So You Want to Manage Artist

You have been thinking about jumping into the entertainment industry and you've finally decided now's the time. But you keep questioning what it is you want to do in entertainment and where your current skills work best? For those us interested in managing artist this blog will give the information needed to help develop a career plan for the artist.

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With the start of a new class for the month comes the chance to gain new information for my journey into the entertainment industry. Majority of the information that will be presented in this blog post comes from the book "Artist Management For The Music Business" by Paul Allen. We will mainly focus on the information contained in chapter 12 "The Artist Career Plan". With every avenue that we chose to pursue there is a need to develop a career plan and a list of goals to complete the plan. Developing a career plan and goals to complete the plan are not just simple steps that you do because you are required to with the intention to never use it. Developing the career plan will help the artist and manager in various ways. It will help the manager to determine if the artist is worth putting their time and effort into and if the artist will be able to pull in a income to where both the manager and artist will see a profit. It will help the artist to decide if the manager will be able to progress their career at a speed and in the direction to which it will help them become the star they see themselves becoming. The career plan will also help to create a step by step, day by day plan so that both parties can see what needs to be done and how long it will take to accomplish those goals.

The following is a list of the ingredients to developing a successful artist career plan along with what each ingredient consists of, or how it is helpful to the overall plan.

Section 1: About the artist

This is the section where the musical genre and the artist biography will be discussed. This will also be the place where the manager can elaborate on the artist talents, experience and uniqueness.

Section 2: Evaluation of the artist

Take this opportunity to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the artist and anything that might be a threat to the artist’s career. After this is discussed in detail list any action points that were discovered during the evaluation.

Section 3: Evaluation of manager

This section is important for the manager, but can be omitted from the artist. This section will allow the manager to see where their own strengths and weaknesses are in terms of their readiness for managing an artist. The manager will also list any opportunities and threats they have that might pose as a problem to the artist career. If the manager is managing any other artist or have other things going on that might pose as a conflict of interest need to be mentioned in this section also.

Section 4: Establishment of goals and timelines

This will be one of the most important sections in the career plan. It will list any major goals that are set for the artist and any goals that will support the major goals. When setting the goals make sure to add a timeline for each goal that is set. This helps to insure that things are being done in a timely manner to keep up with the plan for the artist.

Section 5: Development of a marketing plan

With the entertainment industry being one that is constantly changing this section will be used to talk about the state of the industry, and the audience that the artist will target. List any plans in detail on how both the manager and artist will reach the target.

Section 6: Business framework

What form will the business take? The artist career plan is simply a business plan with the artist being the business and the manager being exactly that, the manger of the business. List any personnel requirements, insurance needs, and anything else important to the artist career.

Section 7: The financial plan

This section will list the personal budget for the artist and the budget established for the career plan.

Section 8: Exit strategy

At this point the artist is in a mature career. So there should be a plan showing how the manager will end the relationship when the time comes.

It is important to note that once the initial career plan is complete the work on the plan is far from over.  The book mentioned above states that “any plan must be flexible, and the artist career plan will require modification on a monthly basis, perhaps more often” (p141). With keeping the career plan current and staying motivated to keep the artist in the public eye one can only look forward to continued success. 

We here at Savage Beauty wish you luck on your journey into this industry we call entertainment.