Artist Management for the Music Business

Paul Allen is Associate Professor in the Department of Recording Industry at Middle Tennessee State University and co-author of Record Label Marketing, also published by Focal Press. He is also a frequent lecturer at other universities on artist management and other music business subjects. His career work has included radio, TV, political management, and the music business.

Acknowledgments


Introduction





1 Professional artist management and its principles


Considering artist management as a profession


Be creative, informed, and connected


Understand people and business


Functions of management


Planning


Organizing


Leading and directing


Controlling


Artist management skills and personal traits


Understanding human nature


Leadership


Coaching


Networking


Social


Communication


Other skills


Building a career in artist management





2 Preparing to manage


Management is part of a big business


Acquiring the knowledge


Understanding the nature of artist management


Making decisions


Managing pressure


Managers are inconspicuous


An understanding of power in the music business


The power of money


The power of access


The power of your latest success


The power of your body of work


Power carries a responsibility to give back


The manager as an entrepreneur





3 Entrepreneurship and basic money management


The tools for the artist management entrepreneur


Education


Experience


Vision


Business plan


The skills and characteristics of the entrepreneur manager


Money management: yours and theirs


Basic money management


Tracking your company’s money


Funding your company at startup


Final thoughts





4 The artist: Preparing to be managed


Being commercial is not selling out


Know who you are artistically


Get experience


Social media and networking


Be professional


Be prepared for management


Plan to be patient





5 Lessons in artist management: From Elvis to Ozzy and from Usher to Michael


Tom Parker


Lessons learned


Rene Angelil: Targeting


Lessons learned


Michael Jeffreys: Conflicts of interest


Lessons learned


Peter Grant: A shared belief between the artist and the manager


Lessons learned


Herbert Breslin: Promoting your artist


Lessons learned


Joe Simpson: Manage by the Boy Scout motto


Lessons learned


Jon Landau: Keeping a business focus


Lessons learned


Bob Doyle: Using your network


Lessons learned


Andrew Loog Oldham: Exploit your artist’s talents


Lessons learned


Johnny Wright: A matter of timing


Lessons learned


Lou Pearlman: A matter of trust


Lessons learned


Sharon Osbourne: A family experience


Lessons learned


Lukasz Gottwald (Dr Luke): Having it in writing


Lessons learned


Jonnetta Patton: Managing an artist’s image


Lessons learned


Scott Siman: Reinvention


Lessons learned


Tohme Tohme: "I am not in the music business"


Lessons learned





6 The artist management contract


Negotiating the contract


The length of the contract


The manager’s services to the artist


Exclusivity


Power of attorney


The manager’s payment for services


Earnings following the contract period


The manager’s expenses


Other sections


Contracting with a minor


A contract example


Review Michael Jackson’s final artist management contract





7 A primer for the artist manager


Setting and achieving goals


Planning a personal budget for the artist


Planning and budgeting an event


An event plan


When and where


Invitations


Food and beverage


The performance


Promotion


A sample budget


Planning tools





8 The artist as a business


Understanding target markets


Defining an artist’s target market


Ways to view market segments


Branding and image


The artist’s support team


Booking agent


Attorney


Publicist


Manager of new media


Business advisors


Alternative forms of business for the artist


Proprietorship


Partnership


Corporation


Limited Liability Company or Partnership (LLC)


The Internet and worldwide web: A primer


The importance of a domain name


A URL


Web hosting services


Content


Mining digital media for information





9 Income from live performance


Booking the performance


Business management of live performances


Tour management


Promoting the performance


The promoter


The performance contract


Merchandise


International touring


College tours





10 Income from songwriting


Copyright


Song publishing


Income from songwriting


Income from song performance


Publishing as a negotiating asset





11 Income from recording


Recording for large labels


Income and expenses for the artist from a recording contract


Creating and paying for the recording


Artist’s income


The role of the producer


Other expenses charged to the artist


Things for which the label customarily pays


Current trends in contracts for recording artists


Labels and artist management


Artists who own or record for independent labels


It’s business


The role of radio in the recording artist’s income


The business of terrestrial radio


The business of satellite and online radio


The charts


College radio


Sponsorships, endorsements, television, and motion pictures





12 Conducting business for the artist


Presenting the artist for a recording contract: An exercise in time management


Going for the record deal


Know the purpose of the meeting and do the homework


Prepping for the meeting


Planning for results


Budget the time


Practice the meeting


The meeting


Should the artist attend the meeting?


Ending the meeting


Ethics and payola


Ethics


Payola





13 The artist career plan


An introduction to the plan


Recording artist business plan


About the artist


Musical genre


Biography


Talents


Experience


Uniqueness of the artist


Evaluation of the artist


Strengths and weaknesses of the artist


Opportunities and threats


Action points based on this evaluation


Evaluation of the manager


Strengths and weaknesses of the manager


Opportunities and threats


Conflicts of interest


Establishment of goals and timelines


Major goals for the artist and sample strategies and tactics to achieve them


Goals supporting major goals (subordinate to major goals) and sample strategies and


tactics to achieve them


Setting timelines


Development of a marketing plan


The state of the industry


The target market for the artist


Detailed plans to reach the target


Business framework


Form of the business


Personnel requirements


Insurance


Other


The financial plan


A personal budget for the artist


Budget for career plan


Exit strategy


The artist in a mature career


Planning by the manager to end the relationship


The plan outline


Recording artist business plan





14 Coaching, leadership, and final advice


Coaching


Leadership


Final advice





Appendix A Artist management contract form


Appendix B Partnership agreement for members of a band


Appendix C Recording contract


Appendix D Kesha’s artist management contract


Appendix E Code of conduct: Music manager’s forum in Australia