The Ever-Changing Role of the Artist Manager

In my previous posts I mainly discussed the production side of music but today I will be focusing on the business side of the industry, more specifically artist managers. Many, if not all of us are familiar with the concept of artists needing managers, but what do they really do? What does their job entail and are they even necessary? These are some of the questions that are often asked about artist managers and in today’s post I will be addressing these questions.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what an artist manager is, in a nutshell, artist managers are responsible for running the business side of an artist or band’s career, so that the band can focus on creating the music. This way productivity will be maximized and inefficiency minimized. The band/artists can now focus on songwriting without the worry of bookkeeping and balancing the budget, marketing, coordinating live performances and booking venues and mapping out a career plan. These are things that are handled by the manager. One thing to bear in mind however is whether the artist/band that the manager is managing is signed, as the job description of the manager may change based upon this factor. Whereas, a manager of an unsigned band is typically a musical ‘jack of all trades’, where whatever position needs filling will be filled by the manager, whether accountant, promoter, agent, etc. Managers of artists that are signed to bigger labels would usually have people that they oversee, which they delegate tasks to, so as to ensure the success of the band.

“George Howard,” former president of Rykodisc, believes that the role of artist managers is changing. In the past they were responsible for negotiating and securing a recording contract and acting as liaison between the artist and the label, but now they must spend time developing the band and the business aspect of the band. Managers must focus on creating revenue streams for the artist/band instead of spending countless hours mailing cd’s to A&R’s, meeting with them or wasting time fighting with them over marketing budgets.  

As I stated above, the job of the artist manager may be different depending on how much capital the band has and the overall status of the band. This however does not mean that an artist manager on a bigger record label will not do as much for the artist as a manager of an indie band. I believe that this process is completely subjective and dependent on the manager.