Music Business Management Essay free essay sample

Management Sometimes thought of as the single most Important person In career of artiste. A good manager can expand an artistes career to Its maximum potential a bad one can rocket an artist to oblivion. What they generally do is most of the things the artist either cant be bothered to do or doesnt know how to do they do these things usually in exchange for a percentage of the artists earnings, this is called commission. A few of the roles of the typical manager include Helping with career decisions which record deal? Which publishing deal? How much etc.?Helping with he creative process selecting a producer, deciding which songs to perform/record, selecting photographers or band members etc. Promotion by hyping to everyone helping co-ordinate publicity campaign, etc. Assembling and heading professional team introducing lawyers, business managers and agents, etc. overseeing their work. Coordinating tours by working with agents to make the best deals. Hounding the record company of the artiste coordinating record company advertising and marketing campaign for artistes records making sure these are treated as priorities by the record company, cringles and parallels. Generally being a buffer between the artiste and the outside world. Managers typically get between 15% and 20% of artists gross earnings with the majority earning 15%. However, during touring this means more than you might think. If the artist is a band with five or more members, the managers 15% could easily be more than any members share. First issue is the managers percentage. Most try to keep it to 1 5%, although some managers might argue that the risk of taking on a new act Is worth 20%. It Is possible to arrange the deal so that It starts at 20% then changes to 15% after a certain time or when a certain amount has been earned. Sometimes managers earn a percentage of net as opposed to gross, which is better for the artiste. Net deals sometimes mean the manager will ask for limits on expenses. So for example a manager might agree to be paid on net tour proceeds, but that the expenses on the tour cant exceed a percentage of the gross. With absolutely huge superstars, the manager might Just be on a salary with no percentages. This salary can run Into six figures! It Is sometimes possible to exclude or reduce certain earnings. For example, the manager might get 15% of touring money but less of the artistes song writing royalties, maybe even none of it.If a manager is excluded from certain monies you cant expect him/her to work in this area. Some monies are customarily deducted before working out the managers cut non-commissionaire. It is a good idea to spell these out in the contract to make sure. Recording costs money paid by the record company for recording should not have a cut In for the manager. They are not really earnings, they just pass through the artistes hands to the studio. Money paid to the producer Same as above. Tour support this is money paid by record company to offset losses from touring.Commissioning tour support is controversial and some managers think t should be commissionaire, but most will agree that it is loss compensation and therefore UN-commissionaire. Costs of collection. If an artiste has to sue someone to get paid, the cost of suing should be deducted before making the managers cut. Pay a support act, this is not commissionaire as it merely passes through the artistes hands. The average term of management is generally three to five years. An artist Ants this to be a short as possible, the manager wants it to be as long as possible.Most common compromise is to say that if the artist doesnt earn a certain amount, e or she can terminate the agreement early. Or it can be set up as a shorter deal Inch carries on if certain earning target are reached. Even after the term has ended, say after five years, the contract might say that the manager continues to earn some commission after the term has finished if theyre generated under contracts entered into or substantially negotiated during the term. This means; 1 . As to records made during the term, the manager gets a commission from sales after the management deal has ended. 2.The manager is paid on records made after the term of the deal if he records are recorded under a recording contract signed during the term. This means the manager could be getting paid long after the term has finished, however there are ways to prevent this, known as clauses. There are a few measures to cut back on after term commissions these are. .. 1. Records The manager gets paid only on records recorded and released during the term and not on any others. This is best for the artiste. (b) Half commission after the term. 2. Publishing The manager is paid only on songs recorded and released during the term.This is best for the artiste. (b) The manager gets half commission on songs recorded after he term. Agents Agents usually operate somewhere between the artist (or the artists manager) and the promoter. Agents take on a number of artists and try to sell their live act to promoters, in return for a commission from the artiste on the earnings from the live Nor acquired. When promoters are looking for acts to use for promoting live events it is agents who they will turn to for the high earning potential acts. The responsibilities of the manager include most of those of an agent, I. E. Eating work for the artist, however the agents responsibilities are much narrower. Upon the appointment of an agent personal live appearance becomes his or her responsibility. Managers will a substantial amount of time with the artist, working with the act and the music, etc. , whereas the agent will deal with live work enquiries. The power of an agent largely concerns the roster of clients, all of which may have different managers. One person acting as both agent and manager will not have time to take advantage of all the opportunities which can be generated through the broader contacts of a separate and independent manager. The agent is always employed by the artist, although he may be chosen and appointed by the manager. An artiste has an agent to take advantage of specialized knowledge and contracts. Employment is obtained by him for the artiste, in return for a commission (10-15% of gross), being a percentage of gross earnings of the artist arising from all personal appearances of the artist during the agents exclusive contract period, and within the agents exclusive territory, whether or not generated by the agents efforts. The agents main responsibilities are to seek out and negotiate contracts for personal appearances Ninth promoters.No contract should be committed to without the artists approval. Artist at that time. Market values may change, such as where booking and its fee are confirmed for a date some way in the future, and in the meanwhile a record by the artiste gets into the charts. An experienced agent who has studied the development of the artiste, and who is fully informed of hid record release schedule, can Judge his future to take advantage of potential increases in market value. The scope of an agents authority to act on his own initiative depends on the agreement.An agent cannot commit the artiste to fulfill any engagement unless he has the authority to do so. The artiste may get an adverse reputation with promoters, unless the agent is able to act with some authority to negotiate contracts with the minimum of delay. Ere artiste should be fully consulted, and should see and sign each performance contract prior to being committed. The more successful the artiste, the more impractical it may become due to the lack availability while touring, recording or holidaying. The artiste may delegate the signing of appearance contracts to his agent, subject to prior approval by the artists manager. There are generally 3 things Inch are needed in order for something to be regarded as a gig or concert or night; an ARTIST, a VENUE, and a DATE. Along with these essential ingredients there are a host of others which will vary in importance from event to event. These are: PA or sound equipment, lights, tickets, fliers and posters, etc. Ere idea of promoting a band and style of music that the promoter enjoys has always been one of those leading philosophical, ethical and moral questions often discussed in music circles.It is seen partly as a duality with little compromise, or at times, it has been seen as an extravagant loss-leader for the promoter. If profit is the main motive the promoter should be led by market forces and punter needs rather than personal asset and choice. Personal choice is a temptation you must overcome if making enough money to continue promoting is your aim. The institution of personally based band promotion decisions have resulted in the demise of many concert promoters and promotion companies, especially in an economic climate where the promoter has to be very careful about the economic viability of each attempted promotion.When selecting a band in each different musical genre, the same rules apply. A great deal of thought and research should go into the final decision of whether to promote a band or not. The decision has to be based on several key factors. Has the band been around long enough to have built up an audience large enough to sustain a tour of the length planned? Is the band at present a new club favorite? Has the band attained a cult status? Or make value Judgments, the promoter must first find out as much information as possible. This will come from the agent, record shops, other promoters and the music press.The type of information needed by you, as a promoter, includes the number of dates planned for the tour. If only 5 dates are planned, or there is only one, and the band is reasonably popular, it may not matter to much about a reduced local fan ease. This is because if only a few dates are planned, an audience will travel to see the band in question. Linked with this is the amount of publicity are receiving at the present time. You need to establish whether the current publicity will be sufficient in the run up to the concert to ensure a capacity audience.If the band have already built up a large following, you should ascertain whether or not too many dates on the may include some areas on close proximity to the venue in which your promotion is taking place. This may mitigate against their audience coming to your promotion. If his is the case then further negotiations with the agent may be necessary to ensure; that your concert is the only one in the area that there are not too many dates on the tour. Record Contracts If it is impossible to negotiate on these matters then another band or venue are alternatives.Although they do vary and have got more and more complicated in recent years, record contracts have a basic character. Essentially the record company agrees to advance an artiste an amount of money, and some royalty payments on the sale of the artistes records once the advanced sum has been recouped from the artistes earnings. It is a bit like a tax free loan which must be paid back if the artiste is successful. In return the artiste has to produce a number of acceptably high quality recordings during the period of time the contract runs for.The contract could run for as long as 5 or 7 years, but will contain an option clause meaning that the record company has the choice of whether to keep the artiste on or not every year or so. Every time the record company keeps the artiste on it has to pay another advance. Most contracts are structured so that advances and percentage royalty points increase with each new contract period. This implies that the record company must achieve a degree of success to make it commercially viable to retain an artiste and pay out further royalties.In principle this is to safeguard against a company which might sign and retain an artiste on an exclusive contact without investing in them. Ere company is placed in a position where it is financially committed to an act, so it can either work to establish that artiste and generate a return on investment, or it save money and free the artiste from the contract to go elsewhere. The days of excessively exploitative contracts are by no means over, but they have now become less widespread as the music industry has consciously attempted to cultivate a more professional image.It has become standard practice for contracts to stipulate that the artiste must have received professional legal advice before signing. Most of the m ost exploitative contracts are offered by small, inexperienced, or Just incompetent companies involved in signing poorly advised acts. Artistes are now accredited with being more commercially minded and aware of what the contractual relationship Ninth a record company entails. Artistes are also surrounded by business advisors, lawyers, accountants, who may engage in some quite sophisticated signing strategies.Recording contracts appear to be the most desirable ambition of most musicians. They are extremely difficult to get, and arguably, at best only of limited benefit to the artiste. One of the first things which must be sorted out before a recording contract is agreed is whether or not the artiste has had any contracts in the past which still have an effect on his/her career. The artist must warrant that there are no such restrictions. The record company should try to find out if the artiste recorded music under an old contract which was never released. When negotiating contracts artists should make sure there are no skeletons in the cupboard from old contracts, particularly with respect to unreleased material recorded during that contract. The new record company will need to know about any other contracts and company needs to know whether there were undelivered recordings under a previous contract because; The old record company might release material from that contract if an artiste begins to be well known under the new one.This could cause some damage with respect to the reputation of the artiste by the marketing of an old album which was not released at the time because it was not good enough; royalties on the old album may be less than the new contract and the artiste can do nothing about it if the contract was not adequately terminated. ; the release of the old album may coincide with the release of a new one which may prejudice the marketing and promotion of the new one even though the old record company will benefit greatly from the advertising done for the new record; The old record might be a completely different style to the new one.All recording contracts are exclusive. The concern of an artist with a record company in which he does not have complete confidence is that it may not release his recordings or promote his records to his reasonable satisfaction. In this case the artiste does not have the right to find another company to do the Job, unless things are so bad that the lack of company effort amounts to a breach. The wording of contracts makes it so that the record company has all rights to all recordings of the artist during the period of contract for the purpose of making an selling records.This means even recordings which the company do not release. Exclusivity clauses are drawn as widely as possible, but must take into account other activities of the artiste, for example an acting career, or a theatre stage show career in which a stage show album may be recorded by a company other than the main company in this case there would be arrangements made for an override royalty for lending the artiste for the recording. Royalties are calculated as a percentage of the retail price of the record after making certain deductions. Some record companies have based their rates on wholesale price.Those calculated on wholesale tend to be one and a half and double those done on retail price. Retail price is recommended as being more reliable and impartial than publisher sealer price (wholesale). It is also very difficult to work out royalties from actual selling prices as they vary too much. The usual deductions from the retail price are taxes (VAT and sales tax) and the costs of the packaging of the product. The deductions should not include payments to third parties, such as copyright royalty payments which may be deducted from the gross fee before being divided between artiste and company.