Artist management is one of those professions that can be as much art as it is science and business. The artful manipulation of people on behalf of the artist is one of the key functions of the artist manager. Certainly, motivating fans to buy tickets, music, and merchandise are highest on the list of outcomes of good management. Another example is the use of human nature to get past gatekeepers in order to keep an artist’s career plan moving. And certainly an understanding of business—specifically the music business—creates an advantage for the successful manager of artists. This chapter draws lessons from the real-world experiences of veteran artist managers to help build an understanding of this corner of industry.
In this chapter and in other places in this book you will see references to SoundScan. It is a proprietary database, owned by the Nielsen Company, which compiles records of the actual number of digital and physical sales of albums and singles sold in the U.S. It is the only company in the world that compiles this type of data on a weekly, real-time basis, and the only countries for which they compile sales data are the U.S. and Canada. The U.S. data used in this book are to provide some context for the size of the commercial sales success (or not) of the artists that are discussed. Certainly these data are extremely important to artist managers and artists who manage themselves, and we’ll discuss that later in the book. Now, on to the lessons learned.
Elvis Presley’s lifelong manager acquired the honorary title of “Colonel” as a gesture by a southern governor, but he carried the label with him until his death in 1997. Parker was born in Holland and immigrated to the United States as a young man, working in carnivals and eventually promoting country music shows. It was during his promotion work that he was introduced to Elvis and was asked by his parents to manage the 17-year-old singer.
The first management contract Parker made with Elvis in 1956 awarded him 25% of the artist’s overall earnings, but he received half of the earnings from things like recordings and merchandise. Twenty-five percent is a higher commission rate than many management compensation packages provide, but for a new artist without an earnings track record it is a reasonable rate for the short term. The artist manager will be investing time into the career of a new artist without measurable compensation for a period of time, and receiving a 25% commission when the artist begins generating income helps the manager to recover costs from some of that uncompensated time. Several years later, Parker renewed his management contract, which awarded him 50% of all of Elvis’s earnings and gave him very broad powers of attorney to make contracts on the entertainer’s behalf. In his book, Elvis, Inc., Sean O’Neal suggests that Elvis did not read contracts of any kind, and he relied on Parker to take care of the details they contained (O’Neal 1996, 75). It was Elvis’ inattention to contracts and their provisions that created the opportunity for Parker to, among other things, earn commissions totaling US$1.3 million in 1965, which was actually $300,000 more than Elvis earned that year (O’Neal 1996, 11). There are many other stories about Elvis and his relationship with the “Colonel,” many detailing similarly unconventional business dealings that provided great financial rewards to Parker. Among the best books to recount this history are the O’Neal book and Alanna Nash’s book, The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley (2004). With the death of Presley in 1977, Parker went on to help the estate settle its business; however, it was at the continuing rate of 50% commission. Parker died in January 1997 at the age of 87.
Parker was an adept negotiator. For this era, he was able to get premium rates for Elvis’s appearances on television and in movies. He negotiated an adequate royalty rate for his client’s first contract with RCA, but later renegotiated contract-tied royalty rates for his recordings to a set amount of money rather than a percentage of the selling price. As the price of recordings increased, Elvis was confined to a set dollar amount for each album sold. This is an example of Parker’s lack of understanding of the sometimes-complicated world of the record business, and it ultimately cost him and his client a lot of money. Another example is Parker’s failure to register Elvis with a performing rights organization (PRO). Songs that an artist writes or helps to write are entitled to regular payments for the performance of those songs on radio, television, concerts, and other places. Elvis and Parker both were paid nothing because of this omission. To put this into context, in 2003, Clear Channel Vice President, Mick Anselmo, noted that the five company radio stations in the Minneapolis market paid nearly US$2 million to PROs for the right to broadcast licensed music for the entertainment of their audiences (Anselmo 2003). With over 10,000 commercial radio stations in the United States, the value of performance payments is considerable for the estate of an icon like Elvis. No one knows how much Elvis missed in performance royalty earnings by failing to fill out a simple registration form with one of the PROs (which are covered later in this book). The inclusion of a skilled entertainment lawyer in all business matters prevents this and other key mistakes on behalf of an artist manager’s clients. From the beginning, the artist must have an attorney whose style and manner fit the artist, and the artist and the manager must rely on counsel to help guide the business of the artist’s career and to negotiate final contract documents that reflect the best possible financial deal based on the current state of the industry.
When a family member manages an artist, the opportunities for conflicts of interest are constant. This is especially true when parents manage the careers of their child-artists, as in the cases of Aaron Carter and LeAnn Rimes who each sued their parents over issues relating to career management.
When that family member is a spouse, however, the results are often positive, as in the case of Narvel Blackstock’s management of his wife Reba McEntire’s music and acting career. Another example is Rene Angelil, husband and manager for Celine Dion, who is 26 years her senior. Angelil began his career as an artist manager, following his work as a member of a Canadian group called the Baronets. His group built a reputation performing in Quebec in the 1960s (Charlebois 2004). His career transition to artist management ultimately linked him in the early 1980s with 12-year-old Celine Dion. She had sent an unsolicited recording to Angelil with a request that he consider managing her career. He was slow to respond to her request, but he finally met with her and signed her to a management deal (VH1 2005). Angelil believed in his new artist enough to mortgage his own personal assets to finance two albums for her, both of which generated considerable attention for the young performer. Angelil signed a new contract with Dion when she became 18, and both agreed that his commission would be an unusually high 50% (Baunoyer, Beaulne, and Wilson 2004). Commission is a percentage of an artist’s income paid to a manager, which typically ranges from 10–25%, usually in the lower end of the range. We’ll look closer at a manager’s commission later in this book.
As Canadian-born Dion pressed Angelil to make her an international star, he knew that an image makeover would be necessary for the French-speaking singer. The changes he made included sending her to school to become more fluent in the English language, ordering a general makeover that included cosmetic dental work, and having her hair restyled. The result was a launch into the lucrative American music market that garnered her Grammy awards, helped her sell over 50 million of albums in the United States, and made her one of the biggest acts to ever perform in Las Vegas.
Now into his early seventies, Angelil continues to manage his wife’s career despite his battles with heart attacks, cancer, and lawsuits from those who know about his deep pockets.
An artist manager must have a keen sense of the target market for a recording artist. In its strictest sense, a target market is defined as the people who are able to and willing to buy concert tickets, recorded music, and merchandise. Dion’s hopes were to enter the American marketplace and become an international star. Angelil knew that her success in the United States would require her to have a better command of the English language so that she could effectively communicate her art through the American media. Her image makeover and new language skills were among the keys to her commercial success in the United States.
MICHAEL JEFFREYS: CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Conflicts of interest are business relationships people have that may cause their decisions to be made on their own behalf rather than for the benefit of the person or company they represent. For example, an artist manager is in a position of trust with the artist, and would have a conflict of interest if he or she owns a recording studio to which the manager might direct the client. He or she has a personal financial interest in a business that may compete with the professional interests of his or her client. To effectively manage an artist, there is a requirement that the business side of the relationship should be unencumbered by agreements that cause outright conflicts of interest. The managers of rock icon Jimi Hendrix had some conflicts of interest, and the result shows the negative impact on the artist’s career.
Michael Jeffreys and Chas Chandler signed a co-management contract with Hendrix in 1966. They agreed to manage the career of the guitarist for 30% of his earnings, which was considerably higher than the standard 15% charged by many artist managers. Added to that was a 3% product royalty that the managers received on all of the Hendrix recordings, and they earned half of the money generated by a co-owned music publishing company. In all, the Hendrix co-managers’ earnings from the artist were considerably higher than typical management agreements (Hopkins 1984).
Two years after Jeffreys and Chandler agreed to manage Hendrix, Chandler wanted out of the arrangement. Jeffreys bought Chandler’s portion of the contract, with the result that he began earning as much as 40% of the artist’s income. With Hendrix as Jeffreys’ primary client and only source of income, Jeffreys began to book shows for the artist on an intense schedule, often using his personal requirements for income rather than making sensible decisions based on Hendrix’s career and the artist’s capacity to deliver top performances at each concert stop (Kramer and McDermott 1992).
In September 1970 Hendrix died, ending a remarkable and short career, and setting to rest an artist–manager relationship that had its difficult times. In 1973, Michael Jeffreys died in a plane crash in France, with his artist management assets passing to his father. Michael Jeffrey’s father, Frank, settled the estate of his son, and it was then that the extent of the conflicts of interest became very public. The publishing and recording contract Jeffreys and Chandler had with Hendrix said, in part, “All recordings made hereunder and all records and reproductions made therefrom, together with the performances embodied therein, shall be entirely our property, free of any claims whatsoever by you or any person deriving any rights or interested from you.” It remains an unusual feature of an artist–manager contract that the manager becomes owner of the artistic creations of those they manage (Goodman 2004).
The artist–manager relationship is built in part on trust, and the expectation is that the manager will make decisions that are best for the artist’s career. In the end, good decisions on behalf of the artist will result in continued long-term financial gain for both the artist and the manager. To put it another way, the agenda of the artist must come first. In the case of the Jeffries–Hendrix relationship, from the very beginning the manager was drawing more from the income stream of the artist than is customary. An argument could be made that earning a high percentage of Hendrix’s income was Jeffries’ incentive to focus on making his artist a megastar. However, the amount of money generated by the artist’s career perhaps made Jeffries unwilling to develop other acts, and Hendrix was the sole support of his manager’s lifestyle. Decisions by Jeffries became driven by how much money he could make for himself by pushing Hendrix’s career at a pace that became physically and emotionally taxing for the artist. Jeffries owned song publishing, recordings, royalties earned by the recordings, and a recording studio that would be used exclusively by Hendrix. All of those conflicts of interest have the potential to cloud the objectivity of managers in impartially guiding the career of an artist in the music business.
PETER GRANT: A SHARED BELIEF BETWEEN THE ARTIST AND THE MANAGER
In an industry that is filled with hyped-up images and exaggerated perceptions spawned by the nature of the entertainment industry, a manager of a performing recording artist must genuinely believe in the artistry of the artist. Probably there has been no deeper belief and commitment to an artist than Peter Grant had for Led Zeppelin.
Grant was born in England and became a factory worker, a photographer, a waiter, a professional wrestler, and a stagehand. By his mid-twenties, he was driving American bands to London-area performances, where he became somewhat familiar with the general workings of performing acts. Promoter Don Arden, Sharon Osbourne’s father, hired Grant to become the tour manager for American artists like Little Richard and the Animals. He became adept at tending to the affairs of artists performing on the road because of his experience, and in part because of his large presence. He stood 6′6” tall and weighed well over 250 pounds. His imposing presence and the knowledge that he occasionally carried a gun made him a natural to create order out of the chaos that sometimes accompanies touring (Davis 2004).
Grant started a management company with friend Mickie Most and acquired the Yardbirds as one of their acts. Eventually Grant bought out Most’s portion of the Yardbirds management agreement and became their sole manager. The Yardbirds’ band members varied over time; at times, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page were each members. As their manager, Grant’s experience in road management proved to be the key to making the Yardbirds’ concert tours profitable after months of losing money (Welch 2003).
When the Yardbirds broke up, Grant formed a new group with Page and some new band members, calling them the New Yardbirds. This group morphed into the legendary Led Zeppelin. Under Grant’s guidance, the group signed a contract with Atlantic Records that featured a $200,000 advance (one million U.S. dollars in today’s value) and full control over writing, publishing, and recording. In an era when concert promoters were receiving 40–50% of the earnings from a ticketed performance, Grant negotiated a 90/10 split with promoters, with Led Zeppelin receiving a record-level share of the gates from performing. With the huge success of the group as a touring band, he convinced promoters that a 10% cut of the concert was more than adequate given that the group was making (in current dollars) a million dollars for every show date in 1973 (Yorke 1999). Grant’s decision to limit Led Zeppelin’s exposure to the media and to seek album sales rather than the sale of singles was among his nontraditional approaches to artist management in the 1970s. In 1980, the death of a member of the group (John Bonham) led to the end of Led Zeppelin. In 1995, Grant died at the age of 60 from a heart attack (Clark-Meads 1995).
The most effective manager is one whose belief in the artist is deep enough to be the basis for every decision made on his or her behalf, whether it is believing in the artist’s potential or believing in who the artist is. Peter Grant was constantly on tour with Led Zeppelin, handling most of the tasks associated with tour management and artist management. But when the time came to create the words and music, and to assemble the performance, he left these creative responsibilities in the hands of the group. Likewise, the band left the management decisions—including some very unconventional ones—up to Grant. This shared and deep belief in each other became what many acknowledge as one of the strongest bonds between artists and a manager in the music business.
HERBERT BRESLIN: PROMOTING YOUR ARTIST
Among the critical skills for the manager of an artist in the music business is the ability to find all of an artist’s artistic appeal and to then know how to promote and sell it to buyers of tickets and music. The most effective managers have the knack of knowing which opportunities are best for their clients and how to turn them into promotional events to build interest in the artist and grow a developing fan base.
Long before he met the late Luciano Pavarotti, New York-born Herbert Breslin was introduced to opera as a young boy by his father. He learned to save his money in order to buy tickets to see events at the opera house. Later he joined the U.S. Army, and after leaving the military, he earned degrees from City University in New York and Columbia University. Among his continuing interests was the opera, and he accepted a nonpaying job handling press and publicity for the new Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico. He developed his profession with the company and went on to establish his own career as a public relations manager and publicist for classical music.
In 1967 he met Pavarotti, beginning a 36-year professional relationship between the artist and his manager. Initially, Breslin was employed by the opera singer to handle publicity and public relations for him, but later began to handle most of the traditional management duties of a performing artist. For his work, Breslin was paid 10% of Pavarotti’s earnings, and according to the manager, he worked for the singer without a contract (Breslin 2004).
The late Herbert Breslin’s ability to connect his opera star with the media was fabled. He worked well with the media and would create six or seven events within a short period of time to highlight a tour or to promote a new album. Although Breslin had his critics, few denied his ability to understand his clients and to know what it would take to promote and manage their careers.
An artist manager should draw from the strengths of their artist clients and use them to add as many dimensions as possible to their persona and their commercial appeal. The phenomenal caliber of the late Pavarotti’s voice is undeniable; it was Breslin’s work using the singer’s voice and warm personality that broadened his commercial appeal beyond the opera stage. An important talent of a manager is understanding career promotion and having access to the tools to make it happen. In the case of Breslin and Pavarotti, the manager said of his former client that he has “a great face, a wonderful smile, and a wonderful sense of humor. He charmed everybody” (Breslin 2004, 65). And it was Breslin’s exploitation of these assets that helped greatly expand the career appeal of his most famous client.
JOE SIMPSON: MANAGE BY THE BOY SCOUT MOTTO
Joe Simpson has been a psychologist, a Baptist minister, a record producer, a television producer, and is the father of Ashlee and Jessica Simpson (mtv.com 2013). It is perhaps his experience as a psychologist that most prepared him to manage and promote these two young women in the music business. Simpson tried to help Jessica launch a career in Christian music in the mid-1990s, but her music never connected with a public that buys recorded music. In 1997, Sony received a demo of her music and signed her to a recording contract that resulted in a very successful first album—her career was then well underway under the guidance of her father. Her music continued for two more albums, but her popularity as a recording artist was beginning to fade. Joe Simpson decided to try to sell the idea of a reality show featuring newlyweds Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey. The show reignited interest in Jessica, and he was able in 2005 to leverage this interest to get his daughter a major role in the movie version of The Dukes of Hazard, but her recording career withered in the following years with a failed attempt at country music in 2008 and 2009.
Joe Simpson also planned and eventually launched the music career of his younger daughter, Ashlee, in 2004. She too had two early and successful albums and a reality television show, but her recording career ended with her final album—released in 2008—barely selling 100,000 copies.
With music performance as the foundation for the careers of Simpson’s two daughters and with him as advisor for opportunities to advance their careers, both women fell into circumstances that drew criticism. In 2004, daughter Ashlee was caught on live television—Saturday Night Live—using a prerecorded track of her voice (rather than her live voice) that didn’t sync with her live band. She walked off the stage blaming her band, while her record label blamed a computer problem. In late 2006, daughter Jessica performed a song at a taped television salute to the career of Dolly Parton, but her performance was so bad that it had to be cut from the version that was broadcast (Moraes 2006). These two very public career gaffes made them the subject of jokes on television and cable shows and generated unkind headlines in the tabloids.
A manager cannot over-prepare an artist for a public appearance. Mistakes like those made by the Simpson sisters can erode their images as professionals and make their fans uneasy about telling others that they are admirers, which can be fatal for a career. The lesson here is to be sure that the artist is comfortable with performance opportunities, and then to be sure that they are properly prepared. Your management contract with your artist requires it.
JON LANDAU: KEEPING A BUSINESS FOCUS
Jon Landau’s relationship with Bruce Springsteen spans more than 30 years. His background in the music business included being an editor for a major music industry publication, a film critic, a music producer, and—most famously—an artist manager.
His connection with Springsteen began when he attended one of Springsteen’s New York City shows in 1974. The two became friends and Landau became a valued influence on Springsteen’s work in the recording studio. The closeness of the relationship created conflict with Springsteen’s manager at the time; Landau became his manager and has guided his career since then.
Springsteen always considered himself an artist and shied away from the commercial aspects of performing music. Part of this was attributed to the mistakes made selling merchandise at performance venues early in his career. However, Landau was able to show his client, over the years, that a career is based on the continued success of the business it generates. Springsteen began to accept that. Landau has a style of communication that made his client comfortable with the idea that his music can speak for working people, yet still have a complementary commercial aspect. Springsteen continues to sell platinum albums, and his 2012 tour grossed over US$210 million (Pollstar 2012).
Many artists launch their careers with a vow not to “sell out,” meaning that they will shun any attempt by those around them to convince them to become commercial. They say that they want to be true to their art and true to their fans. Commercial music, they often say, is cookie cutter music, and they are unwilling to become something they are not. An effective artist manager can guide the artists in the business side of their craft and still show them the way to reach a larger fan base. When artists say it is time to have a manager, they are also saying that they are at a point in their career where they want their artistry to begin building a financial future for them. It’s not necessary to compromise values to reach commercial markets that buy music and performance tickets. Rather, it takes the guidance of a manager who knows how to expose those creative features of an artist that appeal to a larger audience. Jon Landau had the industry background to understand the business and the human relations savvy to work with his artist, showing him that you don’t need to sell out your artistry in order to have financial success.
Bob Doyle is a product of Nashville’s part of the music business. He worked for Warner Bros. Records in the A&R department, at ASCAP in Nashville, overseeing member relations. In 1988, he left the performance rights organization to open the doors of his new music publishing business, Major Bob Music. One of his first clients was a talented singer–songwriter named Garth Brooks.
He used his connections to try to find Brooks a manager, but no one was willing to take on a new client, so Doyle decided to do it himself. He recruited a new partner, publicist Pam Lewis, to help him manage Brooks. The backgrounds of Doyle and Lewis meant that they had a number of the connections necessary to get Brooks’ career moving. Doyle put Brooks together with producer Jerry Kennedy to create a music demo. Kennedy was then able to connect the artist with booking agent Joe Harris of Buddy Lee Attractions. Doyle used his contacts to pitch Brooks to every label in Nashville but failed to get any interest in his client (Morris 1992). In May 1988, Brooks was scheduled to appear at the legendary Blue Bird Café in Nashville to showcase some of his songs. The lineup and performance times for the show were changed at the last minute, and he found himself performing before several record label chiefs, with the result that he was signed by Capitol Records (Mitchell 1993).
The career of Garth Brooks continued to be managed by Doyle through the best of times an artist can experience. Along the way, Doyle and Lewis parted, but Doyle continues to manage the career of one of the most commercially successful artists in history. His company is now known as Bob Doyle & Associates and his firm manages other artists as he continues to manage Garth Brooks in phase two of his career.
Bob Doyle was able to move Garth Brooks through the maze of the music business in part because he knew the key gatekeepers—or he knew those who knew them. Inexperienced artist managers find it difficult to make contact with key people in the music business because they don’t have a network of relationships.
The industry has hundreds of thousands of musically inclined individuals with lofty dreams of stardom, and all are trying to connect with those who can make a career happen. The result is that the offices of management companies from Los Angeles to Nashville and from New York to London are bombarded daily by those who need help realizing their dream in the music business. Artist managers new to the industry usually don’t have the connections—or network—to get telephone calls returned on behalf of the artists they want to manage. Bob Doyle and Pam Lewis already had access to key people in the music business, which added to their effectiveness in working on behalf of Garth Brooks’ career.
ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM: EXPLOIT YOUR ARTIST’S TALENTS
Nineteen-year-old Andrew Loog Oldham recruited and signed the Rolling Stones as his first act to manage. His background was limited but impressive. He had been an assistant to Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles.
His business savvy was quick to show. He signed his management deal with the Stones on May 1, 1963. Nine days later, the group was recording its first session for Decca Records (Cannon 1992). Oldham tells journalist Sean Egan that he approached the head of Decca A&R, Dick Rowe, and pitched the Rolling Stones, knowing that Rowe had been offered the Beatles but had declined signing them. Oldham assumed that Rowe didn’t want to be known as the guy who passed on the Rolling Stones, too, so he got his deal (Egan 2001).
Oldham knew that singing songs written by others would not set the group apart as much as writing their own original material for their album projects. He pressed Keith Richards and Mick Jagger to begin writing songs, although Jagger wasn’t a musician and Richards had done little songwriting. The result was that some of the most remembered music of the l960s was penned by these two Rolling Stones, including “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”
One of the roles of an artist manager is to exploit all of the talent that artists have. If an artist hasn’t written songs, the manager should begin developing that side of the artist. Although it is possible that the artist will never become a prolific writer, it will give him or her some insight into the creative processes of others who bring their songs to the studio. If artists have a creative side that permits them to write commercially viable songs, the manager has done his or her job by stimulating a creative revenue source for the artist.
JOHNNY WRIGHT: A MATTER OF TIMING
Johnny Wright is an artist manager who has also been part of the management teams of some of the most commercially successful pop music acts in history. His resume includes work with Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync, the New Kids On the Block, Boyz II Men, Justin Timberlake, the Jonas Brothers, and Sean “P Diddy” Combs. He began his association with the music industry as a radio DJ, and was recruited to travel with the New Kids for over four years. During those years, Wright learned a considerable amount about artist management and the challenges that go with managing artists.
Being on the road with a performing act exposes tour managers and aspiring artist managers to most of the issues one will face in the profession. Any tour, whether it is one that takes the artist and crew out for six weeks or one that hubs (returning home after each performance date), includes continuous contact with tour promoters, radio stations, venues and venue management, talent bookers, lighting companies, video companies, sound companies, production coordinators, the entertainment press, musician and stagehand unions, sponsors, fans, security companies, local/city governments, hotels, caterers, airlines and other transportation companies, and many others we discuss later in this book. All of these entities can create courses of action that need correcting, and being on the road and participating in solutions is among the best ways of learning how to manage issues.
Johnny Wright was able to develop his expertise in artist management for the music business early in his career, in part because he was able to place himself into the role of problem solver when many of the problems occurred. Because most issues are related to people and how they handle their responsibilities, they all have a human element, meaning that each situation is as different as the people who are part of the circumstances. Learning how to motivate people to assure the success of a performing artist is a critical component of the profession of artist management.
LOU PEARLMAN: A MATTER OF TRUST
Lou Pearlman is another artist manager who began in a different career but ultimately became a successful career manager: in this case, for the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync. Pearlman was raised in Flushing, New York. Among the things he did in his youth was becoming a musician in a local band. He eventually found his way into the aviation industry, where he was a very successful entrepreneur owner of a helicopter and aircraft charter service. His charters provided services to several key music industry people and this—coupled with the fact that his cousin is Art Garfunkel—opened a network of contacts that helped him become a major player in the music business. He put together the elements that resulted in the creation of the Backstreet Boys, and he later signed ‘N Sync to a management contract.
One of the continuing truths of nearly any industry is that the wealthiest are always prone to being sued. In some cases, it is because the wealthy have “deep pockets” and people sue for some of what they have. In other cases, the wealthy leave themselves exposed to being sued. This was the case between Pearlman and the Backstreet Boys. The group had signed a management contract with Pearlman when some of the group members were barely teenagers; court documents listed among the things Pearlman was accused of by the five Backstreet Boys:
• Pearlman made himself the sixth member of the group, which entitled him to a performer’s percentage of the earnings from touring and merchandise sales.
• Pearlman paid his own company, Trans Continental, 43% of the earnings of the group as consulting fees.
• Pearlman booked all of the group’s flights on his own airline charter service.
• Pearlman put the savings of the group members into investment savings accounts owned by his own company (Schneider 2000).
These issues were originally settled out of court, though the Backstreet Boys returned to court in 2013 to recoup investment losses that had been directed by Pearlman (Cohen 2006).
Among the key elements of the artist–manager relationship is trust; this relationship is often compared to marriage. Some marriages begin with a prenuptial agreement; likewise, an artist–manager agreement begins with a contract. Marriages include the earning of income shared by the partners; an artist shares income with a manager. Managers are often given power of attorney, which lets them act on behalf of the artist under certain circumstances; likewise, marriage partners frequently and unilaterally obligate the partnership. By contemporary standards, it could appear that Pearlman took advantage of the Backstreet Boys. However, it is unclear how much of his personal resources were invested in the group and it is equally unclear what the group understood would be the basis for repayment of Pearlman’s investment and his continued earnings. When the Backstreet Boys—now young men—realized what the costs were for Pearlman’s management, they felt they had been taken advantage of and sued him. When such a relationship loses its foundation of trust, it is all but impossible to recover from it. (Pearlman was sentenced in 2008 to 25 years in prison for defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars in a Ponzi scheme.)
SHARON OSBOURNE: A FAMILY EXPERIENCE
Sharon Rachel Arden is the daughter of the original manager of the rock group Black Sabbath. Ozzy Osbourne began the major part of his career as part of the group until he was fired and began to work solo. During these early years, Sharon worked for her father in his management company, gaining the experience necessary to later launch her own career as Ozzy’s manager. Sharon sought to be Ozzy’s manager as part of the Arden management company, but her father refused. So she bought the management contract from him, began to manage Ozzy, and along the way became Mrs. Osbourne. Sharon negotiated Ozzy’s solo recording contract with Epic in 1981; his first solo album sold over 4 million albums (Rosen 2003). She continues to manage all aspects of his career, which include a top ten album in 2010, career music sales of over 20 million albums, an active touring schedule, and a movie about Ozzy’s life during the 70s and 80s (Stern 2013).
Among the best lessons that artist managers can take from Sharon Osbourne are those she shared about her experience in Fortune magazine. In the May 13, 2002 edition of Fortune, Alynda Wheat wrote about Sharon Osbourne’s philosophy on artist management based on her experiences with Ozzy Osbourne. Her major points are:
• Manage your PR
• Marry your job
• Customer satisfaction sells
• Follow your gut
• Play to win
• Learn to cope
• Know when to move on
She uses these points as a basis to briefly discuss, in classic Sharon Osbourne style, her career experiences managing Ozzy Osbourne. I urge the interested reader to read the entire article (Wheat 2002).
LUKASZ GOTTWALD (DR. LUKE): HAVING IT IN WRITING
Dr. Luke was producing Kelly Clarkson songs in 2005, when he received a song demo from a friend at BMI and became interested in the singer on the tracks, Kesha Rose Sebert, later to become just Kesha. The demos by the 18-year-old impressed Luke, and he signed her to his own label, Kemosabe Records, with the intention of producing and releasing her music when he was able to find time in his schedule. For management, Kesha signed a contract on January 27, 2006, with DAS management, which is reproduced in Appendix D of this book. The agreement between DAS’s David Sonenberg and Kesha contains most of the standard provisions of a management contract, but it also includes a provision that she may end the contract if DAS doesn’t have a distribution deal with a major label within a year of her signing the management agreement with DAS. By 2008, Kesha didn’t have the promised major label recording contract, although Warner Bros had expressed interest in signing the artist; however, the label ultimately backed away from the deal because of the existing agreement with Luke’s record label. DAS and Kesha parted ways.
Luke began managing her career and guided her to RCA, where she received a recording contract in 2009 and began working on her first album, “Animal.” The album was released in early 2010, and the music from it set chart and sales records. At the time of its release, her first single, “TiK ToK,” became the longest-running single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart by a female artist in 33 years. SoundScan reported sales of the song at 610,000, making it the best weekly sales on the digital song chart ever by a female artist. Her album went well past platinum status, and she has sold over 25 million digital singles since the release of the album (SoundScan 2013).
With Kesha’s enormous commercial success, it came as no surprise that Sonenberg sued Luke, seeking millions in damages from him and claiming that he had convinced Kesha to terminate the DAS contract and to disavow the Warner Bros. contract that Sonenberg’s company had negotiated on her behalf. Kesha’s artist management contract is included in the back of this book as Appendix D.
As a manager, it is important to protect the time that you invest in the development of an artist with a reasonable contract. The contractual promise of a major career step within only 12 months of signing an artist management agreement is risky, even with the most talented new artist a company acquires. As you will see later in this book, developing the career of a new artist can pay dividends for managers who successfully direct a commercial music career, but those dividends typically require years of work without significant repayment for the time invested until the artist connects with their market.
JONNETTA PATTON: MANAGING AN ARTIST’S IMAGE
Usher Raymond IV grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, singing in the choir of a Baptist church that he attended with his mother, Jonnetta Patton. His mother recognized his gifts of musical talent and a charming personality, and took on the responsibility of managing a potential music career for him before he was ten years old. She placed him in a boy band called New Beginnings when he was 12, but later entered him solo in a talent show in Atlanta, which resulted in a record deal with La Face records. The label released a single by Usher on the Poetic Justice soundtrack. His voice began to change when he was 15 and he nearly lost his recording contract. To prove that Usher was ready for the next stage of his career, in 1995 his mother/manager put him on the road playing increasingly larger clubs and building a large fan base. His music and his “ladies’ man” image proved enough for an album, My Way, which sold over 4 million copies and 2 million tracks.
On the strength of music video images of Usher as a single, partying sex symbol, his next album, Confessions, sold over 14 million copies, and he became one of the biggest music stars of 2005. During the next four years, Usher was married, had two sons, got divorced, and in 2008 released an album that had—by Usher’s standards—a lukewarm reception. Many pointed to their difficulty in accepting the new image of Usher in a domestic role—a genuine collision of perception with the reality of Usher the person. His public image had gotten away from him. Several accounts acknowledge that his mother disapproved of the relationship that became a marriage, and it caused a strain on her personal and business relationship with her son. She was out of her son’s career in 2007 and then back into it again in 2008, as he tried to recapture his career status and the old image again. Two single platinum albums followed, but none as strong as the ladies’ man success story in 2004.
The easy lesson to draw from this could be that a manager must do what’s necessary to preserve an artist’s image. But that would be the easy way out. Rather, it is important to manage an artist’s image as a career and the years mature him or her as a personality and a performer. The tastes and musical preferences found in pop culture move too quickly, and a manager must work to be sure the artist continues to adapt and meet the expectations of fans.
An example of someone who has worked well with his artist’s maturing image is Paul Rosenberg, Eminem’s long-time manager. In 1999 Eminem’s alter ego, Slim Shady, was on his way to becoming a rap icon, dressed in the obligatory ball cap and baggy shirt and pants and sporting blond close-cropped hair. Through the years, he added quite a few tattoos and lost the blond hair. But by 2011, the tattoos were covered, the bling was minimal, and the 37-year-old’s stage image was mature, but his music and performances were still all message and attitude. By this time, many from his 1999 fan base were approaching 30 years old and Rosenberg and Eminem adapted the presentation of the music to meet the expectations of his newer and his older fans, resulting in his album Recovery topping sales charts for eight weeks in the summer of 2010; it still had strong sales three summers later. He was 41 years old when his next album was released in late 2013, and The Marshall Mathers LP2 was double platinum four months later. He has sold more than 45 million albums in the United States over the course of his career (SoundScan 2014).
Scott Siman was primed for a career in the music business working for his father’s publishing company and promoting concerts while he was still in high school. He attended law school and moved to Nashville where he worked as an entertainment lawyer for 14 years, followed by work for a record company for three years.
His experience with scores of artists at the record company gave him the experience he felt he needed when he learned that Tim McGraw was looking for a manager. So Siman ended his law practice and the two of them agreed to an artist management contract in 1997. He then opened RPM Management with McGraw as his first artist (Bouwman 2006). Over the ensuing years Scott Siman helped to make McGraw one of the biggest stars in the music business. His concert tours were always among the top-selling events of the year, and during the time that Siman managed him, McGraw sold 30 million albums through Curb Records (SoundScan 2014).
In 2009, McGraw began having issues with his record label that eventually resulted in him and Curb having serious words that resulted in each suing the other, which dragged on for years. McGraw received permission of the court to leave Curb and move on to another label, and McGraw decided not to renew the management contract with Scott Siman.
Siman continued to manage and develop artists on his management roster, and in 2012 decided to broaden his company to create RPM Entertainment. His newly branded company included a record label, music publishing, and, of course, management.
Scott Siman’s thirteen years managing Tim McGraw were immensely productive for both men. McGraw had a successful career and Siman had an artist that kept him and his company as busy as any artist management company could be. When the label conflict arose and McGraw chose to change management, it had to have a serious impact on RPM Management. However, the lesson to take away from this is that it’s important for a management company, that has a high-profile artist they’ve helped develop, to always have a plan B for the time when the relationship changes, for whatever reason. Scott Siman reinvented his company in ways that made it a template for contemporary artist management companies.
TOHME TOHME: “I AM NOT IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS”
Michael Jackson’s final manager was Tohme Tohme, who managed his career for the final year of the artist’s life. Not much is known about Tohme except the description by an Associated Press reporter who described him as a native of Lebanon, an American citizen, and “a financier” (Deutsch 2009). Tohme is credited with securing the refinancing of Jackson’s Neverland ranch as well as negotiating deals in Jackson’s final year of life. He claims to have worked on deals to create a Broadway show, an animated television show, as well as to negotiate the concert contract for the AEG Live performances set to begin in London close to the time of Jackson’s death.
Testimony in a lawsuit filed by the Jackson family against AEG Live following the artist’s death revealed weaknesses in the Jackson–Tohme relationship. Most agree that Tohme was helpful to the business side of Jackson’s career, but there were places where the relationship was very weak. The production was in the final stages of rehearsal for the 50 performances in London when the artist died. Among the issues that came out in testimony was the difficulty in keeping Jackson focused. A June 2, 2009 email from AEG Live’s CEO Randy Philips said, “Getting MJ to focus is not the easiest thing in the world and we still have no lawyer, no business manager, or, even, a real manager in place right now. It is a nightmare!” (Gottlieb 2013). Michael Jackson died three weeks later on June 25, 2009.
Managing an iconic performer like Michael Jackson is filled with challenges, almost by definition. However, from most accounts Tohme Tohme knew business and knew how to navigate the financial world on behalf of the artist. From the Deutsch article he was quick to note that, “I am not in the music business.” And it is here where the artist–manager relationship was very weak between the two. We see from the frustration of AEG Live management that they required Tohme to be more of a leader and to more closely participate in Jackson’s life as he prepared to headline one of the most spectacular concert runs ever produced. Tohme did well with the finances but, from AEG Live’s perspective, his connection with the artist was weak.
There are a lot of reasons offered for Michael Jackson’s death and we’re not going to try to sort all of that out. However, the management contract between the two gave Tohme very broad control over Jackson’s career. In the process of selecting Tohme to manage him, Jackson was concerned about having someone who could get him out of his financial problems but he overlooked the need for someone who also had the skills to lead and direct him on a personal level. It’s difficult to know if anyone could have fulfilled the latter part.
Jackson and Tohme finalized a management contract that is discussed in Chapter 6, and a copy of their actual agreement is included in that chapter.
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