Managing an artist means becoming their strategic partner, business advocate, and daily problem-solver. You handle the details that would otherwise consume the time and energy they need for creating music and performing. In return, you share in their success through commission on their earnings.
This guide covers what artist management actually involves, from the core responsibilities and skills required to contracts, compensation, and the practical realities of building a career alongside your artists. Whether you are considering becoming an artist manager or looking to improve your existing practice, you will find actionable guidance throughout.
What does an artist manager actually do?
The artist manager role defies simple definition because it encompasses everything an artist needs but cannot or should not handle themselves. Your job description changes daily based on what each artist requires at each stage of their career.
Core responsibilities
Strategic career planning: You develop short-term and long-term goals with your artists, identify target markets, and create roadmaps for career progression. This involves analyzing where the artist currently stands, where they want to go, and mapping the realistic steps to get there.
Business management: You oversee the business side of the artist's career. This includes reviewing contracts, managing relationships with labels and distributors, tracking income streams, and ensuring the artist gets paid what they are owed.
Team coordination: You assemble and coordinate the team around your artist. This typically includes booking agents, publicists, lawyers, accountants, and marketing professionals. You serve as the hub connecting these specialists and ensuring everyone works toward aligned goals.
Industry representation: You represent the artist in meetings with labels, publishers, brands, and other industry players. You negotiate on their behalf and protect their interests in every business interaction.
Daily operations: You handle the constant stream of decisions, requests, and problems that arise. A typical day might include approving artwork, reviewing contract terms, coordinating interview schedules, resolving travel complications, and fielding inquiries from venues and promoters.
Brand development: You help shape and maintain the artist's public image. This involves defining their visual identity, crafting their narrative, and ensuring consistency across all touchpoints from social media to press materials.
The reality of the work
Artist management is not a 9-to-5 job. You are essentially on call around the clock because the music industry operates globally and problems arise at inconvenient times. Shows happen on weekends. Crises do not wait for business hours. International opportunities span time zones.
The work requires genuine passion for music and the artists you represent. Without that foundation, the demands become unsustainable. The successful managers are those who find the work rewarding despite its intensity because they believe in their artists and want to see them succeed.
Essential skills for artist managers
Effective artist management requires a specific combination of capabilities. Some you can develop through experience, while others reflect personality traits that suit the role.
Communication
Clear, honest, and timely communication forms the backbone of artist management. You communicate constantly with your artists, their teams, industry contacts, and business partners. Poor communication creates misunderstandings that damage relationships and careers.
With artists specifically, honest communication matters more than comfortable communication. Your job includes delivering unwelcome news, addressing problems directly, and providing feedback that the artist may not want to hear. Sugarcoating issues lets small problems become large ones.
Relationship building
Your network becomes your artist's network. The relationships you build with booking agents, label executives, publicists, and other managers directly impact the opportunities available to your artists. Effective managers invest consistently in building and maintaining industry relationships.
Business acumen
You need to understand contracts, negotiation, basic finance, and how money flows through the music industry. Artists rely on you to protect their business interests. If you cannot identify problematic contract terms or recognize when a deal undervalues your artist, you fail in a core responsibility.
Expectation management
This skill deserves special emphasis because it represents the most common challenge managers face. The music industry is unpredictable. Plans change. Opportunities fall through. Success takes longer than anticipated.
Your role includes helping artists maintain realistic expectations while still encouraging ambition. You filter external information, provide grounded perspective, and prevent disappointment by ensuring artists understand what is genuinely achievable versus what requires exceptional luck.
Adaptability
Every day brings different challenges. Technology platforms evolve. Industry practices shift. Each artist has unique needs. Effective managers adapt continuously rather than rigidly applying the same approaches regardless of circumstances.
Emotional intelligence
Working closely with creative people requires understanding their emotional landscape. Artists experience highs and lows tied to their creative work and career progress. You need to recognize when they need encouragement, when they need space, and when they need direct feedback.
Building your management approach
Before taking on artists, clarify how you intend to operate. Your approach should reflect both industry standards and your personal values.
Define your services
What specifically will you handle? Some managers take on comprehensive responsibilities covering every aspect of an artist's career. Others focus on specific areas like live performance and touring while the artist handles recorded music and publishing separately.
Common service models include:
Full-service management: You oversee all business aspects of the artist's career including recorded music, live performance, publishing, merchandise, brand partnerships, and media.
Touring-focused management: You focus primarily on live performance, working closely with booking agents while the artist maintains separate relationships for recorded music and publishing.
Development management: You work with emerging artists who need guidance building their foundation before they are ready for full professional representation.
Define your scope clearly before entering agreements. Ambiguity about responsibilities creates conflict.
Establish your communication standards
How will you stay in contact with artists? Many managers talk with their primary clients daily, whether through calls, texts, or messaging apps. Set expectations early about response times, preferred communication channels, and how you will handle urgent issues.
Create your operational systems
You need systems for tracking tasks, managing contacts, organizing documents, and monitoring your artists' schedules and commitments. Many managers start with general productivity tools and graduate to specialized artist management software as their roster grows.
Essential systems include:
- Task and project management
- Contact and relationship tracking
- Calendar and scheduling coordination
- Document storage and organization
- Financial tracking for commissions and expenses
Artist manager contracts and compensation
The business relationship between manager and artist requires clear documentation. Verbal agreements invite misunderstanding and conflict.
Contract essentials
Every management agreement should address these elements:
Term length: How long does the agreement last? Industry standard ranges from one to three years, often with renewal options tied to performance milestones. Be cautious of long initial terms without clear exit provisions.
Services scope: What specifically will you provide? List the responsibilities you are taking on and clarify what falls outside your scope.
Commission rate: What percentage of the artist's income do you receive? This deserves detailed discussion below.
Commission base: Which income streams are commissionable? Define exactly what "gross earnings" includes to prevent disputes.
Sunset clause: What happens to commissions after the agreement ends? Managers typically continue earning commission on deals they initiated for a defined period after termination.
Exclusivity: Is the artist prohibited from working with other managers? Most agreements are exclusive within their defined scope.
Termination provisions: Under what circumstances can either party end the agreement? Include notice periods and conditions for termination.
Expenses: Who covers business expenses? How are they approved and reimbursed?
Commission structures
Standard artist manager commission rates fall between 15% and 20% of the artist's gross income. Several factors influence where you land within that range:
Artist career stage: Emerging artists with lower income may negotiate higher commission rates (20% or more) because their management requires proportionally more work for less financial return. Established artists with significant income may pay lower percentages.
Service scope: Comprehensive management justifies higher rates than limited-scope arrangements. If you are handling everything, 20% reflects the value. If you are focused on touring only, 15% or less may be appropriate.
Industry segment: Commission norms vary by genre and market. Research what is standard in your specific area.
Manager experience: Established managers with proven track records and strong networks command higher rates than those building their careers.
Your commission should be calculated on gross income before expenses, not net profit. This is industry standard and protects you from accounting decisions that could reduce your compensation.
What commission covers
Commission typically applies to income the artist earns from:
- Live performances (shows, festivals, tours)
- Recorded music (streaming royalties, sales)
- Publishing and sync licensing
- Merchandise sales
- Brand partnerships and sponsorships
- Appearance fees
Some managers negotiate separate terms for different income streams, particularly when their involvement varies by area. Discuss this openly with artists to find arrangements that feel fair to both parties.
Working with your artists
The day-to-day relationship with your artists determines both your effectiveness and your job satisfaction.
Establishing trust
Trust forms the foundation of the manager-artist relationship. Artists need to believe you genuinely have their best interests at heart, that you will represent them honestly, and that you are competent to handle their business affairs.
Building trust takes time. It develops through consistent behavior: doing what you say you will do, communicating transparently, delivering results, and handling problems professionally. Trust erodes quickly through missed commitments, hidden agendas, or poor judgment.
Managing expectations effectively
Expectation management deserves repeated emphasis because misaligned expectations cause most manager-artist conflicts. Artists naturally want success quickly. The industry rarely delivers on that timeline.
Your role includes:
- Providing realistic assessments of opportunities and timelines
- Celebrating genuine progress without overstating its significance
- Preparing artists for setbacks and disappointments
- Helping artists distinguish between achievable goals and aspirational ones
- Avoiding promises about outcomes you cannot control
Be honest even when honesty is uncomfortable. Artists who understand reality make better decisions than those operating on false assumptions.
Supporting artist wellbeing
Contemporary artist management increasingly includes attention to artist mental health and wellbeing. The pressures of music careers, public attention, touring demands, and creative vulnerability affect artists significantly.
This does not mean you become a therapist. It means you:
- Recognize signs of struggle and connect artists with professional resources
- Build reasonable rest and recovery time into schedules
- Advocate for sustainable workloads rather than maximizing short-term opportunities
- Create space for honest conversations about how artists are actually doing
Artists who burn out cannot sustain careers. Protecting their wellbeing protects your shared long-term interests.
Handling difficult conversations
Artist management requires addressing problems directly. Whether an artist's behavior is damaging their career, a project is failing, or a relationship needs to end, you cannot avoid difficult conversations.
Approach these conversations with:
- Directness: State the issue clearly without excessive softening
- Specificity: Reference concrete behaviors or situations, not vague impressions
- Solutions: Offer paths forward rather than just identifying problems
- Respect: Maintain the artist's dignity even when delivering criticism
- Timing: Choose appropriate moments rather than reacting in crisis
Managers who avoid difficult conversations fail their artists. Problems do not improve through neglect.
Building and coordinating the artist's team
As an artist's career develops, they need specialized expertise beyond what a manager provides. Your role includes identifying, vetting, and coordinating these team members.
Key team roles
Booking agent: Secures live performance opportunities and negotiates show contracts. Read our guide on how to start a booking agency for insight into what agents do.
Entertainment lawyer: Reviews and negotiates contracts, handles legal issues, and protects the artist's interests in complex deals.
Business manager or accountant: Manages finances including taxes, investments, and cash flow. Essential once income reaches levels where financial complexity requires professional oversight.
Publicist: Manages media relationships, secures press coverage, and handles communications strategy.
Marketing specialist: Develops and executes marketing campaigns for releases and tours.
Social media manager: Creates content and manages the artist's social media presence.
Coordination responsibilities
With multiple team members involved, you ensure everyone works toward aligned goals. This includes:
- Facilitating communication between team members
- Resolving conflicts when different specialists have competing recommendations
- Maintaining the artist's vision as the guiding principle
- Ensuring nothing falls through the gaps between specialists
- Holding team members accountable for their commitments
You serve as the central hub. When the booking agent needs information from the publicist for a press announcement, or the lawyer needs context from the business manager for a negotiation, you facilitate those connections.
Navigating industry challenges in 2025
Artist management continues to evolve with the industry. Several current trends affect how managers operate.
Technology and data
Managers now need literacy in streaming analytics, social media metrics, and digital marketing tools. Data informs decisions about everything from release timing to tour routing. Managers who cannot interpret and apply this data put their artists at a disadvantage.
Additionally, AI tools increasingly assist with content creation, marketing automation, and audience analysis. Staying current with these technologies while maintaining authentic artist voices requires ongoing attention.
Global opportunities
Digital distribution makes global reach possible for artists at earlier career stages. Managers must understand international markets, navigate cultural differences, and coordinate across time zones. This expands opportunities but also increases complexity.
Diversified revenue
Successful artist careers now draw income from many sources: streaming, live performance, merchandise, sync licensing, brand partnerships, content creation, and more. Managers must understand each revenue stream and help artists build diversified income rather than depending on any single source.
Direct-to-fan relationships
Artists increasingly build direct relationships with fans through social media, email lists, and platforms like Patreon or Bandcamp. This reduces dependence on intermediaries but requires sustained effort. Managers help artists maintain these relationships without it consuming all their creative energy.
Getting started as an artist manager
If you are new to artist management, here is how to begin building your practice.
Start with relationships
Most managers start by working with artists they already know and believe in. This provides the trust foundation that makes the relationship work while you develop your skills.
Learn the industry
Immerse yourself in music industry knowledge. Read trade publications, follow industry news, attend conferences like Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) or International Live Music Conference (ILMC), and learn from experienced professionals.
Build your network
Your value as a manager increases with your network. Invest consistently in relationships with booking agents, publicists, label contacts, and other managers. These connections create opportunities for your artists.
Consider formal agreements carefully
When working with early artists, you might start with informal arrangements before moving to formal contracts. This allows both parties to test the relationship. However, as either the artist or your involvement grows more substantial, formalize the arrangement to protect everyone's interests.
Focus on developing your artists
Particularly with emerging artists, much of your work involves development. Help them improve their craft, build their audience, and develop the foundation for a sustainable career. The business opportunities follow the artistic development.
Taking action
Artist management rewards those who combine genuine care for artists with business capability and relentless effort. It is demanding work that offers significant satisfaction when you help artists achieve meaningful career progress.
If this path interests you:
- Identify artists you believe in and would want to represent
- Start building industry knowledge and relationships
- Clarify your service approach and compensation expectations
- Develop systems for managing the operational complexity
- Begin working with artists, learning and adjusting as you go
Ready to streamline your artist management operations? See how Stagent helps managers organize contracts, schedules, and communications in one platform. Start your free trial and focus on building careers instead of managing spreadsheets.
Frequently asked questions
How much do artist managers charge?
Artist managers typically charge 15-20% commission on the artist's gross income. This covers income from all sources including live performances, streaming royalties, merchandise, and brand partnerships. Rates vary based on the manager's experience, the scope of services provided, and the artist's career stage. Some established managers charge 25% or higher for comprehensive services.
Do I need qualifications to become an artist manager?
There are no required formal qualifications to become an artist manager. The role is learned through experience, industry knowledge, and relationship building. However, understanding of business, contracts, and the music industry is essential. Many successful managers started in other music industry roles before transitioning to management, while others learned through direct experience working with early-stage artists.
What is the difference between an artist manager and a booking agent?
Artist managers oversee the overall business strategy and career development of an artist. Booking agents specifically focus on securing live performance opportunities and negotiating show contracts. Most artists have both, with the manager coordinating overall strategy and the booking agent handling touring and performance bookings. Managers typically receive commission on all income while booking agents only earn commission on live performances.
When does an artist need a manager?
Artists typically need managers when their career reaches a point where business demands compete with creative work. Signs include: receiving more opportunities than they can evaluate alone, needing help with contract negotiations, wanting strategic guidance for career decisions, or simply running out of time to handle business matters while maintaining their creative output. Some artists manage themselves successfully for years; others need help earlier.
How do I find artists to manage?
Most managers find artists through existing relationships and industry networking. Attend shows, engage in music communities, and build genuine connections with artists whose work you admire. Industry events, local scenes, and online platforms help identify emerging talent. The best management relationships start from authentic appreciation of the artist's work rather than cold outreach.
