The Music Industry (Part 3) : All About Band Management

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A manager’s role can (and usually) does cross into various areas which makes his / her main role somewhat lacking in a specific identity. However, some of the main and most common responsibilities of a manager include advising on standards, practices , record labels , advertising , merchandising and promotion / PR to name but a few.
Any manager (particularly the good ones) should be paid. But with that said it does it pay to be very careful when it comes to how your manager gets his/her reimbursement and even more so on what specific things they get reimbursed on. There are managers out there who will agree and sign a blanket percentage on everything that a band makes regardless of whether the manager is directly / indirectly responsible for generating that income or not. However, a decent manager worth his salt and with decent work ethic would be willing / looking for a percentage (usually somewhere around the 15-20% area) of all money that he / she directly makes for the band.

So What’s The Criteria For A Manager?

There is no clear cut answer here but there are three important general / common sense guidelines that you

can follow that will help make your decision on a manager that bit easier and help to steer you away from a potentially rocky situation further on down the road. First rule is to make sure the band can communicate and get on with the manager on both a personal and professional level. This obviously is common sense as if you don’t get along with your manager or there is an element on mistrust then there will quite simply be an unpleasant working relationship which when you bear in mind that you’ll have more contact with your manager than nearly anyone else in the music industry this a big potential issue. Add to that the fact that you and your manager should work together like an incredibly well oiled machine a good solid working relationship is an absolute must.
Secondly, ensure that your manager not only respects your band but is one of (if not the) bands biggest fans. Obviously this ties in with the first guideline but basically if a manager does not respect you what makes you think that he / she will look out and act on what is best for the band? Likewise if your manager isn’t one of your biggest fans then you have to ask yourself how committed will your manager be in promoting your band in the music industry and to general potential fans and how much faith your manager has in your music.
The last and probably most important guideline is to quite simply check out your potential manager’s reputation.

This is the most important of the guidelines for numerous reasons , but you must not be afraid to ask around because if you don’t and the manager turns out to be a shyster you will only have yourself to blame for any permutation of things that could go wrong. Don’t be afraid to ask a few people in the industry about your manager so you can effectively gauge his / her reputation and working relationship with others in the music industry. An important thought to bear in mind is that your manager will be the first / main point of contact for the majority if not all of industry contact so it pays well to research your managers reputation and if nothing else it can help keep your manager on their toes and let them know your no push-over. Put simply a poor or negatively viewed manager in the music industry will not only reflect badly on your band it could potentially close more doors than they could open.

Naturally you can completely disregard the above guidelines but it’s not uncommon for a manager to “talk the talk” about music industry contacts but when it comes to the crunch they do not deliver as promised. However, there are plenty of professional / amateur band managers out there who are well connected and incredibly good at what they do and a usual way to identify these types is to ask who was previously on their roster as you can tell allot from not only their successes but they’re failures also. Naturally, there are managers out there who can claim to get you a record deal but in reality just “shop” your music to labels and while they are quite adept at doing this it is not the best of reasoning to allow them to manage you on that sole basis.

Contracts

Many bands make the mistake / have the attitude of thinking that a manager is going to work for free or next to nothing. Any manager worth his salt WILL NOT work for free. If you do find a manager who will work for free you can be sure as hell that there won’t be a contract far away from the table to protect his / her interests as well as your bands interests.

At this point it’s very much worth pointing out the golden rule of contracts which is ALWAYS, ALWAYS at the very least have someone who knows the music industry look it over for you and if possible get a music solicitor to do it as well.

The best managers out there will present you with a fair and equally beneficial contract which usually contains some common clauses such as the 3rd man clause, option periods or percentages. It is also important to ensure that both your band and your manager both have escape clauses in the contract such as the 3rd man clause, deadlines for manager to secure recording or distribution contracts etc. Also, the average contract should be approx 3 years in length with the aforementioned option period mid way though the term of the contract.
As stated earlier in this article a good manager will present you with all of the provisions above and be fair, however, you must be wary of the potential bottom feeders out there who look for as large a percentage as possible of your bands profits, do as little work as possible and not allow the artist to get out of the contract nor allow any provisions in the contract for doing so.

Now most professional managers will look for power of attorney which basically means that he / she can sign their name on a contract and it is as legally binding as if the band has signed it themselves. However, it is very important to be VERY prudent as to what power you exactly give your manager. Obviously the possibility for abuse of power rears its head in this situation and there are two specific issues that it pays dividends to be particularly prudent about listing exactly what powers your manager has.

Firstly, the issue of financial authority is one that should be made clear to both parties from the outset. Obviously you should trust your manager to make important financial decisions however, it would be very good practice to specify in ANY management contract an upper limit that your manager can spend WITHOUT prior consent or consultation directly with the band members. As a guide and given venue, promotion costs etc in Ireland this figure should be somewhere around the €300 – €400 mark.

Secondly and MORE importantly is what’s known as assign ability. Basically what this means is that your manager CANNOT assign his rights or responsibilities to any other third party. This is common sense but there are managers who will sign a management contract and assign their responsibilities to a third party and collect financially for doing little or no work. Apart from anything else if you’ve also spent time looking for the right manager and building up a good solid working relationship with that manager you don’t want to have him assign responsibility for your band to someone you’ve not worked with or who could potentially damage your bands reputation irreparably.

A good manager will be in it for the long haul so consider this as a form of “litmus test” to gauge your manager’s long time commitment to your band. Now with the above said it may be an idea to allow your manager assign his rights to people in other territories as obviously your manager can’t have contacts or be everywhere at once. It is VERY IMPORTANT if you are planning to do this that your specify in any contract / agreement what territories your manager is allowed to do this in and that it cannot be done without prior consent from the band which while half defeating the purpose or territorial assign ability it does however act as a form of safety net for the band.

So How Do You Find A Manager?

Finding a manager can be difficult at the best of times and then again finding one who is reputable , good at what they do and looks out for the interests of the band is like finding a needle in a haystack. However, it CAN and has been done a million times before by bands. Take your time, if a potential manager tries to pressure you or looks for an upfront fee WALK AWAY IMMEDIATLY as this is not a good working relationship from the start and ANY potential manager worth his salt will be PLANNING to get paid directly from his performance.

Posting ads on general internet forums / music websites is definitely not recommended as you will inevitably attract the “have a go hero” type managers who though good willed can potentially be devastating to a bands long term success. Ask venue promoters, journalists or any other music industry contact you may have if they know anyone that they could recommend. Then of course there is my Space and Google which can also be a great help in trying to find a good manager. If you come across someone who does not accept unsolicited demos send one anyway as if they receive it chances are they will eventually get around to listening to it and even if they don’t it will be a quick lesson in the tenacity you need for success in the music industry.

So as you can see there is no definitive right or wrong to a manager or management agreement / contract and in fact there’s near infinite types of combinations. However, following the above guidelines will at least start you off on the correct path to help you find someone to help steer your musical career towards success.

If you would like to see an example of a management agreement (for illustrative purposes only) then please click on our management agreement example link in the main page of our Music Industry FAQ / Support section

Damien Gill for Goldenplec.com