Oct 25 2007
Are Managers The New Record Label?
I found this article about music managers taking on the role of a record label very interesting.
It hits home very closely as many of my marketing company’s clients are managers who are hiring independent companies to handle the individual functions that a label used to provide.
A few of my clients have left their labels to take this direction and are doing well with it. Their management team has hired us, a publicist, a radio team, a retail manager, and any other indies as needed. It can be a good way to keep all the costs down while ensuring that you are getting each function addressed.
It can also alleviate the syndrome of a label not spending enough time on a release. This, as I have seen from all sides, can be a very common killer of an otherwise solid record – the label prioritizes something else and focus shifts away. If a manager is hiring indies for very specific functions, they either must deliver or will be fired. It’s not that easy when a label has stopped caring and your A&R guy won’t even take your call.
I will add that there are some things a label can provide that a manager and indies cannot – quite often it comes down to infrastructure and budget. But this is becoming less and less relevant as major non-record companies are venturing into this side of the biz (eg. Live Nation / Madonna). As long as someone in the chain is providing financing and oversight, a virtual label can be assembled as separate objects feeding each other core info; if assembled properly this can run an artist’s career as efficient if not more so than many labels can.
After CMJ, one really can feel the coming of the age of the independents. One thing I’m wondering for my own projects is: can that manager be member of the band, and still function in the ways you’ve mentioned? Will being a band member make thing complicated? I’m going to give it shot.
Jbrickman