Music Management Defined
By Leonard Willis

Successful music managers and music management companies handle a lot of administrative work for music artist and bands. Music managers should be extremely knowledgeable and capable of turning new artists into profitable money making machines. Music managers should have the means and capabilities of shopping your music to the most successful record label contacts. A great music manager or management company will definitely take on a new act they think will be a commercial success.

Experienced managers will shop the artist as a package to A&R/Brands and investors and get you a deal. Music managers look for talented artists much like artists look for rich record labels. It takes two successful songs to sell an artist and it takes a lot of money to promote that record and artist brand. That is all the music industry boils down to, and music managers are only interested in the bottom line. Talent managers get a percentage of the artists’ earnings and recoup labor and investment cost at the deal closing. This is enough motivation for a music manager to find hundreds of ways for the artist to profit off of their career.

Make sure that you are ready before approaching music managers or management companies. There are a few things you must have established before a successful music management team will give you a shot. If you are already an established recording artist, make sure that you choose a manager who has experience in your genre. For example, you don’t want a rock manager with no experience in how to profit off of hip-hop music. There are some cases where it doesn’t matter with those experienced in music, media and brand entertainment marketing; these managers can handle any genre. I feel that it is an important time saver to go after a particular management company based on their overall brand marketing ability. These managers are much more likely to have more overall industry contact. After you have chosen a few managers that may be interested in your brand as an artist; it’s time to contact them.

Now your music sounds great and your presentation package is ready to send to your intended music manager or music management companies. Make sure that you call music managers before you send your package. Ask them for permission to send your package and make sure that you have the correct contact information and mailing address.

PRESENTATION PACKAGING CONTENT:
Professional Personal Website/EPK (include all social links)
• Three absolutely different song snips
• Several High Res Photos
• Three viral music videos with good quality and great look
• Bio/Wikipedia(outlining song/performance history)
• Accomplished events promotional material (flyers)
• Producer/song writer credits info
• Media base /Nielsen radio reports (this is most important)

Now you’ve sent your demo to music managers and record label A&R contacts that you have been dying to work with. What do you do now? Remember the saying “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” well it is true. You must follow up on the package that you sent and ask if they had a chance to listen to it. There is a big difference between following up and being annoying. Wait a few days after you expect that your intended music contact received the presentation package and give them a call. Remember to be polite, to the point and professional. A successful A&R, music manager, music producer or music publisher doesn’t have any time to waste on shirt talk or industry unrelated conversation. Having the material outlined above in place, almost assures you are a good candidate for management. Get to the point quickly.

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