Apr 27 2005
Managers?
I often get asked by up and coming artists if they need a manager. Although there is not a concrete set of rules to determine the answer, there are a few guidelines that may give some clarity.
First, you have to understand there is a difference between business manager and personal manager. More on that some other time. For the purposes of this entry, the guidelines are the same.
Ask yourself this – have you done everything you can on your own to advance your career? Have you put flyers in every record store in town? Have you sent your CD for review on indie websites? Have you spent time building a MySpace profile? Have you sought out airplay on local-content radio shows? Have you been playing gigs around town? What about a mini tour in the surrounding areas?
If the answer is yes to all of the above, it might be time to seek out a manager. The thing to remember is this – do everything possible on your own before you bring someone else in the mix. Sure, they can advance your career, but at a 20% price tag. If there are still actions you take on your own that may have tangible results, you may wish to pursue them before giving away a fifth of your income.
I would slightly disagree with this. If your asking when do I need one, the answer is not yet.
You only truly need a manager, when it is soooo busy, you can no longer do the band, and everything else at the same time.
Bands I’ve worked with, we tell them, no manager till we get you signed, then once you go, then we will find you someone good, cause we will do more than they ever could
That’s one way to look at it – get a manager when you are too busy to do everything you need to do.
However, by saying “no manager til you get signed” you are putting unneccesary roadblocks in the artists career. I can think of a number of labels that will NOT take an artist without a manager because they know that much of the work the manager would be doing will fall to someone at the label.
In this case, I’m talking my work personally, its pointless to have a manager in the work jon and I do, cause it will just hold us back to have to have another set of ppl approving things outside of us and the band.
Seems to me each artist needs to (a) know what needs to be done, (b) have done at least some, even most or all of it themselves so they REALLY know what needs to be done (c) need to have enough income somewhere to pay somebody good to do what needs to be done (d) find somebody good to do what needs to be done (e) get somebody good who will do what needs to be done to do it for the artist and (f) get back to doing what they do best, which is making the music. A side note, from personal experience, it can be TREMENDOUSLY DIFFICULT to switch hats and sides of the brain etc from performer/artist to administrative/ad/pr, etc. and some artists just can’t. After all, they didn’t go into ad/pr, did they? They’re the music!