Hi! I am Aysha and I’m a graduate student at Full Sail University. I’m majoring in Entertainment Business. Last year, my husband and I started a record label called Ethiopian Royalty Records, but now it’s time for me to branch off and achieve my goal, which is to be an artist manager.
When I started venturing into music, little I knew I would end up managing artists. Now I know this is my life mission. For this reason, my first post I want to explain a little further what is the role of the manager. Due to technological advances we have today, the role of the manager has evolved from assisting the artist to get a deal with a record label, to assisting the artist to develop and maintain a relationship with the fans. The manager builds relationships with the labels and fans to assist the artist in his/her career advancement.
We are talking about relationships with record labels and fans, but what about the relationship between the manager and the artist? Well, this relationship is not like any other in the business world. In his book, Artist Management for the Music Business (2014), Paul Allen explains that the partnership/relationship between the two is based on trust, a kind of trust that is comparable to the one a successful marriage often have. This does make an impression on me because I understand how important trust is in the partnership between artist and manager as I go deeper into the profession.
As Barton and Message say in their article, Lessons from the Industry Formerly Known as “The Record Business”, the manager should not treat the artist as a commodity and he/she shall value the artist-fan relationship highly. Having this in perspective, the manager should always maintain the trust built between him/her and the artist by having clear communication about plans, ideas, goals, financial, and everything that can and will affect the artist’s career as well as the artist-fan relationship. After all, the artist is nothing without the fans and the manager is responsible for maintaining not only his/her relationship with the artist but also the relationship of the artist and the fans. Like an article in Tunecore says, “Artist managers must understand their role is now business development”.
