If you’re not a musician but do want a career in music, maybe artist management is the role for you. But, what does it take?

You don’t need to play an instrument or have perfect pitch to be involved in the music industry. But, we’re sure you already knew that. You don’t even need to be a particularly creative soul. Music business offers plenty of opportunities to work within music without doing music, and becoming an artist manager is just one of those instances. Or, maybe you are a musician but fancy changing it up and working within the industry from the other side.

Either way, there’s more to becoming a music manager than just deciding you’re going to be one. It takes certain skills and knowledge (to do a good job, at least). A lot of people don’t totally understand what a music manager is or what they do. If you’re wondering how to become a music manager, let’s start with what one actually is.

What is a music manager?

A bit like a parent overseeing a child’s life, a music manager oversees the business aspects of an artist or band’s career – or multiple artists, in the case of management agencies.

This role may not put you in the limelight, like the artists you might manage could be. However, there are plenty of successful, impactful, and well-known artist managers within the industry. Just think of Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles who was essentially an extension of the band.

What does an artist manager do?

The role and responsibilities of an artist manager are vast and numerous. They span almost the entirety of an artist’s career, apart from the creation aspects like writing the music. This is so everything is taken care of, so artists can focus on the thing that matters most to them – making music.

Some of the key responsibilities of a music manager are:

Managing performances

An artist manager can be involved in the live performance portion of a band or artist’s career in numerous ways. They might liaise with venue managers, promoters, booking managers. Alternatively, they might hire a tour manager and delegate the organisation and management of live performances.

Logistics

This involves a lot of time management and planning. Music managers will often be responsible for planning out an artist’s time, including when they head to the recording studio, when they speak to the media, and so on. How the artist gets to these appointments also falls under the manager’s responsibilities, and they may need to book cabs or a driver.

Financial management

A manager is also required to manage the finances of an artist or band. This involves taking care of taxes and managing budgets. Additionally, tracking royalty payments is a key role of the job, but more on that shortly.

Marketing and promotion

Just like businesses run marketing campaigns, so do musicians. Except, it’s their managers that run them. Artist managers work with marketing teams, social media teams, and publicists to create and execute marketing and promotional campaigns. Having dedicated professionals on the side of an artist can work wonders for raising visibility and building a fan base.

Paperwork and admin

This might sound like the least exciting part of being a music manager, but it is a significant part of it. If you love a bit of paperwork and admin, being a manager might be perfect for you. The music business involves a lot of legal stuff, like contracts, budgets, and working with publishers and performing rights societies – to keep an eye on royalties, as mentioned earlier.

Working with labels

If an artist is keen to sign a record deal, managers will be responsible for meeting with record labels. They will have the job of sparking the label’s interest regarding the artist, as well as negotiating the record deal.

What makes a good artist manager?

A good manager will know the music industry inside and out.

The skills required to be a successful music manager cover everything from personal skills to financial literacy. If you want to be a manager, you’ll need to be organised and able to multitask.

Here are some of the most important skills a manager needs at a glance:

  • Organisational skills
  • Ability to multitask
  • Drive and motivation
  • Interpersonal skills
  • Honesty (very important)
  • Tenacity
  • Financial literacy
  • Strong belief and passion

Managers need to be able to tell artists when a decision isn’t a particularly great one – helping them to avoid damaging their careers. This is why honesty is such an important trait of a manager – there’s no room for yes men.

Because managers essentially run the working lives of artists, they need to be incredibly passionate about the music and cause. The job is incredibly time and energy consuming, so if you’re not particularly driven or passionate, you’ll lose love for it very quickly.

How do music managers make money?

Music managers usually make money by taking a percentage of an artist’s revenue. Don’t expect a consistent salary in this position.

To keep things more comfortable, it’s important to draw up a contract between manager and artist. This ensures the agreement on things like payment is transparent and simple. The percentage that might be taken by a manager varies, and isn’t often taken from the total of an artist’s revenue. This is because some revenue needs to be reinvested into the artist’s career, to pay for things like recording studio time, for example.

How to become a music manager

Now you know what a music manager does, and the skills necessary to be a great one, how exactly do you become one?

Location

Theoretically, you can be a music manager and be based anywhere. But, you will potentially have an advantage if you are based in a bigger city, where it’s easier to be connected to others in the industry and be where things are happening.

Although, there is a risk of being a small fish in a big pond. It is very plausible that you could become a music manager in a smaller town, by getting involved in the local scene and cementing yourself as a key local player. With remote working becoming more of the norm since the pandemic, you can technically be a music manager from anywhere.

Work other roles in the industry

Becoming a music manager from scratch is a challenge. It’s not impossible, but it is much harder than if you start off from within the industry.

This could mean finding a role as an assistant to a music manager, or becoming an intern at a music management company. By doing this, you will gain valuable experience and develop essential skills. It won’t necessarily be super exciting to begin with, and you may have to grab a lot of coffees and lunches for people, but it’s a great way into the industry.

Offer to manage bands you find yourself

If you fancy a more DIY approach, then going out and offering your services to bands you love is another option. This method also aligns nicely with not living in a huge city (although it can work there too). If you become a familiar face within your local music scene, you probably see a lot of bands at the start of their careers. Get networking with these up and coming artists.

Before they get snapped up by larger management companies or labels, you can be there to help them from the very beginning. Be warned – this can mean working for not a lot of money for long stretches, and can feel like an uphill struggle. Remember when we said that passion and drive are key skills for an artist manager? This is why.

Summing up

Becoming a music manager is far from easy. It’s hard work and the money isn’t guaranteed to be great, or even good. But, if you love music and enjoy the business side of things, then it’s an ideal way to do your bit for the industry and be a part of something amazing.

Be prepared for hard work, lots of juggling, and managing personalities and feelings. If you believe in an artist, and have the motivation and vision to see them through their career and aim for the next level, then go for it. Apply for roles in management companies, get schmoozing at your local independent venue. Now you know how to become a music manager, you can take the next step on your exciting journey into the music industry.

For more helpful music industry advice and tips, check out the RouteNote blog now.