CHAPTER 6
A primer for the artist manager
An effective manager working as an advocate for an artist requires an understanding of the general elements of planning and an appreciation of the value of plans in guiding an artist’s career. This chapter is an introduction to planning and includes specific guidance on creating and budgeting for a plan.
A weakness found in the music business is the lack of any formal planning for artists, especially new artists. Veterans of the music business—both artists and their managers—have a short-term and a long-term vision for managing careers, which are frequently not formalized in any written form. Artist manager Stuart Dill says, “Developing careers and plans, and actually putting them on paper and in writing I think is always a good idea. I don’t think it is always the norm. I think you’ll be surprised at how the industry has not had a formal approach as you would [if you were] a Fortune 500 company” (Dill, 2004). Even today, many in the music business agree with Dill’s assessment. For the new artist who is ready for the commercial exploits of his or her music and is signed with management, a formal written plan is especially important. Chapter 12 of this book guides artist managers through the creation of such a plan. This chapter begins with goal setting.
Perhaps the most often spoken goals by people everywhere are New Year’s resolutions. We heard the resolutions in early January—and perhaps made some ourselves—knowing full well that there wasn’t a chance that they’d all be kept.
In part, this is because they were terribly ambitious, and in part because they were made without a plan or timetable to make them achievable. As the next year approaches, the resolution remains unmet and as the sound of Auld Lang Syne rings in the New Year, the same goals are set for yet another year. Promises you make to yourself toward achievement of goals without a plan and a timetable suggest that they are more like dreams rather than intended results.
Managing careers of artists converts their dreams of success in the music business into a reasonable reality. But without a plan and accompanying timetable, coupled with a shared vision of the manager and the artist, an artist’s career becomes a dream that blindly searches for opportunity. It is important that the goals of a plan and the way to reach those goals are the result of collaboration between the two. The manager should push the artist, as the U.S. Army says, “to be all you can be,” and the artist must view the plan as being one that is reasonable and achievable. Without the mutual agreement on the plan, the artist may not take genuine ownership in the viability of the plan and will see it as the manager’s vision, not theirs together.
An often-quoted line from Michelangelo fits well into to our discussion of setting goals. “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it” (Chandler, 2005, 51). There is always the temptation to take the safe road and set goals that assure success. However, doing so sets the stage for underperformance or underachievement based on the talents of the artist. The manager must negotiate goals into the plan that the artist genuinely feels are attainable with the guidance of the manager, and they must be a true reflection of the potential of the artist’s talents.
Defining a set of goals by and for the artist is the starting point for creating a plan. Goals chosen by the artist might be securing a recording contract, learning to play piano during stage performances, learning to write songs that have commercial appeal, developing a commanding stage presence, or acting in movies. But as these goals are set, they need to be very specific. For example, stating a goal as general as “acting in movies” doesn’t have a beginning or an end, which makes it more of an idea than a goal. A goal for the artist should be stated as specifically in the plan as this: the artist will begin receiving coaching in acting at the end of next year’s tour with the goal of securing a part in a motion picture 12 months later. Generating specific goals takes out the “pipe dream” aspect of goal setting and creates accountability for both the artist and the manager.
Planners use a common metaphor that says a goal is the target you are trying to hit. It is the result you are trying to achieve. It is the goal—the target of your energies. In order to achieve a goal, you need a set of strategies. Strategies are the plans you make to reach the goal. One of the best ways to develop a good set of strategies is to create a timeline beginning with the goal and work backward, determining what must be done to reach the goal. Strategies are lists of general steps that the artist and manager must take in order to get the desired result found in the goal. An example of a strategy is to create and practice a stage show with the goal of being booked to open for a headliner. Ken Kragen has a chapter titled “Backward Thinking for Forward Motion” in his book, Life Is A Contact Sport (1994), which offers an excellent guide for developing effective strategies to reach goals. Among his suggestions is to motivate gatekeepers in a career path to say “yes.” The music business is one of those high-reward industries that has many gatekeepers, and it requires the manager to plan for how to identify and deal with them along the way.
The final piece to the planning model is the use of tactics. These are the things the artist and the manager do each day to implement the strategies in order to achieve the goals. With the goals set and the strategies developed, the manager’s personal planning tool—a smart phone, a day planner, a calendar, a computer, or an old-fashioned notebook—will have daily entries focused on executing the strategies. It will note telephone calls to be made, emails to be sent, meetings to be held, and a follow-up step for everything.
Chapter 12 presents software that can be used by the manager to create charted timelines that visually display the goals and related strategies. These applications are effective tools to help the manager manage time quickly, and to show the artist the commitment they have both made toward the artist’s success.
PLANNING A PERSONAL BUDGET FOR THE ARTIST
The manager who does not create a reasonable personal budget for the artist, especially a new artist, will be spending valuable time trying to patch up relationships with bankers, credit card companies, and others to whom the artist owes money. Sitting down with the artist and developing a monthly budget will show the artist spending limits as well as give the artist guidance on being financially solvent. It is difficult for artists to be creative in their art if creditors are applying pressure and making demands for payment. Keeping them financially solvent eliminates a possible distraction and helps keep them focused on their art.
The outcome the manager wants is for the artist to understand the basic idea of personal budgeting: monthly Income = monthly Expenses. In a perfect world, the artist will have more income than necessary to cover expenses and will be able to put some into savings. But the simple model noted here is the minimum outcome of a well-planned budget based on available income and necessary expenses.
A budget, like any other plan the manager creates, must be done in collaboration with the artist. The artist must see the need for it and must agree to the limits of the plan. A lot of personal budget templates are available that make excellent tools for assembling a personal budget. An especially useful one is presented by the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of San Francisco (CCCS) and is available on their website at http://www.cccssf.org. The budget can be arranged by the week or the month, depending on which works best for the artist. Monthly budgets are easy to prepare, but they begin to fall apart by the middle of the month when the artist learns that there isn’t much money left for the remaining two weeks of the budget period. Initially, then, a weekly budget will keep a shorter-term view of where money is being spent, and it gives the artist a way to develop the control necessary to be responsible with prescribed spending limits.
The manager and artist should plan for the following areas as major areas of the budget:
• Savings
• Groceries
• Restaurants
• Laundry/Dry Cleaning
• Medical/Dental
• Automobile/Gas/Parking
• Other Transportation
• Child Care
• Personal Care
• Clothing
• Postage/Bank Fees
• Entertainment
• Books/Music/Video
• Cigarettes/Alcohol
• Gifts/Cards
• Home/Garden
• Church/Charity Contributions
• Other1
The guidelines by the CCCS for a budget by general categories are:
• 35% for housing
• 15% for debt
• 10% for contributions
• 15% for transportation
• 25% for all other expenses
It is important for artists to understand that a budget is based on their net income, meaning that money for their personal budget is available only after taxes have been taken out. The nature of the work of many artists is such that they are paid the full amount of their earnings when they are earned, and taxes will not have been deducted from the amount the artist receives. What will happen in January is that a U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1099 will be sent to both the artist and to the IRS by the various employers, which is a reminder that the earnings were paid in cash or by check. No taxes were withheld from these amounts paid to the artist. The artist will be required to have funds available to pay any income taxes that are due from amounts reported on all of the 1099 forms they receive. David Darnell Brown performing as rapper Young Buck owed the IRS $164,000 in unpaid back taxes in 2010, so his home was raided and some of his personal property confiscated, which was set to be auctioned to pay the tax debt (Gee, 2010). An artist manager must help resolve situations like this or, ideally, make sure they never happen at all.
In addition to the Federal taxes payable in the United States, the artist must be prepared to pay any state income taxes for amounts earned from performances in each state he or she worked in during the previous calendar year. It is important that the artist understands that a budget category will be created to hold back anticipated taxes that will be due.
As the artist begins to live with a budget, the manager and the artist may discover that adjustments need to be made to ensure it is an accurate reflection of the artist’s requirements.
PLANNING AND BUDGETING AN EVENT
Throughout one’s career as an artist manager, there will be countless planned events, both large and small. Regardless of the size of the event, it requires great attention to detail and a realistic budget because it’s an important component of promoting the career of an artist. The range of events can be from a small “meet and greet” with a tour sponsor involving the artist and a handful of other people to something as large as a performance before 40,000 people. Although the latter example is often planned by a promoter and an agent with final approval by the manager, supervising performances and other appearances is the responsibility of the manager, and the manager must know what elements must be planned into them to assure their success for the artist.
For several reasons, a plan for any event should be written. First, a manager who has several artists will have a number of events in the planning stage, and a written plan will keep them organized and separate from each other. During those frequent hectic times, keeping the plans separate and in writing will minimize the confusion for the manager and those who are assisting with them. Having a plan in writing is especially important when the manager must share information with others. A range of distractions from illness to other unexpected emergencies becomes easier to manage if a clear and complete written plan can be assigned to someone else to handle. The written plan should include a lot of detail:
• The time, date, and place
• Purpose of the event with the expected outcome
• All contact information for the manager, including email, landline telephone number(s), home phone number, cell phone number, instant messenger address, fax number, and any other wireless access address
• Similar contact information for the manager’s primary assistant
• All special requirements for the event (food, beverage, equipment, personnel, room setup)
• Detailed contact information for all service and equipment providers for the event, including after-hours and emergency telephone numbers
• Contact information for all backup service and equipment providers
• Full transportation and travel information, even if it is for a local event
• A budget detailing expected expenses and who will pay for each element of it
Successful events require considerable attention to detail. Each element of a planned event involves calls, follow-up calls, confirmation, and reconfirmation as the date approaches. The event plan we discuss on the following pages, the responsibility of something as seemingly routine as issuing invitations, is highlighted to demonstrate the amount of planning and coordination necessary to simply invite people to a showcase.
The cities of major music centers have venues that routinely showcase artists for the purposes of securing management, a recording deal, or a publishing contract. The showcases can be one of the regular performances by an artist at a venue at which special guests are invited to determine whether they’d like to have a business interest in the performer. Sometimes they are as simple as an audition in a conference room. Other times they might be held at a performance rehearsal facility, and sometimes they are invitation-only showcases presented at small clubs. The event plan example in this section of the book is for a showcase for an artist who is seeking interest by a large independent label or by a major label for a recording contract. Because the objective is to enter into a business arrangement, one of the key music business centers—Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, or London—is the likely location for a showcase. And regardless of where the event is held, the planning for it has the same considerations. Depending on the available budget, elements of the plan described in the following section will require modification or elimination. A showcase at a club that is part of a regular engagement for the artist has little additional cost; a showcase planned as an exclusive event for the artist can involve considerable expense. Each can be effective, although the exclusive event focuses on the artist, and is designed to be purely an industry event rather than mixed with club patrons.
Before an event can be scheduled by the manager, time must be blocked from the artist’s schedule to prepare for it. A showcase to seek a label deal will require at least six to eight weeks of preparation from the date the decision is made to have the event until it happens. Before the date is confirmed, the manager must look at the general calendar for the music industry to be sure that the key people to whom invitations will be sent aren’t committed to something else. If, for example, there is a major award show scheduled or an industry conference set for the artist’s musical genre, the showcase should be planned at another time. Conflicting events, especially locally, can kill the intended result of a showcase. Competing for the attention of gatekeepers at industry conventions is expensive and often unproductive because of the number of people present and the amount of talent present.
Specific timing ideally includes a late afternoon event that closes out the business day for invitees. If you offer refreshments to the guests, a broader range of beverages can be offered at the end of the day.
The most efficient showcase plan is one that requires about an hour of the invitees’ time. Thirty minutes is set aside for people to arrive, have light refreshments, and network with peers. The last half hour will include a twenty-minute performance by the artist with ten minutes reserved to navigate the room with guidance by the manager to connect with key people who attend. A showcase planned at 5:30 p.m. gives invitees a half hour to network with peers, hear the showcase, and be on their way home or to other evening activities by 6:30 p.m. It is an efficient use of their time and a convenient way to end the business day.
The venue the manager chooses should be one that is large enough for the event, but small enough so that it is easy to give the perception that there is a big attendance. An ideal venue will be conveniently located near those who are invited, have adequate parking, offer the use of the venue at no charge for a guaranteed food and beverage purchase for the event, and seat 100–150 people in front of a permanent stage. The venue does not need to be a hangout for music business types, but it should be among those defined as being “hip” or “cool,” such as the House of Blues in Los Angeles or New York, 12th and Porter in Nashville, or The Borderline in London.
With the time and place set, it is now possible to create and issue invitations. The surest way to a successful showcase for the artist is to use a combination of the old and tried ways with the inclusion of technology. Three weeks before the event, mail the invitations using the traditional postal service so they will arrive two and a half weeks before the event. The following week, send a follow-up email that includes an image of the invitation. To those who have not responded to the first invitation and first email, send a reminder email the week before the event reminding the invitee again that the showcase is coming up.
Every part of a successful plan has countless steps, and the effective manager anticipates each element of each step. For example, as easy as this seems, issuing invitations has a considerable number of steps that will require attention to detail:
1. What format will the invitation take? Will it be an invitation inside an envelope or will it be a postal card? If it is a postal card, what size will it be? Will it be printed in four colors (that is, full color)?
2. What will the invitation say? Will images be required for it and from where will you get them? Who will proof the text?
3. How will invitees confirm that they will attend? Should they call the manager’s office or will an RSVP telephone line be set up to take reservations? Who will compile the RSVP report on a daily basis for the manager’s review?
4. Who will print the invitations, someone in-house at the office or a printing company? How many bids will you take for the printing service? What is the printer’s lead time to be sure the invitations are ready on time? Who is your back-up printer in the event the invitations are not ready on time?
5. Who will receive the invitations? How many invitations must be issued to ensure the size and quality of a crowd at the event? Will the artist manager’s list include everyone who should be invited or should the manager also borrow a list from a major publicist to assure adequate coverage of the industry? Who will eliminate duplicate names? Does the manager have software and expertise to print labels from the database?
6. Who will assemble the invitations and prepare them to post? How much postage must be purchased and who will purchase it?
7. Who will create the email follow-ups? Is there a complete email list of invitees? Does the manager have the software and expertise to send an email blast that can penetrate corporate firewalls to get to recipients?
Although this list demonstrates the kinds of tasks and detail necessary for just the invitations, it does not include the telephone calls, voice mail, and emails necessary to complete each of these steps.
Often referred to as hospitality in the meeting planning industry, the kind of food and beverages served at an event like this depends on the budget available. Venues often supply the event space at little or no cost, provided that the manager purchases snacks and beverages from them rather than having them catered. An open bar for a one-hour event will leave the artist manager exposed to the consumption of the crowd. If beverages cost an average of $4 each, a crowd of one hundred can easily accrue a bar tab of US$1,000 in an hour plus an additional $200 tip to the barkeep. On a larger scale, the author held a major music industry showcase and dinner for 1,600 people that included an open bar for an hour. The bar tab for that 60 minutes was $27,000, although only $15,000 had been budgeted for it. At the settlement with the venue, the amount was negotiated down, but thereafter beverage tickets were provided for similar events as a way to control costs. The use of beverage tickets is encouraged for any event at which the food and beverage budget must be closely watched.
If food is planned for a small showcase, it must be within the limits of the budget. Depending on the city in which the showcase is held, catered snacks and light finger foods can cost between $10–$20 per person, including tax and tip. For a small showcase, however, food is not necessary if the budget does not permit.
The manager should assemble a list of the requirements for the performance, many of which depend on the venue. Some performance venues offer only a stage with the expectation that the performer will bring in the necessary sound and lighting equipment. Other venues have “house” sound and lighting systems with technicians to operate them for the artist, and these accommodations may include a small charge or be offered at no cost.
If the stage is not adequate for the performance, the manager must rent appropriate staging and have it erected for the performance. Some venues have no stage, and the performance is made from floor level. Some have minimal staging that is more like a riser than an actual stage. Others have staging that puts the performer above the audience, permitting him or her to be seen and heard very well. Besides the elevation of the stage, the manager must be sure that there is adequate space for the stage plot that is planned for the event. (A stage plot diagrams the location of each performer and their associated equipment.) If more space is needed, the manager must order it.
If the performance is by a group that includes its own band members, it may be unnecessary to hire additional players for the showcase. However, if the artist does not have players who regularly perform together, a budget allowance is necessary to pay the players for rehearsal and performance time. Costs that may be incurred with the performance could also include cartage (paying someone to transport instruments and other equipment), instrument rental, and technicians to manage the lights and sound.
Those who attend the event should be provided with promotional materials, often in the form of a press kit, to carry away with them after the event. It should be given to all invitees as they leave the event. Encourage them to take two if they need them, keeping in mind that many who attend showcases are surrogates for decision makers, and they will be sharing the experience with other staff at their company the next day.
In a brief showcase, the name of the artist is typically mentioned at the beginning and at the end of the performance. Because they are relatively new to the industry, it helps to keep a banner with the name and website address of the artist on stage in front of the audience before, during, and after the performance. Heavy-duty banners are relatively inexpensive and can be used for subsequent performances.
The final piece of promotion is often the most expensive but can also be the key to a successful event: hiring a good publicist. Entertainment publicists can promote the event to the industry and can manage the event for the artist manager. Publicists will be able to help create a list of key invitees, provide addresses, handle RSVPs, make follow-up calls to those invited, and manage the event on the premises the day of the event. They know who the key people are in the industry and often have the relationships with them that are necessary to get them and/or their staff to the showcase.
The most economical way to showcase talent is to make it a performance at a venue at which the artist is already booked. Guests who are invited can be asked to present an invitation at the door, or a list of invitees can be provided to the person at the door of the venue. Accommodations for invitees can include reserved tables with directives to the wait staff to give complimentary beverages to them (with the bill coming to the manager).
An exclusive industry showcase is the most expensive way to showcase, and is most appropriate for the aspiring artist who has access to enough funding for an event of this type. Typical costs an artist could expect to pay for an event that plays host to 100 industry people are shown in the following table:
Budget Item |
Cost (U.S.) |
Beverages |
$1,200 |
Food |
$1,000 |
Rented sound and lights with technicians |
$3,750 |
Invitations (designed and printed commercially, postage) |
$850 |
3′ × 5′ hand-painted vinyl banner |
$150 |
Musicians (5) |
$1,200 |
200 press kits |
$500 |
Publicist |
$3,500 |
Cartage, instrument rental, miscellaneous |
$450 |
Total |
$12,600 |
The $12,600 for this exclusive artist showcase allows you to create an event specifically targeted to gatekeepers of the artist’s career. Events like these can generate industry interest, and depending on the talent of the artist and the skill of management, they can be productive.
The question most often asked about a showcase event—whether it is an exclusive artist showcase or a regular performance to which key industry people are invited—is, “How do I pay for it?” Artists have several options to find funding sources. They may have savings that are put aside for their career development; they may have friends or family members who are able to assist in paying the costs; they may have a sponsor who regularly associates with their performances and is willing to underwrite an event like this; and the artists may be able to take out a loan to cover the showcase costs. Some artists have “super fans” who are investors or “angels” and are willing to participate in the financing of the artists’ careers in exchange for an earnings return from their investment when that career takes off. Every artist that has a well-developed fan base also has a few sincere fans who will say, “Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you succeed,” and these people are ones who can help cover showcasing costs. As noted earlier in this book, the artist manager should ask the artist to remember and note anyone who falls into this category, and the manager should then follow up and ask for support.
Planning for any event, whether it is an artist showcase or a meet-and-greet preceding a performance, requires close attention to the budget. If the plan results in a budget that the artist cannot afford, then the manager must decide whether to modify the event so that it becomes affordable or consider not holding the event at all. Remember that budgeting is a matter of setting priorities with available funding, and above all, a plan must be affordable.
There are a number of organizing and planning tools used by artist managers. They include paper planners from Day-Timer® and Franklin Covey®. This style of planner has accessories and sophisticated tools that help the artist manager stay current and plan for the artist as well as for all other company clients. This style of planner sells annual updates with printed pages, binders, and useful reference pages.
Another planning tool is Microsoft Outlook®. It provides many of the same functions as paper planners, but it is software used on computers, smartphones, PDAs, and other handheld devices. Outlook can be an effective information and communication management tool and works as an adequate planner for the artist manager.
People who are successful in the sales and promotion professions will say that they love the business they’re in, but they hate the paperwork. However, planning and its associated “paperwork” can give artist managers the competitive edge at being an effective advocate for everyone on their artist rosters.
References
Chandler, S. (2005). Ten Commitments to Your Success. Barndon, OR: Robert Reed Publishers.
Consumer Credit Counseling Service of San Francisco. (2010). http://www.cccssf.org.
Dill, S. (2004). CMA’s Music Business 101. Unpublished video.
Gee, B. (2010, August 31). Young Buck Raid Netted Thousands. The Tennessean, p. 2B.
1Consumer Credit Counseling Service of San Francisco (2010).