1 Principles of Management for the Artist Manager

For the reader who is relatively new to management science, this chapter becomes the starting point. It puts the balance of this artist management book into the context of the basic principles of management. As you will see in the chapters that follow, managing an artist in the music industry uses science, business, and a good measure of creativity to achieve success for clients. This is especially true of the music business because of its nature of being an industry that offers high rewards for the relatively few who become successful when success is measured by affluence.

As we consider principles of management it is important to understand that the goals of artist management are different from those of other segments of the music business. Record companies are in the business of marketing and selling recorded music and related products. Radio companies are in the business of building audiences to lease to advertisers who in turn, purchase spot advertising from the radio station that airs within the programming. Artist managers are in the business of developing long-term careers for their artists, which includes touring, merchandising, sponsorships, licensing, and the full exploitation of all of their talents.

As we look at management principles, it is important to understand that the work of an artist manager in the music business is somewhat different from other kinds of managers. The traditional relationship a manager has with the employing company is one that has a reporting hierarchy, and by definition is very structured and “corporate” in nature. Traditional managers use resources of owners to ultimately sell goods or provide services, and in many ways that is what the artist manager does.

Much of the work of an artist manager is sales and promotion, planning, and managing the work of the team around the artist. The relationship between the artist (employer) and the manager (employee) is considerably closer than that of typical managers in business, and is much more like a partnership. The level of trust and the strength of the relationship between the two are often compared to those found in successful marriages. That kind of association of a manager with an employer is rarely found in the business world. However, there are times when an artist manager takes on most of the traditional roles of management as he or she oversees the management of the artist as a brand, with the artist being a creator of art and entertainment experiences.

Functions of management

Nearly every text, research paper, and discussion of management embrace the four classic functions: planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. And they all apply to the work of the artist manager in the music business.

Planning

The difference between success and failure in any endeavor can often be tied to planning. Luck by itself can sometimes deliver success, but coupling it with a well designed plan can put the manager in a position to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. It is very satisfying when an opportunity opens a door to implement an active plan to take advantage of it. For example, young Josh Groban was asked by award winning producer David Foster to replace an ailing Andrea Bocelli in the 1999 Grammy television rehearsals with Celine Dion. His performance at the rehearsal was powerful enough to help launch his multi-platinum recording career as an artist. Groban’s planning and preparation for a career put him in a position to benefit from the lucky timing of Foster’s telephone call.

When a leader or manager identifies worthy goals, they will often collaborate with stakeholders to develop a set of logical steps to achieve them. Those steps, or plans, become the framework for successfully meeting goals. Dr. Carter McNamara puts it very well when he says “planning is identifying where you want to go, why you want to go there, how you will get there, what you need in order to get there and how you will know if you’re there or not.” (McNamara, 2006) It is easy to see why planning is often viewed as being a road map that helps define the route to success.

Organizing

Organizing the manager’s work is closely tied to the planning function. Organizing is assembling the necessary resources to carry out a plan and to put those resources into a logical order. It also involves defining the responsibilities of the artist’s team, and to manage everyone’s time for efficiency—especially the artist’s. The manager allocates the amount of time necessary to follow each step of a plan to get the intended results.

The manager of any enterprise also seeks funding or financing necessary to pay for the plan. The grandest example is Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca’s successful pursuit of hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from the US Federal government in the late 1970s to save his ailing company from bankruptcy. For the artist manager, financing and funding the plan for a new artist’s career could include a combination of an accelerated touring schedule, finding sponsors, relying on assistance from fans who offer financial help, asking friends and family, and helping the artist secure loans. Managers also recruit and employ labor and expertise to put the plan into operation and see it through to its success.

The manager of an artist in the music business forecasts the need for members of the artist’s team, and plans for the time when they will become an expense to the operating budget for the artist. The manager also draws any other necessary resources together, creates a logical structure for the organization of those resources, develops a career plan, and then executes it. From an artist’s perspective they look to the manager to take the chaos of a prospective career and organize it into the prospect for success.

Leading and directing

Managers provide a leadership function for the artist and their team by ensuring that the talents and energy of the team are directed toward the career success of the artist. The work of a manager in directing activities is to take the resources needed to reach goals and use them efficiently to achieve success. This means they coordinate the energies of the people working toward the goal, monitor the expenditure of funds, and plan and manage time. And all of this requires that the artist manager keeps everyone motivated toward achieving the goal.

An artist manager sets up a team of support for the artist. Some are on the active payroll and others are used to support the plan on an as-needed basis. The term “team” as applied to the group of professionals who support the artist is indeed a group with a common goal, that being a successful career for the artist. However, it is rare that the team as a group will assemble for a meeting about the artist. Instead, the artist manager provides each with continuous communication about the activities of the artist, and will draw expertise or assistance from each member of the artist’s support team as their help is needed. And members of the team will communicate with each other as necessary. For example, the artist’s booking agent will forward budgets and offers from promoters to the artist’s manager, business manager, and perhaps accountant, and then anticipate feedback from each.

Controlling

Any manager who has created a plan follows its implementation by controlling all of the resources required to achieve the goals of the plan. When the resources (time, people, equipment, financing) have been assembled and the plan is underway, the manager monitors how effective the plan is being carried out and makes any necessary adjustments in order to be efficient with the resources and to be effective in advancing the plan.

The business of managing an artist in the competitive world of the music business means developing strategic plans in an effort to control as much of the artist’s developing career as possible. This means the manager must be realistic in what they feel they will be able to control, but it also means they must be flexible enough in their encounters with reality to adjust to the circumstances. For example, a manager should anticipate that a new and promising artist will not be able to give a powerful performance at each audition, and they should be prepared to put the most positive “spin” on the result.

Artist management skills and personal traits

The list of management skills compiled for this section of Chapter 1 is an indication of the breadth of the practical understanding of people and the music business required by an artist manager. For the prospective artist manager, these provide a guide to learning; for the active manager, they become an affirmation of the truly special talents of management professionals who guide the careers of artists in the music business.

Understanding human nature

Managing an artist’s career requires interaction with people of all personality types and under many pleasant—and some unpleasant—circumstances. Studying why people react as they do to events in their lives is the best classroom for the prospective artist manager. Among the most challenging can be those times when it is necessary to manage around the ego of another. The music business is one where egos thrive, with many trying to be “somebody” or trying to assert that they already are somebody, and often these very people can be the gatekeepers to the next step in the artist’s career. Carefully playing into the ego in this circumstance is an effective way of using human nature to the manager’s advantage. Before you can play into a gatekeeper’s ego though, the manager will need to know enough about the individual and their ego-drivers. Said another way, knowing the particular human will let you know their human nature. For example, if the manager is trying to recruit the services of a top publicist who is reluctant to take on an additional client, that conversation must include references to a specific artist promotional campaign in which the publicist was a key component. Explain that you want nothing less for your client. The manager should also acknowledge any awards or special recognition the publicist has received resulting from their recent work. An understanding that personal achievement is important to professionals gives the manager an opportunity to service their ego and open a conversation.

Leadership

Leadership is an important skill, or trait, of an artist manager at the beginning of an artist’s career or at the beginning of the artist-manager relationship. The influence of an artist manager on the early planning and development of an artist’s career is what helps the artist to develop a focus and an organized purpose. We will discuss more about this in Chapter 13.

Coaching

Coaching skills for the artist manager are closely related to those of leadership. Leadership seeks to guide the broader, long-term goals of the artist’s career, but coaching opportunities are short-term circumstances that always seek outcomes that improve the artistry of the artist. For example, the manager-coach will help the artist improve a competency such as being able to develop more animation in their stage presence. Acquiring the skills of a coach requires that the artist manager study others who coach (regardless of the sport or profession), and draws from observed styles and techniques. Certainly, most managers will be unable to coach an artist in all of the creative and technical areas necessary, so it is important that the manager has a good network of specialists who might include vocal coaches, physical trainers, stage direction coaches, interview coaches, and more. We will have more about this in Chapter 13.

Networking

If an artist manager in the music business cannot get a call returned, they are ineffective, so building a network of contacts and relationships early in a career is extremely important. To build a network, a manager must be willing to become involved in both the business and social sides of the music industry. A starting point for a new manager is to become a junior associate with an existing firm where a personal network of contacts can be developed. Drawing from the networking resources of an established management company is a convenient way to become recognized as a manager.

Attending industry events including conventions, awards shows, and seminars are good places to meet key players who may be helpful in the careers of both the manager and their artists. Examples would include the annual CMJ conference for US college radio stations, the Billboard Hip Hop conference in Atlanta, the Pollstar convention, the Country Radio Seminar held each year in Nashville, and events presented by the UK’s MusicTank. When participating in events like these it is important to set personal objectives to optimize the time and money spent invested to attend, because there are numerous social and showcase distractions that can take important time away from intended business purposes. For example, set a goal of becoming introduced to ten key people, and then setup a luncheon meeting with at least two of them to better get to know them and to draw them closer into a personal network of professional contacts. Be creative and aggressive in building a business network.

Social

Closely related to networking are social skills. For artist managers, being social means having a congenial and approachable style that gives the appearance of being comfortable in many quasi-social and business settings. Managers know how to engage others in conversations appropriate for the situation, how to begin and end those conversations, and how to make them productive. An allied social skill is to know the appropriate attire for different types of business meetings and events. Not every artist manager enjoys social settings, but being a part of them is a requirement of the job.

Being aware of political circumstances among companies and personalities within the music business is important for the artist manager to bear in mind. In this circumstance, “political” does not refer to a party or candidate affiliation; it has to do with the negative and positive business relationships between people in the music industry, and how they affect the ability of the artist manager to conduct business on behalf of his or her clients. Understanding business alliances between individuals and companies can help the manager save time by avoiding unproductive pursuits and focus in those with a likely positive outcome. For example, the manager may not want to hire a publicist for one of their clients who was fired for cause from a prospective record company. It might make good business sense, but the politics of the situation could make the development of a record deal with that company difficult.

Communication

This skill means the manager knows how to communicate well using the written letter, email, instant and text messaging, the telephone, the fax, and every wireless device that will ever be invented. The manager will be interacting with all parts of the music business and must be prepared to use the communications tools that are favored by that sector of the industry. For example, many radio promotion people who work for record labels depend on personal hand-held devices to continuously communicate with the label and radio stations.

Each form of communication has its own protocol when used in the business setting, and the artist manager should be sensitive when and how to use each. Sony music executive Jack Lameier, for example, championed a voice mail courtesy that urges callers to office phones to leave their telephone number twice to prevent having to play a message more than once to retrieve the number. Others have pressed the users of email to understand that it has become a semiformal medium of business communication, and it should never take on the loosely written style of instant messaging or a chat room.

Other skills

Artist managers spend much of their time planning and organizing on behalf of their artists. Later chapters in this book spend considerable time detailing the ways these skills are applied to the manager’s work.

The best managers also use creativity in their work. The hugely competitive nature of the music business requires that the manager must push their own creative skills to their limits in order to advocate on behalf of their clients. Simply doing what every other manager does is not enough to gain recognition for an artist’s talents and potential. An example of using creativity on behalf of artists is one designed by Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta. Earlier in his career, his idea to attract attention for one of the artists he was promoting at an industry convention was to hire an entire high school band to march into Nashville’s Wild Horse Saloon. He and his artist received considerable attention and left much of his competition saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Artist managers are persistent. Persistence in this environment is a quiet determination without being pushy. Remember that to be effective, the manager must navigate around gatekeepers, and an overly aggressive style can be offensive to some of those whose help is needed on behalf of the manager’s artists.

The best managers understand salesmanship and use those skills to create an interest by others in their clients. Specifically, they are the chief advocate, promoter, and cheerleader in the music business for their artists. Through salesmanship, they use persuasion to influence and motivate industry gatekeepers on behalf of their artists.

Artist managers have a good sense of business, and are good at budgeting both time and money. Effective and efficient use of time can keep goals, strategies, and tactics on track. Planning the financial aspects of an artist’s career will assure the necessary paths to reach goals are funded and affordable.

An artist manager has the necessary technical skills to deal with everyone from the webmaster to the sound technician at an artist’s performance. It does not mean that they must be able to perform the tasks, but a manager must know enough about the technical aspects of the tools that support an artist’s career to ensure they hire the best they can afford.

Managers are also skilled at keeping themselves goal- and results-oriented. This means they keep their focus on the artist’s career, and they keep the artist from being distracted by the frustrations that go along with pursuing a competitive, high-rewards career. The artist, too, must maintain a focus on goals and it is the challenge of the manager to keep them motivated.

This final skill, being able to solve problems, can be perhaps the most important. These can include defusing conflicts, resolving interpersonal issues, finding alternative ways to get results, and being the “go to” person when major components of an event for the artist begin to fall apart. When confidence in every other possible solution is shaken, the manager is prepared to take action and solve it. And almost as important as problem solving is the ability to find problems, and deal with them before they become something to which people must react.

Building a career in artist management

An artist manager grows in expertise in many of the ways managers in other industries do, and some approaches for growth are especially applicable to the work of someone in the music business. Here are a few of those strategies that will help build a manager’s position within the profession.

References

McNamara, Carter, 2006, “Planning in Organizations,” www.managementhelp.org.