Music Business and Management
Course 9: Artist Managers

While the artist concentrates on making music, artist managers take care of everything else. It’s a tireless job and covers just about everything other than the writing, engineering, or production of the music–and even then they may be responsible for hiring those people. In time, the manager builds relationships throughout the industry that undoubtedly help the artist grow their audience.

Job number one as an artist manager is to find an artist to manage. In this course, you’ll learn how to spot talent, how to approach them, and how to pitch your services. Chances are, you’ll be starting out as an independent agent without the resources to hire a booking agent, business manager, social media firm, or lawyers to look through contracts.

This is fine: you can hire these positions on an as-needed basis until you get your feet under you and more artists under your umbrella. You’ll learn the key points of signing an artist and the different roles you’ll play as their manager. And it is a learning process because artists’ personalities are wide and varied.

For the course 9 assignment you’ll develop a six-month plan for managing an artist of your choice. You’ll talk to your mentor about what needs to be included, but you’ll also need to negotiate with yourself the fair market value for your services, what you’ll have to hire out, and what you can do on your own. It’s a great way to truly understand what’s required as an artist manager.