What does an artist manager actually do?

The short answer: an artist manager runs the business of a music career so the artist can make the work. That means setting the strategy, building and directing the team, negotiating and holding the deals, planning releases and live work, and making sure the money that was agreed actually arrives. A manager is usually paid a percentage of the artist’s income, which in the UK is typically between 15 and 20 per cent.

That is the definition. The rest of this piece is what it looks like from the inside, because the word covers everything from a friend who answers emails to a company that runs a global touring act, and most artists only find out what theirs does after they have signed.

Strategy

The most valuable thing a manager does is decide what not to do. An artist with any momentum gets more offers than they can use: support slots, features, festivals, brand requests, co-writes, label conversations. Each one looks like progress. Taken together, without a plan, they turn a career into a series of favours.

So the work starts with a destination. Where does the artist want to be in five years, in plain terms: the rooms, the records, the income, the life? From there we plan backwards. What has to be true in three years for that to happen, and in twelve months, and this quarter? The plan decides which offers fit. It is written down, it is reviewed, and it changes when the facts change.

The team

No manager does everything. A career at any scale needs a team, and the manager builds it, briefs it and holds it to account. Depending on the stage, that means a booking agent, a label or distributor, a publisher, a press or radio campaign, a music lawyer and an accountant who understands the industry.

Choosing them is half the job. The other half is making sure each of them delivers what they promised, that they talk to each other, and that none of them is working to a plan the artist has never seen. When somebody stops delivering, the manager is the one who has the difficult conversation.

Deals

Every income stream in music runs on an agreement: show contracts, recording and distribution deals, publishing, sync licences, brand partnerships, feature fees and splits between co-writers. A manager negotiates the commercial terms of each, makes sure they are written down before the work starts, and then checks that both sides honour them.

A manager is not a lawyer and should not pretend to be. The right manager reads everything closely, knows what is normal and what is not, and knows when to say that a document needs a solicitor.

The day to day

Most of management is not glamorous. It is the diary, the travel, the advancing of shows, the chasing of invoices, the briefing of a photographer, the answer to a promoter who needs to know by Friday. It is being one reliable point of contact so that nothing falls between the artist’s inbox, the agent’s inbox and the label’s.

This is also where careers quietly go wrong. Not in the big decisions, but in contracts that arrive after the show, fees nobody chased and registrations nobody made. It is why we built our own platform for bookings, invoices and the diary, and why we include it for every artist we manage.

What a manager is not

It helps to separate the roles, because they are often confused.

• A booking agent sells live performances to promoters and is usually paid a percentage of the show fee. The manager decides which shows fit the plan; the agent finds and sells them.
• A record label funds, releases and markets recordings, usually in return for owning or licensing them for a period.
• A publisher looks after the songs themselves: registering them, collecting songwriting royalties and pitching them for use.
• A lawyer advises on and drafts the legal documents.

A manager sits across all of them on the artist’s side. That is also why a manager should not own the artist’s rights. Ours does not.

When you are ready

An artist usually needs a manager when the business has started to take time away from the music. Some signs: you are turning down or missing opportunities because you cannot weigh them properly; you are negotiating your own fees and feel you are losing; money is owed and nobody is chasing it; people in the industry are asking who your manager is.

Before that point, many artists are better served by a good music lawyer for the occasional contract and a clear plan of their own. A manager who signs an artist before they can add anything is taking commission for encouragement.

What good looks like

A good manager tells you the truth about your numbers and your options. They put their terms in writing before you sign, including what happens when the relationship ends. They do not own your music, they do not hold your money, and they give you access to every record of your own business. They say no on your behalf more often than yes, and they can explain why.

If you want to know how we do it, our terms are published in full on How we work, and our services are described in more detail on the artist management page.