publishers, merchandisers, sponsors, and record companies, and seeking out immersive opportunities in the metaverse, digital asset stores and NFT marketplaces, and—when you’re a huge star—catalog sales via top music investors.

• Researching the Right Deals: Researching which companies and representatives are best suited to your talents and musical style, based not only on a company’s past signings or successes, but also on its financial stability, management capabilities and understanding of your vision.

• Recommending You Find Legal Counsel: Providing recommendations for legal counsel to help shop your music to various companies and review important contract terms that are relevant to the new—and ever-changing—music industry. And finally . . .

• Working Collaboratively with Your Attorney: Communicating with your attorney about important contract deal points, but knowing when to step aside and let the attorney do their job.

C. Project Management

When, and if, you sign a recording agreement, your manager may also assist by doing this:

• Getting Everyone at the Label Excited About Your Career: Lighting the fire under the label’s ass and trying to make sure that you will be a top priority.

• Monitoring Pre-Release and Post-Release Activities: Providing marketing ideas regarding the branding, price, place, promotion and measuring of your records, and fighting tactfully for what is best for your career. And finally . . .

• Meeting with Departments: Meeting with the various departments at the record label, (new media, licensing, press, sales, marketing and radio promotion), and to make sure that everyone is talking and working in concert to further your professional career.

D. Hybrid Services: Merch, Publishing, and More

As if the above tasks were not enough, some management companies operating under newer business models may even assist your career by doing the following:

• Providing Label Services: Handling all matters concerning the funding, recording, manufacturing, distributing, promoting and monitoring of a record, in addition to all other management services. Said another way, the management company is a label, or the label is a management company—however you see it.

• Providing Publishing Services: Seeking creative uses of your songs in film, TV, games, and podcasts, issuing licenses to music users for the use of your songs, and collecting all income generated by these uses. And finally . . .

• Providing Merchandising Services: Helping design and manufacture effective merch that sells, helping the group sell merch on the road and via retail outlets, and seeking sublicenses to expand the product line. And finally….

• Providing Digital Marketing and Advertising Services: Acting as a digital marketing service in influencer marketing campaigns, advertising campaigns, email marketing brand sponsorships, and general social media management.

Hybrid Examples

Silverback Management, Crush Management, Nettwerk, Roc Nation, Attom Factory and Red Light Management are just a few examples of these hybrid manager services mentioned above. There are many more.

E. Live Engagements and Touring

Moving on to another role, a personal manager may also assist with the following:

• Securing a Talent Agent: Helping you to find a licensed talent agent who specifically works on procuring live performances. Your manager will work together with this agent to determine which tours are best for you, to make sure that you’re getting the best offers from concert promoters, and even to help direct your performances from city to city.

• Working with Your Business Manager: Helping you find a business manager who specializes in the music business, and working together with him or her to ensure that your tours are properly budgeted. Hotel accommodations, transportation, stage crews, and other expenses will be closely examined in an effort to minimize expenses and ensure that you turn a profit (or at least cover expenses). And finally . . .

• Hiring a Tour Manager: Hiring a “tour manager” who is responsible for include one of the following:

• A Friend: A close friend who’s willing to make phone calls and help promote shows without getting paid for the first few months or years. In fact, he may not even be called a “manager” at all, working with the understanding that as soon as your career progresses, he will be replaced by an established professional manager and offered some other position with the band.

• A Retired Musician: An experienced musician who wants to “right all the wrongs” she encountered in her professional career, and has got all the passion and drive needed to set you on course.

• A Businessperson: An educated businessperson who’s always dreamed of being in the entertainment business and has the desire to live those dreams through you.

• A Club Owner: A club owner in your hometown who sees hundreds of bands perform each year. This individual has a good idea of what works and what doesn’t and is willing to offer you an objective point of view and career guidance. And finally . . .

• An Intern: An intern or junior assistant of a professional manager by day who’s looking to cut his teeth on managing his own artist on his downtime at night. He’s got the advantage of having his boss’ ear for guidance and observing how a professional office is run all day.

While start-up managers may not be the most experienced folks, don’t underestimate their value. They can be some of the most loyal and hardworking people around, and they’ll stick with you through the tough times. And who knows, they may even grow into being legends. Look at Andrew Oldham. He started out with the Rolling Stones when he was just 17, and he became one of the most successful managers of all time. Johnny Wright started managing New Kids on The Block at just 18, and he also went on to manage Jonas Brothers and Justin Timberlake. Impressive!

C. Established Professional Management

Finally, if you’re able to create serious momentum in your career (get millions of streams, start generating some income, and/or attract labels and publishers), then established professional managers will be more interested in working with you. You might be referred to these folks via your record label, or they might seek you out. Let’s look at mid-level and big-league managers.

Mid-Level Managers

Mid-level managers are those who have a great deal of experience in the industry but have not quite broken a band into superstardom. Maybe they have one client on their roster who was able to amass several million Spotify streams and social media followers on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok (or other), but they still don’t have that bonified superstar artist yet—and that’s what they’re shooting for! They are typically well liked in the industry and have a big enough network to open some doors for you.

However, the problem with mid-level managers is that they are not as powerful as big-league managers, and therefore it may take them longer to get things done.

Big-League Managers

Big-league managers (like Irving Azoff, Scooter Braun and Coran Capshaw) have been around for years and have lots of Grammy-winning superstars on their rosters. The relationships they’ve formed, the respect they’ve earned, and the favors they can trade give them the power to make things happen with just a few phone calls. However, the problem is that you could easily get lost in the sauce. This means that you get overshadowed by their more profitable clients. I was with a group that had one of the most successful rock management companies in the word (one that handles Metallica), and we never even did one date with the band or really much of anything at all. We soon left the management.

Big Players

While there are many big-league managers in the music industry, here is a short list of my faves. Irving Azoff (Christina Aguilera), Scooter Braun (Justin Bieber), Coran Capshaw (Dave Matthews Band), Guy Oseary (Madonna), Larry Rudolph (Britney Spears), John Janick (Fall Out Boy), Kevin Liles (Trey Songz), Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith (JAY-Z), Brian Teefey (Selena Gomez), Troy Carter (Meghan Trainor) and many more. •