Manager’s Corner-Managers vs. Agents
by Chris Daniels
I’ve managed my own band since the 1980s, and despite the amazing change in technology, success in the music business is built around four tried and true elements: great music, really hard work, and timing (often mistaken for luck). The other key element is getting the help you need to make that luck happen. These days that help is everywhere. The book I wrote for my UCD class on artist management is called “DIY: You’re Not in it Alone” and that is exactly what you need to understand.
Managers vs. Agents: In New York and California you can’t be both. Many musicians and artists in Colorado don’t understand the difference between the two, partly because we live in a state where professionals can legally do both jobs. The simple way to conceive of the difference is that managers are the ‘president’ of your company, overseeing all the day-to-day business, and have a vision for where your career should go. The agent is the man or woman you hire to be in charge of ‘sales’ – i.e. getting you gigs.
Because so many artists, musicians, bands, singer/songwriters, DJs and hip-hop performers are putting out CDs and performing on their own, most are doing some or all of these jobs already. In the past, the first “step” up from DIY to professional recording artist was to get yourself a manager – who might, in turn – add a booking agent to your “team” down the road.
But the models for success are much more varied than they were in the late 1990s. There are acts like EDM DJs, jam bands and hip-hop artists that have little success with radio charts or widespread sales of their CDs, but they put on incredible live shows with big followings. There are singer/songwriters that are doing house concerts and getting airplay on community radio stations that also don’t fit the typical pop model. And there are metal bands that are playing the club circuit and doing great business locally, and needing to get their band booked on festivals overseas. In each of these cases it may be more important to your long-term success to find a booking agent first. Somebody who can increase your tour dollars, get you into better venues and, therefore, build your fan base. Finding a booking agent can actually lead to finding a manager who can oversee your entire career. In a perfect world you would make enough ‘buzz’ in your local community to warrant adding both to your team, but we do not live in a perfect world. So look at your NEEDS, and decide what member of the team you should add first.
With that said, what are you looking for in a manager, and what are you looking for in an agent? And in Colorado can they be both? Answering the last question first, yes, and they often do both here in Colorado. There are a few things you will want to sit down and have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting with your manager/agent if they are functioning as both. First and foremost, commissions. Most ethical manager/agents will not “double dip” – meaning take a commission for the gig as the booking agent and from the same gig as the manager. Issues like these will come up and must be solved in any relationship with a ‘team member.’ In theory, these should be worked out ahead of time, in some kind of agreement or contract before you ever start to work together.
The real tests for an agent fall into two basic categories: First, can they get you more work (gigs), better work (bigger venues and better joint shows or opening act slots), and more money for the work you were already getting. Second, an agent needs to be able to handle the details, from getting the contracts signed to working with venue publicists to make sure the show is a success, and that the money is right from ticket counts for advance sales to the settlement. Their work must ensure that the artist is taken care of in every aspect of the live concert arena.
For the manager, it is all about advancing your career. It starts with a vision for where your career should be in one year after signing with a manager. That process begins with an achievable well-constructed business plan that you both work on, and that he or she executes in a way that meets or surpasses your expectations for where you want to be. As Erik Dyce, former marketing director for the City of Denver’s Venues and Arenas said, “The manager has one job: to “create demand” for the artist and their products.” If you are talking with a prospective manager, it is not about who they know and what they did for “so and so.” It is about how they will increase demand for your recordings, appearances, and the deals they can make on your behest that make you the artist everybody wants to book, or listen to on their iPhone or see on Youtube.
While the manager/agent may be a necessity early in your career, eventually you need a full-time person devoting their energy to those individual tasks, and not wearing both hats. As I said when we started this short article, you may be doing both jobs as a DIY artist, but eventually you will get to a place where you hire both separately. To learn more about who around here is doing this, go to Red Light Management’s Colorado Office site (a national management company that focuses on artist management), or Vinefield Booking Agency Site (a local booking agency booking local acts nationally), or Madison House, (a national booking agency that also does management in Boulder Colorado).
Online: Redlightmanagement.com/locations
Vinefield.com
Madisonhouseinc.com
Category: Shop Talk
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