CHAPTER 11
Conducting business for the artist
Part of the business of managing the career of another includes the efficient use of time and embracing ethics in the ways that others would expect—especially because you are acting on their behalf. This chapter looks at time management and the ethics that go into your management of that time.
PRESENTING THE ARTIST FOR A RECORDING CONTRACT: AN EXERCISE IN TIME MANAGEMENT
Among the most valued assets an artist manager has is time. How and where managers use their time on behalf of their artists dictates how efficient they are in the other areas of artist management. Managing time means that an artist manager must develop the ability to manage meetings—large and small—even if the meetings seem to be in the control of others.
The manager schedules meetings for a variety of reasons, but none is more important than the meeting requested with a label to present an artist for a recording contract—not because it creates the largest income stream, but because the marketing and promotional efforts by a label help drive interest by fans in touring. Given the weight of this meeting, we’ll use it here to carefully create a template that will have a wide variety of applications to the work of the artist manager.
The meeting has been set for a Tuesday morning at the offices of the record label. The manager has asked for 15 minutes with the key staff of the label, and the label president if he or she is available.
If you think you can never be effective in a meeting like this, read through this section and you’ll learn that it may not be as difficult or impossible as you think.
Even for the veteran manager, planning and executing a meeting like this can create anxiety and stress. Knuckles get tight, palms become moist, feet get cold, and butterflies invade the stomach. If the manager embraces the true importance of this meeting about the future of the artist, some of these physiological symptoms will appear, but they are completely normal reactions. How does a manager deal with this? The surest way to handle this normal reaction is to plan, plan, plan for the meeting. The success of this meeting depends entirely on the amount of planning the manager does to prepare for it.
The conference room environment can be very intimidating. It typically has a big table, big windows, fancy carpet and chairs, and racks of AV equipment that an MIT graduate engineer would have difficulty operating. Meeting rooms often have more chairs than are necessary and the general massive nature of the room can seem menacing. Adding to the threatening nature of conference rooms is that the meeting attendees are on “their” turf. However, even the most reluctant manager can overcome much—if not most—of the anxiety of a planned meeting simply by following these steps, which are specifically designed to put the manager in control of much of the meeting, instill confidence, and make the manager an effective advocate for the artist.
Know the purpose of the meeting and do the homework
The objective of the relationship the artist has with the label is to sell recordings and related products. The manager who presents an artist to a label for a record deal is asking them to risk hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars and to sign their artist ahead of any others being considered. Likewise, a small independent label is being asked to risk their very limited resources to support a recording artist’s commercial music project. In both cases, the risk is significant to the individual companies.
Although some business meetings are intended to inform people or perhaps to build relationships, the manager’s planning must be focused on the idea that this particular meeting is a sales meeting: the objective is to convince those in the room that the manager’s artist has a place on the label’s roster and can make money for the label. An important thing to remember about a meeting like this is that it is not about the artist—it is not about the manager. This meeting is completely about the record label and what they need. This basic understanding about the focus of the meeting—that it is totally about the label—must drive the manager’s planning for and execution of the meeting.
Whenever one presents in an environment like this, it is important to know what those in the room need. After all, the only reason people would attend a meeting like this is if they think there is something in it for them or their company. The label is in business to make money for the label ownership through the talent and artistry of their signed recording artists. So it is important to know what they need before attending the meeting.
Among the things about artists that the label will consider important are:
• The music they write and perform
• The image they present on stage and for the camera
• Their self-assuredness and confidence in who they are
• Their experience and seasoning as an artist
• Their uniqueness and contemporary appeal
• How strong the artist manager is
• Whether the artist has a publishing contract with another company
• How much touring the artist has done and how much is planned
• Sponsorship and merchandise deals the artist has
• Their experience selling tickets and recordings and associated successes
• Internet traffic to the artist’s social networking sites
• The maturity of their overall Internet presence
These points are important to the label because they address the commercial viability of the artist by demonstrating their preparedness for a career in commercial music. They also disclose opportunities the label has in minimizing their risk by seeking partnerships with the artist by sharing some of the existing and future revenue sources. New artist recording contracts, as we know, usually include revenue sharing in the form of multiple rights 360 contracts. Knowing these points of interest to the label should be part of the meeting planning by the manager.
Likewise, the manager should be aware of other aspects of the label that identify needs that are not specifically related to the artist being presented for a recording contract. Among those things are:
• How many similar artists the label currently has under contract
• Whether the label has budgeted to add an artist to their label
• How much of the promotional work the manager will be expected to handle
• Whether the label has the staffing necessary to support another artist
• How risk-averse the label’s reputation is
• The number of acts that are on the label’s roster
• Whether the roster has been recently cut, making way for another act
All of these points are among those a manager should consider in planning to address the needs of the label in preparation for the meeting.
The manager’s research about the first label that will be approached should be very complete. The manager should know what the recent history of album and single sales has been for the label, and what the financial condition of the label is. Finding someone who has access to SoundScan will give you this important inside information. Also, the manager should know about the politics of the label, such as whether there were any recent personnel changes or rumors of any that are pending.
Industry trade magazines and websites should be among the first sources an artist manager employs to acquire background information for planning the meeting with the label. Key trade magazines for this research include Billboard, CMJ, and Poll-star. These sources will include airplay and sales charts as well as information categories that include activities within specific labels. Pollstar magazine gives weekly ticket sales by geographic location and by venue. Websites with current information about labels include http://allaccess.com and http://billboard.biz. Dean Kay’s free daily aggregation of music industry news is also a valuable resource noted in the reference section at the end of this chapter. All of this information will be important in giving some insight into the needs of the label for which the meeting is planned. If the manager understands the competitive and changing business environment the label faces, it will help the manager see the needs of the label in terms of the artist being presented for a recording contract.
It is helpful to know which labels are signing artists and which ones are not. In the manager’s research, knowing that artists have been cut from a label indicates a possible opportunity. And simply because the meeting planning research shows certain labels are not signing new artists, the truth is that a label that discovers an artist who fits their commercial vision will consider adding that artist to their roster. The bottom line to record labels and the recording industry is the “bottom line,” and no label would pass up what is viewed as a genuine opportunity for success.
It isn’t always apparent in advance how many people will attend the meeting, but the manager should specifically plan for what will happen in the room as a result of the meeting.
First, the manager will want all attendees to listen to what is said. This means that the artist manager should be positioned in the room so that everyone in the room can hear what is being said. Often, the best place for one to be assured of being heard without difficulty is at the end of the table. As the manager presents, he or she will want them to comprehend why the meeting is being held and why it is important for them to listen. Certainly the manager will want to be able to influence their thinking about the artist with the goal of having them take action to sign the artist to a recording contract.
Knowing this is a sales meeting, the manager should develop several key points that he or she wants to make during the meeting. Actually listing the points on a notepad or in a daily planner and placing it on the table during the meeting will prevent that annoying “mind fade” when people forget things they had wanted to say. Putting these key points on paper will organize the manager and will ensure that an important point that might make the deal won’t be overlooked.
The manager should organize the flow of the meeting from beginning to end both mentally and on paper. In a perfect world, the plan for the meeting will flow from an opening to the key points, to the closing, and to a call to act. Meetings of all kinds, however, never follow a script. There is always an agenda of the record company to sell recordings, there is the agenda of each department of the label, and there always is the personal agenda of everyone in the room. However, having a plan to direct the flow of the meeting will help the manager keep a focus on the objective on behalf of the artist and will help the manager get a meeting back on topic if it veers in the wrong direction and wastes the time you have reserved with the label personnel.
If the manager can know the job titles of those who will attend the meeting, it will be possible to arrange talking points specific to them. For example, if someone from A&R (Artist and Repertoire) attends the meeting, it will be important for them to know that the artist is an active songwriter and has had several songs recorded by other artists. Keeping the success of the artist in terms of the personal success of the people in the room will create a stronger connection with those whose opinions determine whether the artist gets a recording contract with the label.
Another element of planning your meeting for results is to visit the building where the meeting will take place a day or two before it is scheduled. Even if the manager is an occasional visitor to the building, traveling the route planned for the day of the meeting can assure punctuality. It is possible that highway construction or building maintenance will cause delay, and being on time for an important meeting says a lot to the people from whom the manager is seeking time for a meeting. If the manager is late for the meeting, it may be the last meeting the label staff will agree to schedule with the manager. If the artist is to be at the meeting, the manager should personally plan to meet the artist and provide transportation. Do not assume that the artist will be punctual if left to provide his or her own transportation to the meeting.
Visiting the meeting room prior to the appointment can give the manager a comfort level of being familiar with the environment in which the meeting will take place. This premeeting visit will eliminate unknowns. It is a simple matter to call the label and ask for an opportunity to visit the meeting room a few days before the meeting, saying that it will include a multimedia presentation and it is necessary to see what resources are available. Eliminating as many unknowns as possible through planning can reduce the stress and trepidation meetings like this can create for some artist managers.
Another element of planning for meetings is to be sure that the support materials are ready. The press kits should include the latest promotional creations for the artist—printed photos, a CD with three or four songs, a DVD if it captures a good performance or performances, a good bio that sells the artist, web addresses for access points to the artist such as a branded website, and a brief EPK (Electronic Press Kit) if one has been developed for the artist. Plan to take a briefcase with a dozen press kits to the meeting. Although only two or three people may be at the meeting, provide enough so they can give a copy to others at the label who will influence the decision to sign the artist.
Earlier, we said the amount of time reserved at the label’s offices for this meeting was just 15 minutes. There are reasons for setting such a brief meeting. First, if you ask for a half an hour or even an hour, it will be difficult to set a time for the meeting. Nearly everyone has had to suffer through meetings that should have been over in 15 minutes, but instead the meeting organizers took 60. The manager who takes 15 minutes, makes the points necessary, and gets out on time is the manager who will find it is easy to get an appointment again. Perhaps this particular artist will not get the recording contract, but the manager might have another artist next month to pitch for a record deal. If the manager gains the reputation of asking for 15 minutes and taking only 15 minutes, it becomes much easier to do business with other busy people.
In a meeting where a manager presents an artist for a record deal, how does the manager allocate the time? Here’s a reasonable template:
Amount of Time |
Use of the Time |
Two minutes |
Introductory talk, light subject(s) |
Ten minutes |
Present main points |
Three minutes |
Restate main points, bring meeting to a close |
To keep aware of the time, there are several strategies the manager can use. The manager can plan to be seated in a position to see the clock in the conference room; glance at someone else’s wristwatch who is in the meeting; or set a wireless device to its vibrate alert as a reminder when time is nearly over. Whatever method you use to keep up with time, remember that a key to getting the next appointment will be based, in part, on how well you respect the time of others in the meeting. As a matter of courtesy, do not place a communication device on the table during the meeting: the message it sends to others is that there may be something more important than this meeting.
To the question, “What if the people in the meeting continue to ask questions and begin to run the meeting late?” remind those in the meeting that time is running short and ask if they have time to continue the meeting for a while longer so you can give them all the information they need.
If this is the first time you have conducted a meeting like this, practice it. Certainly, you can’t know the flow of the meeting, but your planning will have you prepared for as much of it as you can. Having someone sit through a mock meeting with you will help you gain confidence when the real meeting happens. Ask the person to critique you by watching your gestures, body language, and mannerisms. Find someone who can muster the attitude of being brutally honest when asked for a candid evaluation. It’s not time to hear what people think we want to hear; it’s time to get solid input about your presentation style.
Perhaps the most important thing a manager can do during the presentation is to have eye contact with those in the room. The aim of the meeting is to convince the label that the artist is a good business fit with their company, and good eye contact tells people that you believe what you’re saying.
If there are questions the manager can anticipate, practicing the answers will prevent the appearance that he or she doesn’t know the artist as well as they should.
How well the manager presents the artist as a potential asset for the record company to those in the meeting determines how productive the meeting will be. Productivity in this sense means the likelihood of a recording contract.
Assuming the artist is not attending this meeting, the manager enters the conference room confidently, smiles, and looks each in the eye as he or she shakes hands with everyone around the table. The initial smile and eye contact are important to quickly develop a friendly relationship with the group. And in this new age of business, no consideration is given to the gender of the meeting attendees when greeting others with the traditional handshake. The manager distributes a business card to everyone in the meeting, even to those he or she knows. Most will give the manager one of their business cards, which is used by the manager as a reference to names and titles of those in the meeting.
When the manager dresses for this meeting, it should be in attire that is comparable to those in the meeting. The manager wants to be viewed as a peer at this meeting and doesn’t want to be over or underdressed. A quick way to determine what is appropriate is to call the receptionist at the label and ask what the label staff typically wears to meetings like this one.
Spend the first part of the meeting with a very light subject such as, “Congratulations on the new album you just released.” Then let them talk, and listen for clues that might help you with your presentation. Remember that this meeting is about the label, so the key points listed on the manager’s notepad are pointed toward the label and how well the artist fits into the culture and business of the label. The manager should discuss those key points, play a song from a CD or show a video of the artist, then restate the key points, bringing the meeting to a close.
Some in the meeting may have seen the artist at a showcase or at a venue where he or she performed. If the manager senses that a live performance may be necessary, consider inviting the label executives to a planned performance on a specific date or have the artist join the meeting for an acoustic performance at the meeting.
During the meeting, some of the attendees will ask for information that the manager doesn’t have at the moment. When someone asks for something and the manager agrees to provide it, write it down immediately. First, doing so ensures that the manager will not forget the promise, and second, it sends the message to the requesters that their needs are important to the manager. When the manager returns to the office it is time to follow up on those promises.
A note about those in the meeting: the manager should not be offended if, during the meeting, some seem distracted or even appear arrogant. Keep in mind that many staffs at labels—both large and small—have frequent meetings where managers and others present artists for recording contracts, and this meeting may be one of several that the staff has been required to attend over a short period of days. It isn’t personal.
Should the artist attend the meeting?
The primary considerations by the manager as to whether the artist should attend the meeting are: (1) whether the artist will add to the meeting, and (2) whether the artist feels comfortable in settings like this. If the manager seeks to control the meeting, it may be preferable to not have the artist attend. With the artist in the room, there will be some expectation that they will participate in the meeting and the other attendees may draw the artist into discussions that do not address the point of the meeting. However, an affable charismatic artist in the meeting room can add a dimension to the appeal of the artist that the manager cannot communicate.
Another consideration is whether the artist will be a distraction to the points of business the manager plans to make to the label executives. If the artist is a group of five people, their mere presence may constitute a continuing distraction, whereas without them in the room it becomes easier for the manager to keep the attention of the attendees on points the manager wishes to make. Under circumstances where the label asks for the artist to be part of the meeting, the manager should accommodate that request by prepping the artist.
Legendary artist manager Sharon Osbourne tells of the time in 1981 when she was presenting Ozzy Osbourne in a conference room to a group of Epic record company executives. She wanted to do something memorable and told Ozzy, “We’ll take some doves and release the doves and everyone will say, ‘How nice, how lovely.’” Ozzy says about his preparation for the meeting, “I had drunk a bottle of cognac and done a lot of other crap, and Sharon says, ‘I’d like to go in there and make an impression and throw these doves in the air.’ I says, yeah, I’ll make an impression.” During the meeting, Ozzy indeed released the doves from his pockets into the conference room. However, one landed on his knee and he put the head of the bird into his mouth and ripped the head off, totally shocking and sickening the Epic execs. Ozzy and Sharon were asked to leave the Epic property, but the label decided to release the album anyway. Within eight days of its release, the album, Blizzard of Oz, went gold (VH1, 2004). So, to the question of whether the artist should attend meetings with company executives, the answer is, “It depends.”
When the meeting is coming to an end, the manager should never simply say “thanks,” and leave the conference room. Rather, the manager should restate the reasons why the label should sign the artist and ask when it would be convenient to have a follow-up conversation either in person or on the telephone. In most circumstances, the apparent leader in the room will say something like, “We’ll get back to you.” The manager should never accept this. Rather, the manager should tell the group that he or she will get back to them in a few days to continue discussions for a recording contract. Specify a day and time when you’ll call back to follow up. The important thing here is not to be put off by the label, but instead, put them on notice that you’ll contact them and that the recording contract is your priority. While you are in the room, enter a date and time in your personal organizer.
Go around the room and again shake hands, say thanks, and say that you’ll talk with them in a few days.
On the way out of the building, the manager must be sure to stop and thank the assistant who set the meeting that has just ended. Developing an appreciative relationship with this important assistant and gatekeeper will make setting the next meeting easier for the manager.
When the manager returns to the office, he or she should send a quick note on company letterhead thanking the key executives who were at the meeting for making time to meet, and remind them that you will be calling in a few days.
The music business is one of those industries that has little regulation by governments, but there are some areas of legal quicksand that a manager should avoid. We will discuss those, but first, let’s take a look at ethics and what they mean to an artist manager.
Ethics does not pertain to law. Ethics does not pertain to regulations. It does have everything to do with things like personal values of the manager, moral principles the manager uses in his or her work for an artist, and the general standard of conduct the manager uses. Each of these has been used to define ethics. But at the heart of it all, ethics in artist management means using the highest standard of conduct in all business dealings, both personally, and on behalf of artists. An often-cited definition of integrity fits well into any discussion of ethics: doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do.
Assets of managers used in the management of artists in the music business are no more important than having a strong personal reputation. A good reputation is the perception others have of another based on high ethical standards of being fair, caring about others, having integrity, keeping promises, as well as other attributes.
Whether being truthful in all business circumstances is a requirement of being “ethical” is a question for debate among philosophers, because many business deals begin with and are negotiated by using an inflation of the truth. However, being truthful with the artist is always required. The artist is the employer, and he or she have an expectation that the manager will always be truthful and candid. A good reputation built on ethics can make any artist manager very effective as an advocate for clients, and it is important asset to protect.
Earlier in this book, we mentioned a lawsuit brought by the Backstreet Boys against their former manager for various reasons, and it serves to underscore that the relationship between the manager and the artist is built on trust. Even though the suit did not allege any laws were broken, the dispute directly challenged the ethics of the manager in the preparation of the management contract while dealing with some very young minors.
Again, we refer the reader to the code of conduct of the Music Managers Forum in Australia in Appendix F of this book as a guide from which artist managers should model ethical conduct on behalf of those they manage.
Payola is when someone offers a radio station something of value to play a song without disclosing the payment on the air or to the station manager. The violation of the law occurs when the radio station accepts the payment and does not disclose it publicly on the air, and it also occurs when someone offers something of value to a radio station employee to secure airplay but with no intention of disclosing it to station management. The former attorney general for the state of New York, for example, found that a record label gave a radio station employee a laptop computer for the promise to play specific music (Harris, 2006) and his investigative work resulted in tens of millions of dollars in settlements with major labels and major radio groups in the United States.
Why should any of this be of interest to an artist manager? An effective artist manager must become acquainted with a dozen or more key radio programmers who decide if their artist’s songs get on the radio—whether the programmers are at smaller stations in the artist’s touring region or major stations. As the advocate for an artist’s career, it is important that the manager builds and maintains relationships with key radio programmers. They are the gatekeepers that labels lobby to persuade to add new music to their playlists, but—as was pointed out elsewhere in this text—the manager cannot assume the label will do its job in promoting music by the manager’s artists. Labels have every reason to aggressively promote the artist’s latest song, but as we have learned, “all artists at labels aren’t created equal,” and aren’t treated as if they are. As artist managers steps in to promote their artists to radio programmers, they must understand that there is a blurry line between promotion and payola. Attorneys for record labels and radio stations regularly meet with their clients to train employees about how that line is defined and to develop assurance that it is not crossed. Taking a programmer and a significant other to a nice dinner is promotion; giving plane tickets for them to join you for dinner in a resort city is illegal.
Someone summed up the payola problem leading up to Spitzer’s investigation this way:
They’re running down the field so close to the line you can’t tell if they’re in bounds or out of bounds, but they sure do have a lot of chalk on their shoes.
To the artist manager, keep chalk off your shoes and get the most current advice available from an entertainment attorney so that there is a clear understanding of how to properly and legally interact with radio.
References
VH1. (2006). Behind the Music: Ozzy Osbourne.
Harris, A. (2006, December 29). Radio’s Entercom Will Pay $4.5M to End Probe. The Tennessean, 3E.